Museum Week – The Great Lakes Science Center
I’m thrilled to be sharing about The Great Lakes Science Center during Museum Week here at The Homeschool Scientist. We really enjoy science and nature, but my kids are 10, 5, 3, and 4 months so it makes it a challenge to find places to take them where everyone in the family can have fun at their own level.
We’ve had a Family Max Pass for several years and love it as it allows us to bring the whole family, friends that may not otherwise be able to visit the GLSC, take in unlimited OmniMax shows, and see special exhibits. On this trip we brought our neighborhood friends – 4 year old twins that my kids play with almost every day. Everyone on this trip was entertained, even us moms!
Recently, The Great Lakes Science Center has begun a project to incorporate The NASA Glenn Research Center’s official Visitor Center. What has been done so far looks amazing. The kids particularly enjoyed the interactive floor space when they walked in. It reacted to their steps – they squashed bacteria, connected power lines to bring electricity to the city, and jumped to makes waves in Lake Erie.
Just past the interactive floor are the parts of the NASA Glenn exhibits that have been set up so far. All of the kids would probably say that they loved rock climbing on Mars as a very close second to the floor-stomping fun. Besides climbing Mars, the kids enjoyed testing out a model of a Mercury Capsule, controlling space missions from Mission Control, and I even got in on the fun to model an astronaut suit.
When we could finally tear the kiddos away from outer space, we were able to head into the BioMedTech Gallery to interact with some plastic DNA, explore the inside of a stomach with an endoscopic camera, and learn all about stem cell research.
The upstairs level of The Great Lakes Science Center houses loads of interactive exhibits. Trevor’s favorite is the mini tornado that he has fun setting his Obi Wan Kenobi in to test his strength against the wind. The kids explored bubbles, pendulum writing, cloud-making, they made music, and more.
One of our little guests’ favorite places was the Polymer Playhouse. It’s an indoor playground full of fabulous fun made possible by polymers. Slides coated with bowling alley lubricant, a huge ball pit, dress up area, and more. A set of building planks from another exhibit had been recently brought inside for bigger-kid fun, and Trevor had a blast building and collapsing towers. Not pictured {because the weather did not cooperate} is the outside water-play deck, Port Polymer.
The Great Lakes Science Center boasts a six-story high OMNIMAX theater where we went to see The Living Sea. It was Isaac’s second OMNIMAX show in his 4-months of life. {I told you we love our family pass}. The first one he slept through, but he watched the fish for a large part of this 45-minute flick.
If you’re heading to Cleveland anytime in the near future, make sure you plan a visit to The Great Lakes Science Center. Tweet me if you homeschool in the area or to let me know you’re in town, we might just join you! How about you? Do you have a favorite local science center?
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It’s museum week here at The Homeschool Scientist and we’ve already visited the Creation Museum , Center For Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, OH, the Orlando Science Center, and The Great Lakes Science Center. There’s one more stop to a brand new museum tomorrow!
