Join the race team and get hands on with speed, power and performance and experience a number of special activities to rev your STEM engines.

Simply purchase Science Museum admission for any date between December 27, 2021–January 2, 2022, and the activities will be shined up and ready for you to take them for a spin.

And while you’re here, zoom into Hot Wheels™: Race to Win™ !

Museum Educator Lead Activities (look for carts around the Museum)

• Bobsled Track – Explore how mass and friction affect speed as you build your own bobsled to race on a track!
• Ready, Set, Melt – Experiment with different variables to change the speed at which ice melts. Can you speed it up or slow it down? Challenge your friends to an “ice race” and see whose experiment wins! Explore some real-life applications when this might be useful.
• Speedy Chemical Reactions – Experience fast and slow chemical reactions. How can you tell a chemical reaction has even happened? Can you speed a slow reaction up? Explore chemical reactions as we change their “speed.”

Live Science Demos (located in the Barbara Thalhimer Theater on Level 3)

• 10:30 a.m., Force and Motion – Newton may have described his laws of motion before cars were around, but their ability to go-and stop-depend on them! From winning the race to developing seatbelts, investigate aspects of force and motion that need to be considered when engineering cars.
• 1:30 p.m., Rat Basketball – Sometimes we learn fast, other times we learn slow. How can animals learn new behaviors? Learn all about operant and classical conditioning as you watch two rats play basketball – no, we aren’t kidding.
• 3:30 p.m., Simple Machines. Although cars are complex–they are engineered using some of the 6 simple machines. Can you name the six types of simple machines? Can you identify where they might be used in a car? Learn how simple machines work and observe simple machines in action.

Other Activities

• In front of Speed to see a literal hot wheel. An authentic SR-71 tire! Why doesn’t it burst into flames when exposed to the heat caused by flying over three times the speed of sound? Find out what makes it so special.
• Build a room-spanning, race car track in The Forge. Use a variety of materials and equipment to create a communal Hot Wheels track throughout the week.
• Decorate, punch out and fold your own paper racecar in the Art Lab! Vroom vroom!