Kay Campbell with Hands On! pours vinegar on some baking soda for make a volcano during a Mad Scientists on Wheels Workshop at the Fletcher Library in September. Kids learned how different states of matter, liquid, solid and gas are formed.

Thanks to a state grant gained with help from local legislators, Hands On! A Child's Gallery is planning to expand its science programming in 2015 to encompass lessons ranging from the molecular level to the heights of flight.

Last August, state Sen. Tom Apodaca and Rep. Chuck McGrady worked to get Hands On! a $58,000 grant-in-aid within the 2014-15 state budget, part of $2.3 million appropriated to community programs by the N.C. Department of Commerce.

The funding has allowed the children's museum on Main Street to expand its family science nights, bring a program revolving around flight to a county park this summer and, for the first time, host a traveling exhibit focused on nanoscience the study of extremely small things.

It's all designed to enhance science, technology, engineering and math education in Western North Carolina and encourage kids to aspire to STEM-related careers while having fun, museum organizers said.

About 62 percent of currently available jobs in North Carolina require STEM skills, according to the N.C. Grassroots Science Museum Collaborative, yet only 21 percent of students graduate with those abilities. Hands On! was able to join the collaborative thanks to last year's budget bill.

Since we've been accepted as a grassroots museum, I've been able to sit at the table with organizations such as the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh and Discovery Place in Charlotte, said Executive Director Heather Boeke. We're just thrilled our community is going to benefit from this partnership.

Hands On! has been bringing fun science activities into classrooms and libraries since it opened in 2007. The nonprofit museum has also hosted Nano Days each spring since 2012 to teach kids about ultra-tiny elements, using materials from the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network.

Nano science is part of our world today and we want everybody to understand it, said Beth Bockoven, education coordinator at Hands On! It's used in everything from heat-sensitive T-shirts that change color to our cellphones and sunscreen.

Last week, using a NISE mini-grant, the museum expanded its educational outreach to Mission Children's Hospital in Asheville. Two of the museum's fictional instructors, dubbed Dr. Beaker and Dr. Bunsen, brought lessons about nanoscience to kids who can't leave the hospital.

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Hands On! to expand science programming in 2015