My 3 year old spent about half of our museum time exploring this room, which contained puppets, marble runs, air-powered activities, and more. The under-5 room is also located on the first floor of the museum, and I have to say, for kids around my son’s age, it’s definitely worth a visit just for this room alone. Once you’re done learning about water, the same room contains a great hand-crank generator, where you can flip various switches to accomplish different tasks, like lighting up a bulb, and see how much (or how little) effort it takes to power different parts of the board. Luckily, there are also hand dryers located near the exhibit, which means you’re not trailing water throughout the museum. You can’t help but realize how something as simple as water can make a child so happy. The water re-routing activity is especially fun– a water current runs through, and learners use plastic pieces to re-route the water through a course. One of the larger exhibits on the lower floor is the water exhibit, which has many different features, including Archimedes screws and some water re-routing activities. It’s a great way for younger and older learners to enjoy the museum together– meaning nearly every exhibit is enjoyable for nearly every age (though there are a few exhibits that slant older and an entire room for the Under-5 crowd). For younger kids, the exhibits are intuitive– like sliding this maglev car down the slope, but the signs help older learners dig deeper into the why and how, rather than just trying it out. Many of the exhibits also have signs nearby explaining how they work. There are two wings, both filled with great things like this fun pulley and lever exhibit, where Zach was able to pull an incredibly heavy block up a hill, lift a block off of the ground, and more– all by himself! Located just off of the square in Springfield, the museum is included in the ASTC passport program, which means that if you’ve got the membership to any other ASTC museum, you get in for free. The entire four-story museum is filled with great activities for kids to enjoy, and we couldn’t wait to share our trip with you! We recently had the opportunity to visit the Discovery Center of Springfield in Springfield, Missouri, which had some incredible hands-on exhibits for children. Awhile ago, I mentioned Zach and I’s plan to use our Union Station membership, which is part of the ASTC Passport program, to visit other ASTC-affiliated museums.
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