The Simcoe County Museum will celebrate Earth Day today without or without the co-operation of the sun.
Earth Day At The Museum happens today from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will hopefully draw in many families looking to enjoy the long weekend with each other.
Earth Day actually falls on Monday, April 22, but museum events programmer Kate Hurley told BarrieToday it was a great way to get people out on a Saturday and enjoying learning all about the effects the sun has on us as warmer weather approaches
“We’re celebrating Earth Day here at the museum and we’ll be looking at the sun and UV rays and their impact on us,” said Hurley. “There is a really cool craft that is making a solar oven out of a used pizza box, black paper and tinfoil and using the UV rays of the sun to heat up a S’mores that is inside.
"Just a really neat way to make some treats out of your homemade oven.”
The museum will also show how to test out UV beads using their high UV light since the natural light is not co-operating today.
“We’ll test out different sunscreens on the beads, which will show us their strengths and weaknesses in the UV light,” said Hurley. “When they’re exposed to the UV light for a long period of time the beads will start glowing. They will turn purple and depending on the strength of the sunscreen, it could be a darker or lighter shade.”
Despite the rainy weather forecast, the event will move ahead indoors if need be and will be just another event the Simcoe County Museum is putting on to get people on to the grounds of the local history site.
“I am a huge history buff and love seeing people, especially the kids, come in and be excited about learning but having fun as well. I really feel that is our job in the community, to bring history alive for the visitors we get.”
The museum is located at 1151 Highway 26 and admission to the event is by donation.
