My daughter’s piano teacher, a couple weeks ago on facebook, put out a question as to the location of the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center in Rolla. I was able to answer her query as it’s in the same building that the Rolla Boy Scout Shop is located in, where I work part-time. A friend of the piano teacher then asked, “What is this Kaleidoscope Center?” Hence, I decided that my blog for today would be to explain what this place is all about and what it hopes to do for the kids in Rolla and the surrounding communities.
Before there was a Null and Sons Funeral Home on Kingshighway, that business was housed in the Null Building, which is located at 612 N. Pine St., in Rolla. After Mr. Null moved his business to it’s present location, different businesses have occupied that building, and Rolla’s Boy Scout Shop has been there since the early 2000’s. Community Partnership of Rolla, a not for profit organization in the foothills of the Ozarks, wants to ensure “the development of healthy, thriving communities by promoting awareness of needs, creating and implementing services and partnerships to help meet those needs, while encouraging individual responsibility”, one of it’s members saw a need for an outreach to the children of Rolla and surrounding communities: an outreach to expand and enrich the kids educations about sciences, mathematics, and art. Thus, The Kaleidoscope Discovery Center was born! 
Classes have been held this summer for preschoolers, for Cub and Boy Scouts working on the Nova Science Merit Badges, the Rolla High School’s Robotics team is now housed at Kaleidoscope, and Kinder Musik classes will be offered in the fall. Next week, a Math Camp will be held, for kids ages 11-14, a refresher course in math that will run Mon.-Fri., 9 am-11:30 am. We will also be offering Science enrichment classes in the fall for homeschooled students: preschoolers all the way up to high schoolers; more information will be coming soon to the community about those classes. Fees will be charged, however, scholarships will also be available as we don’t want any students deterred from taking classes due to costs. I mention the pronoun “we” because I will also be teaching one of the science block of classes for the homeschoolers, the middle school/junior high group.
So get ready, Rolla, for The Kaleidoscope Discovery Center! We will be aiming to “provide opportunities that advance the understanding and appreciation of engineering, science, technology, the environment, arts, and math. We will use hands-on learning experiences, which inspire everyone to imagine, explore, and create a better world.”
For more information, here are links to The Community Partnership and The Kaleidoscope Discovery Center.
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