Discovery Cube Orange County

Discovery Cube’s STEM Education fund supports all our organization’s educational and outreach programming. This includes “Field Trips at the Cube”, “Science to Go” workshops and school assemblies, teacher professional development and community impact events. All our programs reinforce and extend Common Core and NGSS taught in the classroom, are delivered by trained science educators, and are provided for free or are low cost, subsidized by donor support making them affordable for local schools. 

Field Trips at the Cube are made possible with support from individuals, corporations and foundations, allowing them to be offered year-round to accommodate school and community group schedules. Field trips include a 2–3-hour experience where students can explore and interact with the exhibits and learn more about science, engineering, and environmental concepts. An interactive, grade-specific science activity is presented by one of Discovery Cube's STEM-trained demonstrators. A comprehensive array of pre- and post- field trip support materials and resources including exhibit guides, bring classroom lessons to life for a complete week-long science curriculum. Discovery Cube Orange County currently offers thirteen different field trip topics to fulfill the science education needs of each grade level, ranging from color mixing to animal adaptations to earthquakes and volcanoes. Our education team is constantly developing new field trip opportunities in response to community need. Field trips introduce students to science concepts that are hands-on and immersive, allowing them to observe, predict, test and understand science facts and experiments. 

Science to Go outreach programs send STEM-trained educators throughout the region to provide K-12 students with grade-specific, enriching and interactive programs and assemblies. Assemblies for K-6 students include topics such as: the science of bubbles, science of magic, chemical reactions, types of forces and electricity. Workshops for students can be one-time or multi-day sessions, during or after school hours, and are created for smaller classroom settings. K-12 grade-specific topics include bees, worms, sound travel, dissection, fossils and rocks, engineering design and electricity and magnetism. 

Our Community Impact Events empower our guests to apply what they learn at our science center directly to our community and environment. The biannual events include a “clean up” activity and educational programming to reinforce how we can apply science towards creating a positive and lasting impact on our environment.