Burpee Museum celebrates National Engineering Week

From press release

Burpee Museum of Natural History will celebrate National Engineering Week from noon to 4 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 20, by exploring engineers and the natural world.

Did you feel Rockford’s 3.8 earthquake? Learn where the faults are in Illinois. Participate in experiments and activities that demonstrate the active forces in our Earth. Test your skills to build a structure that could withstand an earthquake and discover how strong your building is when you put it on the shake table and add weights to each floor. The excitement builds as you see how much weight your cardboard building will hold.

Then take a rare peek at the construction happening at Burpee. You’ll have the chance to speak with the engineer and architect working on Burpee’s addition and a design engineer about the role of engineers in building safe structures.

The event is free with paid admission.

General Museum information: Museum hours are: Monday-Friday, noon-5 pm. and Saturday/Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. General admission is $6 for adults and $5 for children ages 3-17. Annual membership fee is $60 for families or grandparents and $50 for an individual. Free parking is available at Burpee Museum at 737 N. Main St. or in Riverfront Museum Park parking lot directly next door at 711 N. Main St. For more information, call (815) 965-3433 or log on to www.burpee.org.