Sahara West Library exhibit combines skateboarding with physics principles

The Sahara West Library has hosted various exhibits over the years but none quite like this. This one is totally rad.

The "Tony Hawk: Rad Science" exhibit is all about teaching physics principles explained under the guise of skateboarding. Skateboards can be used to explain pulleys, axles, wedges and gears. Hawk, a champion skateboarder, has a near-cult following among youths.

"Typically, physics is a very difficult topic to teach in a classroom setting," said John Good, president and executive producer of Exhibit IQ, which created the exhibit. "It's the foundation for all the sciences, so it's critically important to understand. ... No one's ever done a successful physics exhibit before, but we met Tony when he was in here a couple years ago for one of his fundraisers, and we approached him about the idea of lending his name and support to (the endeavor), and he jumped on board."

The Clark County School District is sending field trips with dozens of students from elementary schools, so many that all of the exhibit's field trip slots are booked, Good said. Jennifer Vidrios is a fourth-grade teacher at Wynn Elementary, 5655 Edna Ave., and took a class of 25 students soon after it opened.

"The minute they walked in, they were overloaded with lots of (stimuli)," she said. "They immediately ran in and were trying every hands-on thing that was in there, and it's all interactive. They were overjoyed. It was the greatest thing they'd ever seen."

She said she allowed them time to check things out and calm down, then she pulled groups aside to explain key elements.

How long had she been waiting for something like this?

"I'm all about teaching science in hands-on, fun ways, so I'm always looking for the next great thing that does that, and this was exactly what we needed," Vidrios said.

All around the exhibit are stickers and pseudo graffiti similar to what one might see at a skate park.

An area called Newton's Pool feeds off the idea of using a dry swimming pool for skateboarding. It has 15 flat screens, which help explain Sir Isaac Newton's Three Laws of Motion. How skateboards are produced is also covered.

One of the fun interactive components has three stages. One stage is flat, another has a trampoline built into it, and the main stage has a seat that can twirl around. Sit on it and start spinning to learn how using hand weights can slow you down or speed you up, an exercise in mass.

Before the exhibit, the defunct Las Vegas Art Museum space at the library, 9600 W. Sahara Ave., had been sitting empty, save for 1,000 square feet carved out for an art gallery.

Marilyn Gillespie, executive director of the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, said her organization had had an affiliation with the art museum and hated to see it leave. At the same time, it was very aware that there was space and abundant availability.

"It seemed to be just an ideal situation," she said. "We would've loved to have (the 'Tony Hawk: Rad Science' exhibit) at the Natural History Museum. We host traveling exhibits every year, sometimes more than one. But this one, because of its size, would've been very, very difficult to do that."

The exhibit encompasses about 10,000 square feet. Even with all that space, there are a couple of components not currently on the floor. Those will be rotated in as time allows so they can be tested, Good said.

Currently, there are about 20 components in the exhibit. One exhibit has visitors step on a pseudo skateboard to see how much they would weigh on Earth as well as on each planet in solar system. They can even find out how much they would weigh on the sun.

Other exhibits use skateboards to bring to life the law of gravity in action by having two different size skateboards drop from the same height. One of the final exhibits brings up the sweet spot of the skateboard, what scientists call the fulcrum.

The last exhibit shows what can happen if one is not wearing the proper safety gear. It features an ambulance.

Las Vegas is being used as a test before the exhibit goes on to more than 12 other sites around the country.

"We're work-shopping it, seeing what visitors (think), how they respond to it, what the evaluators think, and then you make some changes to it," said Good. "So, normally, we would take it into a warehouse and work on it. But we decided ... it's in pretty good condition, there is just minor stuff that we needed to work on, so if we had an opportunity to open it to the public, it would be all the better."

After it closes in Las Vegas, it will travel to New York City.

Exhibit hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays through Jan. 20. The cost is $12 for adults, $10 for students, seniors and military personnel and $7 for children 3 to 11. Get a $2 discount with a Las Vegas-Clark County Library District card. Natural History Museum members get in free. For more information, call 702-507-3630.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.