Adventure Science Center

Last weekend we had planned to go to the Family Day at the Renaissance Fair. Since it was raining off and on we didn't want to chance spending the $$ only to end up soaking wet or going home. Instead we chose to go to the Adventure Science Center. We had been wanting to check it out & this seemed like the perfect time. We had saved some $ to buy another science museum yearly membership. For those of you unfamiliar with memberships certain museums are members of the ASTC Passport Program. That means that when you have a membership to one museum in the program you can get in free or for a reduced price at other participating museums. Cool, huh? We consider this an investment in the education of our kids. And Dave & I learn from these trips too! =) When we got there I reminded Dave to ask if they offered a homeschoolers discount. Not everywhere does but we have learned that it doesn't hurt to ask. To our surprise & delight they did! It was $25 less than the Family Membership price. Wow!

The kids had a great time and the museum was a very friendly, hands-on place. Perfect for a rainy day!

Learning about sound

Explaining calculating the effect of every motion

Trying it out ~ Which will go faster?


More experiments

Gears ~ Predicting movement

Visualizing

Observing

The Solar System Room

Phases of the Moon

Learning about planets

This touch pad was neat. Not only did it tell you facts about each planet but it told you personal things like how much you weigh & how old you are on each planet. Neat!

The touch pads were really popular with the kids.

Daddy learning with Bugs.

Pretending like he is in a space shuttle.

Launching

In this they launched balls in a machine. They learned how the angle of the launcher effected how far the ball went.

Waiting for her turn on the climbing wall.

The lighter kids, like Boo, had a little trouble climbing b/c their weight made it harder to stay on the wall. Lol.

Now she's up there!

Pretending she's working on the space shuttle in space. The goal is to feel how it is without gravity.

Swinging!

Elvis just missed the height requirement for the "ride" Boo went on but made it for this one. Here he is getting his belt on.

Waiting his turn. It was a looong line but he's up next!

Attaching him to the cable

The goal was for them to feel what it is like to walk on the moon. They were directed to walk from one end of the mat to the other. There were lines at each end. The cable pulled them up so it wasn't an easy task.

Elvis dug deep and made it from one line to the opposite end and line. Dave & I were very proud of him! There were kids that were older & bigger than him that couldn't do it.

When he got off his first words were, "That was AWESOME!" It made it worth the long wait in line knowing he loved it that much.

This was a room where the kids could learn all about the body.

Bugs favorite was the ambulance. He didn't want to leave it!

Here he is in the front seat.

Taking a trip through the digestive system.

The dance machine. The girls were great at this!

Boo took another turn.

Dr. Boo Bear.......paging Dr. Boo Bear.

The boys took at turn on the dance machine.

THis was really cool! You pushed the levers to make the hand grip the ball.

The title was, "Can you use the muscles to grab the ball?"

Climbing up the spinal cord

Bugs was scared of this so Sweet Pea carried him up.

This game was like Wack-a-Mole but instead the goal was to whack the healthy snacks as they appeared.

I made a quick change to dig for some bones.

I thought this was very cute.

This was a very fun place. We are looking forward to going back again soon.