St. Louis Science Center

On Thursday, we headed back to St. Louis to the Science Center. Entrance to the Science Center is free, like the zoo. However, also like the zoo, it costs a lot to do anything special, including $6 to park. We have a Family Pass to a museum in Florida called the Charlotte County Historical Society. It is a pass that has a reciprocal agreement with over 300 museums around the country. The perks of this pass included free parking and free admission into the Lego Mindstorm exhibit, the Discovery Room, and the Ends of the Earth exhibit.

The Ends of the Earth exhibit was about the North Pole and South Pole. It had this scale for weighing polar bears, then you could compare your weight to a polar bear's weight. Landon weighed about the same as a female cub.



Penguins were a popular topic in this exhibit, and the girls enjoyed the Penguin Slide.


We didn't find the penguin costumes until they'd been down the slide a few times already.


Landon, Gerren, and Greg went to the Lego Mindstorm exhibit while Chase, Carys, Grandma, and I went to the Discovery Room. The boys divided into teams and competed against one another to build robots. They said it was fabulous and came out wanting to buy some Lego Mindstorms. I looked at them on Amazon.com. Whew! They are expensive!

I was SO impressed with the Discovery Room. I have been to many science centers all over the country, and this particular exhibit/room was the best I've ever seen. Part of the success is due to the fact that it's a controlled environment. You have to have tickets, and they only sell so many for each session. You have 45 minutes in the room for your session. They had centers for everything science I can imagine, and they were perfectly suited to preschoolers and young children.

This book display was provided outside the room while you waited to go in, and there were book displays all over the room to go with each center.


Grandma and Carys play with Melissa and Doug magnetic wooden dolls (like paper dolls that you dress up).


Chase, Carys, and a new friend raced cars down this hill.


This dollhouse, and a Thomas train table, were Carys' favorite things in the room.


Chase played with tangrams and wedgits at this table.


This water table was a pretty big hit, too. Chase used it the way you're supposed to--to build rivers through the table.


Carys mainly played with the fish and boats in a little corral she made.


They had a great time!