Silver City, Nevada– Each summer, Healthy Communities partners with the historic Comstock community of Silver City, plus many regional groups and volunteers, to organize a summer science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) program that’s free to youth in the Northern Nevada region. The theme this year is “Making Our World Better With STEAM.”
Location: Silver City is within the Comstock historic landmark about 3 miles from Virginia City, 7 miles from Dayton, and 12 miles from Carson City. The park and School House are located at 385 High Street.
Program Note: For children’s activities, parents are asked to stay with their children to participate in the fun and to help with clean up. This year, most children’s activities will be on Tuesdays from 10am – noon, beginning Tuesday June 6th through Tuesday August 22th at the Silver City town park and community center (known as the Silver City School House).
Hands-on Engineering Projects with Society of Women Engineers. For girls and boys ages 7-12. Sponsored in partnership with Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey – Tues 10am-noon on June 20th and August 1st at the School House (community center). On Tues June 20th from 10am to noon, kids will be “Mining for Chocolate”. Mining engineers try to extract the largest amount of mineral resources at the least cost. At the same time, laws require them to minimize the amount of damage they do to our environment and to maximize worker safety. This is quite a challenge! In this activity, children will create a process for extracting the valuable “resource” of chocolate chips with real life constraints of time, quality, safety, and environmental impact. Then on Augist 1st, Society of Women Engineers will offer a robotics activity. Some types of engineers build and program useful robots. In this activity, children will program and build a robot, and program it to complete simple tasks.
Hands-on Science and Math Experiments with Jim Barcellos of University of Nevada Reno Cooperative Extension (UNCE). For ages 8-12. Sponsored in partnership with Healthy Communtiies Coalition. Tues 10am-noon on Tuesday, June 13th, and Tuesday June 27th at the School House (community center).
Bike Safety Rodeo with Western Safe Routes to Schools for ages 5-12. Tuesday, July 18th from 10am to noon at the Silver City basketball court (385 High Street, next to the School House). Kids will learn road rules and safety, participate in bike maneuvers and exercises. Parents are asked to sign a Safe Routes permission slip for this activity and participants will receive new bike helmets if they do not have one yet. Sponsored in partnership with Healthy Commmunities Coalition.
United Way’s annual “Tune into Kids” Fun Fair for Preschoolers and Their Parents. Tuesday, August 22 from 10am to noon at the Silver City town park (next to the School House at 385 High Street). The event, which includes free books and snacks, plus arts and crafts, hands-on science and literacy activities provided by United Way, is for parents and their children ages 2 years to 6 years. Nevada Families First will also host a booth with fun things for preschoolers and their parents to do, and information about their program. Community Chest and Lyon County Human Services offer Nevada Families First free home visiting programs for families with children under 5 years old in Storey and Lyon communities, plus Carson City and Hawthorne. Home visitors offer information on topics such as nutrition, post-partum depression, health insurance, resources for smoking cessation, and breastfeeding, and they introduce activities that can stimulate a child’s mind and growth.
Annual field trip to Shakespeare at Sand Harbor (Lake Tahoe). There’s nothing like Shakespeare on the beach, followed by a tour of the Sand Harbor Visitor’s Center, swimming and a picnic on this family-friendly Tahoe beach. Dates and times to be announced. Recommended age: 6-13. The annual D.G. Menchetti Young Shakespeare Program is an interactive, one-hour Shakespeare production created with the young audience member in mind.
Other Public Events in Silver City for Adults, Teens and Families: In addition, several Silver City groups offer public music concerts, art exhibitions, workshops, poetry readings, history displays and more during the summer months. On Facebook, follow Silver City Arts, Silver City School House, the Silver Pavilion, and the Resident Artist Program in Silver City to find out more about those events.
Silver City’s public park includes the Silver Pavilion outdoor stage, a basketball court, picnic tables, lawn, swings, a unique slide, and playground equipment.
