What's the difference between box turtles and other shell-sporting reptiles? Get the answer from real live specimens at 7 p.m. Friday at the North Chagrin Nature Center, off SOM Center Road in Mayfield Village. The program is for kids eight and older. Admission is free; call 440-473-3370. -- Michael Gallucci
Slave Stories
Oberlin gets into the spirit of its heroic history.
SUN 2/22
Signs of Oberlin's well-known past as a safe haven for runaway slaves can still be seen around town. From hundreds of slave graves at Westwood Cemetery to a dramatic sculpture depicting railroad tracks emerging from the ground, the city makes a fitting backdrop for A Children's Look at the Underground Railroad. Cathy Nelson -- Ohio's foremost authority on the antislavery movement -- uses a "story quilt" and a traveling trunk of period clothes, shackles, and seeded cotton to narrate a history of local abolitionists. "[Kids] like to see and touch the colorful and visual pieces," Nelson says. "They sit enthralled as they listen to these stories." Pat Murphy of the Oberlin Heritage Center has seen it happen. "It's a great way to get [children] excited and enthused about a very real history that happened right here in Ohio," she says. It starts at 2 p.m. Sunday at Oberlin Public Library, 65 South Main Street in Oberlin. Admission is free; call 440-774-1700. -- Cris Glaser
A Different Kind of Planet
SAT 2/21
With all the attention Mars has been getting lately, Saturn is starting to seem like the redheaded stepchild of the solar system (and really, isn't that why we have Pluto?). Celebrate its gassy rings and take a look at the second-largest planet through telescopes at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center's Schuele Planetarium, 28728 Wolf Road in Bay Village. Admission is $2 to $5. Call 440-871-2900 for info. -- Michael Gallucci
