Today, after the twins were down for their nap, I took the three older kids to the Discovery Place Science Center.
And you know a place will be a success in Logan’s eyes when the very first exhibit you see is dedicated to frogs. It’s true. There was a frog exhibit. First thing.
The little guy was basically in heaven. The rest of us definitely enjoyed it as well. There were some pretty cool frogs.
After the Frog exhibit, we made our way over to science exploration area. It was dedicated to talking about some of the tools and techniques used to study this world of ours. The kids especially had a great time trying out the microscopes.
After that we went to the Kid play area. It had a bunch of different things: a fancy water table, some blocks, a ramp for pinewood derby-like races. But, the favorite thing, by far, in this area was the vacuum tube things. It was a bunch of clear interconnected tubes attached to a vacuum, you could put small pieces of tulle through and watch them fly around. It was actually very entertaining.
They would have stayed there forever if it hadn’t been for the science demonstration. We definitely didn’t want to miss that. I had been really hoping that they would do a chemistry demonstration of some kind. And that’s exactly what it was. The docent did 5 or 6 chemistry demonstrations. The kids LOVED it. It was fun to watch their reactions.
After the demonstration was over, we wandered over and spent some time in the anatomy and physiology section, which was pretty dang cool. It took me back to my college days. And reminded me just how much I’ve forgotten. It’s ok, I don’t need to have the names of nerves memorized anymore, right?
Next to the body section was an area in which you can explore simple machines like levers and ramps and pulleys. The boys spent a LONG time exploring the Gizmotron. The Gizmotron demonstrates several simple machines all used together in a single system. You move little beads from one place to another using cranks, pulleys, conveyor belts, etc.
Eventually I was able to pull them away so that we could go see the rainforest room. In addition to lots of awesome tropical plants, to Clara’s delight, there were tropical birds flying around as well. She ended up staying at least half an hour in there. Particularly because she was determined to become bffs with the Blue and Yellow Macaw. And she did manage to get it to talk.
While she hung out with the macaw, the boys went back to the gizmotron.
Eventually, a caretaker came and got the macaw, and so Clara left the rainforest room. We eventually succeeded in drawing the boys away from the gizmotron and went downstairs to check out a couple of things that we had missed. We started with the little aquarium area, which had a few fun fish. But, honestly, I think we were spoiled by the Georgia aquarium.
We rounded off our time at the Kid Science section again, and by this point, it was closing time. And so off we went home.
I’m pretty sure the kids want to live here. I can’t say I blame em.
