Adventure in Science, Inc. was started in 1973 by the late Dr. Robert Nash in the basement of his home with eight neighborhood kids.  Dr. Nash, a former NASA scientist who had been a professor at the University of Virginia’s Materials Science Department early in his career, had recognized that his own children were not always learning about the fun side of science in school, and decided to start a hands-on program to help change that.  For the next seven years, Dr. Nash did exactly that, working out of the basement in his home on Saturday mornings during the school year.  His topics ranged from astronomy to materials science to simple machines.

 

By 1980, the program had outgrown his basement.  A larger facility was necessary to accommodate the interest from local children.  Through conversations with Dr. Tom Charlton at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which was then known as the National Bureau of Standards, Adventure in Science moved to the NIST Gaithersburg campus on Saturday mornings.  Dr. Charlton, with help from Dr. Sam Kramer, initially brought 30 kids into the program a year.  Through the auspices of these two site managers, they solicited both the interest and the support of the Dr. John Lyons, who later became the NIST Director.  This support from NIST Directors has continued to the present day.  The NIST program has been run continuously ever since (except for a break during the COVID pandemic when it went virtual) with a succession of site managers, starting with Dr. Robert Shull, Dr. Harry Hertz, Dr. Roger Martin, and Norm Belecki (upon Dr. Charlton's moving out of the area in 1985), and adding Dr. Richard Steiner, Dr. Kang Lee, Dr. Cindi Dennis, and Dr. Chandler Becker (but losing Dr. Martin and Mr. Belecki upon retirement).  The program grew to accomdate 70 kids in the intervening years.  Following the retirements of Dr. Shull, Dr. Hertz, Dr. Steiner, and Dr. Lee, the program is currently run by Dr. Cindi Dennis, Dr. Evan Jahrmann, Dr. David Raciti, and Dr. Katie Schwarz.

 

In 1982, the growing program expanded yet again to the Bechtel Corporation’s site on Shady Grove Road and the Hewlett Packard site off Choke Cherry Road.  For the next 18 years (until the closing of the Bechtel site), Frank Roddy accommodated 20-25 kids on Saturday mornings.  For the next 9 years (until the closing of the HP site), Dr. Jerry Schaefer brought 10-11 kids per year on to the HP site.

 

In 1985, Adventure in Science expanded to a fourth site at the COMSAT facility in Germantown, MD, where Subodh Manicka accommodated 8-10 year olds until the closing of the COMSAT facility in 1998.  

 

In 1993, Dr. Ed Max and Dr. Peter Kellman of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) opened a site for 8-10 year olds (plus a few 11-14 year olds with a strong interest in biology).  This site utilized their connection within NIH, so that many of the topics are taught by specialists there, leading to some high unusual learning experiences not found outside of medical school.  Unfortunately, due to security requirements, this site was moved to the Washington Episcopal School in 2018, where it continued to operate under Dr. Ed Max until 2024.

 

For three years starting in 1995, Yana Feith opened a satellite site for Adventure in Science at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Bethesda, MD which ran on Sunday mornings.

 

Starting in 1998 and 1999 respectively, two additional sites were started in Fort Detrick in Frederick, MD and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.  These were successfully run by Lloyd Abbott and Dr. Larry Raskin, respectively, until September 11, 2001, when heightened security measures forced these sites to close.

 

These sites were temporarily moved to a satellite site on the NIST campus, called NIST North, until other arrangements could be made.  It took two years, but in 2003, Dr. Raj Raghavan started the Lockheed Martin (now Leidos) site.  (Connections with NIST didn’t hurt, as the NIST Director Dr. Arden Bemmett knew the previous CEO of Lockheed Norm Augistine), but Dr. Rajavan’s getting security involved helped alleviate many of the security concerns for Saturday morning activities.

 

In 2008, Dr. Rachuri Sudarsan opened the Urbana Middle School site for 8-10 year olds, through the cooperation of Urbana Public Schools, and most especially the principal of Urbana Middle School.  This site closed in 2025.

 

In 2017, through the assistance of Margaret Latimer, the STEM leader of the Montgomery College system and Provost of the Germantown campus of Montgomery College (MCG), a site was opened at MCG for 11-14 year olds which is led by Siva Reddy.   Two years later, in 2019, a site at the Rockville campus of Montgomery College (MCR) was opened, again for 11-14 year olds, and is led by Ragu Ragunathan and Subodh Manicka.

 

Adventure in Science has also expanded out of Montgomery County, MD into Baltimore City (Coppin State) through Tanisha English from 1990-2002, and Baltimore County (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) from 1991-2007 through the 4H program staff.  Two more Adventure in Science sites were started at Michigan State University (in 1988) and at the University of Maryland, College Park campus (in 2011).