I sure by now you have found something, but we use COSI which is in Columbus Ohio. They have a wonderful Science hands-on program. We had it for grades 1-5. Each grade level sees a 20 minute assembly (we chose Simply Science) and then they are divided into groups to go around and try the 10 hands on science experiements. This program requires A LOT of volunteers. A person from COSI will train your volunteers the night before or day of your assembly and will perform the assembly but will ask the volunteers to run the hands on tables. The kids had a ball, they learned many things about science and even made their own slim to take home.
Here in Cental Ohio we have COSI on wheels (Central Ohio Science Institute?) and 2 years ago we had Dawes Arboretum come and do a "science day". The classes split up in groups (some went to catch insects, some went to the creek etc..). The kids loved it!
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A big....HUGE hit with my boys!! (forgot about that one!) I had one in Kindergarden and the other was four at the time, both had a great time and the people they have are a blast!
Do you have a State Park or National Park near you? I don't know about take home projects but they do sometimes have programs that they can do with young children. So does the Army Corps of Engineers.
In Carlsbad New Mexico there is a school called Eddy County ??? int ECEC any way they have a wonderful program called OLE Outdoor Learning Environment. The teacher got a grant from somewhere and it paid her salary to start the program. At least that is the way it worked about 5 years ago when I lived there. It was awesome!! Kids got to feed fish to snakes, make paper, trash art, slime, and all kinds of good stuff. The last day of school the kids all had to bring their bathing suits and they played in the sandbox with water. The class was run basicaly on a Library type schedule Monday 1st grade, Tuesday 2nd.....
