On December 1st, 2015, Liberty Science Center held a fun and educational Special Needs Day event with over 1800 special needs students, families and teachers. Guests enjoyed STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning through interactive exhibitions, films, lab activities, and demonstrations.

In addition to the dozens of programs we ran throughout the Science Center, we also added a very special Fish Feeding program to our schedule. Animal Interpretation Associate, Alison Walminski is an American Sign Language student and signed an entire Fish Feeding program for our guests. It was awesome:

The Science Center’s Special Needs Day was inspired by Patrick Murphy, an autistic 11-year-old who submitted the winning entry for the Liberty Science Center “Earth Saving Super Powers” contest, open to all students across the New Jersey-New York area, five years ago. His success led Science Center staff to consider how the institution could help students such as Patrick. The December 1st, 2015 Special Needs Day at the Science Center was booked to capacity and was a great success for all involved.