Library Laboratory

Calling all curious minds! Read City and Knox County Public Library invite you to step into the library laboratory to wonder and investigate. 

Join this free event to launch the 2025 Read City USA challenge, 'Curious Minds,' with hands-on fun, demonstrations, special guest appearance by Mayor Jacobs, crafts, and snacks. Investigate a planetarium, experiment with kid-friendly chemistry, operate a robotic arm, excavate fossils, and examine crawling specimens from the insect zoo.  

Step into the lab at Bridgewater Place, 205 Bridgewater Road, Knoxville. 

On the Science Stage:

10:30 Welcome and STEM Storytime with Mayor Jacobs

11:15 Dr. Al Hazari's Kid-friendly Chemistry

12:00 David Wells, Civil Air Patrol, “Aim for the Stars”

12:45 Owl Ridge Raptor Center

1:30  Fossils with Hands On! Discovery Center

In the Library Laboratory:

• Chart the Constellations with The Muse Knoxville Mobile Planetarium
• Be Electrified with American Museum of Science and Energy
• Remote-controlled Robotics with Webb School of Knoxville Robotics Team
• Indoor Nature Observation with Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
• Cycle of Plastics with Keep Knoxville Beautiful
• What it takes to make a star in a jar with Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Identify Birds with Seven Islands Birding Park
• Biofacts, Skins, and Skulls with Zoo Knoxville
• N.E.A.T. with Knox County Health Department
• Insect Petting Zoo from University of Tennessee Entomology 
• Aim for the Stars with Tennessee Civil Air Patrol

With Knox County Public Library:

Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound
STEM Fairy Tales
Make and take STEAM Crafts and Activities
Make Your Lab Security Badge Craft
Make a Wacky Scientist Crown
Make (and eat!) an Edible Soil Layers Snack

Library Laboratory is made possible by a grant from the Jane L. Pettway Foundation.