Kids Off from School on January 18, 2010? Bring them to the Catawba Science Center

Catawba Science Center (CSC) in Hickory NC will be open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, offering a great opportunity for out-of-school students and families to explore hands-on science.

CSC will expand its public planetarium show schedule on that Monday.

Meet Little Star, an average star searching for his own planets in the animated feature, The Little Star That Could, showing at 11:30 & 3 p.m.

Explore exotic worlds and learn what makes a planet inhabitable in the immersive digital production, Extreme Planets, at 1 p.m.

Learn about the history of the telescope in Two Small Pieces of Glass at 2 p.m.

What does a Horn shark look like? Have you ever touched a Brown-banded bamboo shark? What do stingrays eat? Learn the answers to these and other questions during CSC’s LIVE shark and stingray feeding at 1:15 p.m. in the saltwater aquarium gallery. Stay awhile and touch sharks and other marine animals in this hands-on aquatic habitat.

Journey along the Amazon Basin and get an up-close look at freshwater rays, poison dart frogs, predator fish, an electric eel and more in Expedition Amazon, in CSC freshwater aquarium gallery.

CSC admission is $6 for adults, $4 for youth (3 to 18), seniors (62+), active military and college students with current ID. Admission is free for CSC members and children under 3. Planetarium show tickets are $2 for members and $3 for nonmembers. Combo admission and planetarium tickets are available.

More information at (828) 322-8169 or www.CatawbaScience.org  Catawba Science Center is a nonprofit science and technology museum in the Western Piedmont with traveling exhibits, a digital planetarium theater and North Carolina’s only marine touch pool with live sharks and stingrays.

CSC is funded in part by the United Arts Fund of Catawba County and is located in the Arts and Science Center of Catawba Valley, on the SALT Block, 243 3rd Avenue NE, Hickory.