CHESPEAKE — Exotic animals, robotics and more will be on hand next Thursday at Chesapeake Middle School.

Family Fun Science night will be held Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the school and will feature a visit from the Columbus Zoo, a robotics demonstration, chemistry presentations from Rio Grande university and several workshops presented by students from Chesapeake High School.

Julie Byers, who teaches science at the middle school, is organizing the event, along with Danni Cash from Chesapeake elementary.

She said the zoo would be bringing several baby animals, as well as a cheetah, to the event.

Byers said the workshops will offer “hands-on sessions,” for elementary and middle school students to explore different topics.

“We’ll be building hovercrafts and catapults and working with invisible ink,” she said.

Other workshops will include making sidewalk chalk, building devices to use to drop eggs from a height without breaking, using fruit to generate energy for batteries and paper chromatography to separate liquids in markers.

The concession stand at the school will also be open during the event, with proceeds going to pay for a trip by eighth grade students to Washington, D.C., Byers said.

The program is free and open to students from Chesapeake Elementary and Middle schools and their parents. Byers said she’s expecting more than 420 people to participate, and that those interested should call the middle school to register at 740-867-3972.