At New York Hall of Science’s Rocket Park Mini Golf, children and adults learn the physics of spaceflight while they play nine holes. ©New York Hall of Science

During these late summer and early fall days, students and teachers may want to enjoy the warm weather—but they also realize it is time to start learning again. One solution for the “back-to-school blues” could be playing a round of miniature golf on a special course developed to teach science. Several courses around the country offer ways to combine fun and learning.

Putting for Physics in New York

Rocket Park Mini Golf (RPMG), a permanent outdoor exhibition, opened in June at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York. Named for the refurbished, historic 10-story NASA Atlas and Titan rockets from the 1964 World’s Fair standing outside the Hall, the course was created to teach the physics of spaceflight. “We wanted to introduce interactivity” to the rockets, explains Eric Siegel, the Hall’s director and chief content officer. To accomplish that, the Hall combined the “universally enjoyed and understood” activity of miniature golf with a space science theme. Siegel and his staff also consulted teachers visiting the Hall to get their advice on integrating learning with play.

Intended for children ages six and older, the nine-hole course is designed to tell a complete story of a spaceflight “from blastoff to splash-down,” notes Siegel. Each hole has a sign with text describing space or physics phenomena, such as zero gravity, momentum, or friction. Adults can read the signs to children as they play, although some kids ages 10 and older will be able to read and understand the text without adult help, he points out.

Students can learn “physics is an interesting and playful topic” during the game, which takes about 90 minutes, says Siegel, and each hole also “invites kids to tinker and experiment” to find the best ways to make their shots. For example, at the second hole—called Blast Off!—players are “challenged to shoot their ball up an inclined ramp with just the right amount of velocity to ‘blast off’ a model rocket up a gantry,” states the RPMG website (www.nyscience.org/rpmg).

In addition, the museum’s docent guides, or “explainers,” are available to help players understand the science and improve their technique. The explainers also conduct physics demonstrations with the children, such as building and flying water-bottle rockets. Students must determine “what’s the right amount of ‘fuel’ [water]” for the rockets, observes Siegel.

Though the Hall has not conducted any formal testing of RPMG’s effects on student learning, Siegel reports many young players have experienced “a positive change in attitude toward the topic.” Adults say they too have closed some gaps in their knowledge of physics and space-flight, he adds.

While mostly after-school and community groups have enjoyed the course this summer, Siegel says the Hall is “booking groups now for the fall,” and he expects some will be teacher/student groups. He wants teachers to know RPMG is “a place where kids can engage in an organized sequence of activities” and have “fun without being chaotic.”

An Eagle for Earth Science in Minnesota

The Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul is home to EarthScapes Mini Golf, which demonstrates Earth science concepts. The idea for the course was developed in 2001, when the museum was invited to join University of Minnesota’s National Science Foundation-funded effort to create the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED). “A key element of the museum’s involvement in the project was to incorporate the science of NCED into the museum’s [proposed] outdoor science park—the Big Back Yard,” says Patrick Hamilton, the museum’s director of Environmental Sciences and Earth-System Science. Having a mini golf course in the Big Back Yard made sense because “mini golf is often played on fantastic, imaginary landscapes, [so] why not create hole themes around real landscape processes? This idea excited both museum exhibit staff and NCED scientists,” he notes.

The course shows how “landscapes erode, river and stream channels carry the resulting sediment downstream, and that sediment ends up in basins,” Hamilton explains. The “advantage mini golf has over other exhibit approaches is that it is linear: One moves sequentially from hole one onward,” he points out, so the nine-hole course “begins with an overview hole in which erosion, transport, and deposition are all portrayed…, then each subsequent hole focuses on a particular aspect of erosion, transport, or deposition.” At the ninth hole, dubbed the Gulf of Mexico, “one putts one’s ball into the ocean,” he says. “Each hole has a leading question printed right on the concrete” next to the tee, along with graphic panels to further explain the science, he adds.

“The Big Back Yard and Earth Scapes Mini Golf have become so popular with schools that we now reserve them exclusively for use by schools on weekdays from September 15 through October 2,” observes Hamilton. (Learn more at www.smm.org/media/bigbackyard.)

Finesse Putting for Florida Science

The nine-hole course at South Florida Science Museum in West Palm Beach is unique because its science theme changes periodically, depending on “the nature of the exhibits” and “the times,” says Laura Sessions, director of guest experience. The changes are also “reflective of the community,” she notes. “What is the public thinking about? What kind of issues do they want to know about?”

The first incarnation was Galaxy Golf, which focused on the solar system. When conservation issues began to dominate the landscape, the course was revamped to feature a conservation theme, with holes highlighting various endangered species, for example. One hole devoted to recycling is flanked by recycling bins and shows players what to put in them, explains Sessions.

While open for business with the current theme, the course is being renovated to take on a new theme this fall. Since 2010 will be the “Year of the Everglades” in Palm Beach, Gator Golf will complement the museum’s Everglades-themed exhibits and the science trail surrounding the course, according to Sessions. While themes for individual holes haven’t been assigned yet, she says some may focus on human impact on the environment. Other holes may highlight local animals such as alligators and hermit crabs and their habitats, showing young visitors what the animals eat and how they interact. “That’s really important for kids to know,” she stresses.

While teachers will appreciate the fact that “key benchmarks” in science learning will be addressed, Sessions thinks students will really enjoy the theme. “It’s fun seeing animals,” she says. “That’s something kids really relate to.”