Northwest Magazines

Amazing Days Children's Museums Story by Sue Hansen

A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village

Named for the man who invented the Erector Set in 1913, A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village promotes its namesake’s belief that playing is essential to learning. Discovery Village has three 18th century homes that have theme rooms that stimulate young minds in science, math, health, and nature. “Here, we encourage kids to get their hands on things to learn,” said Mark Krumroy, promotions director for Discovery Village. “We create programs so kids think they’re games.”

The Bubble Room in the Gilbert House is Discovery Village’s mainstay. With tubs of soapy water and wands, children create “air globules confined in liquid,” though to their playful minds they’re filling the air with wet, floating bubbles to be chased around and popped. There’s even a tube with a pulley that encases a child in a transparent bubble. Also in the Gilbert House: Body Basics, Toddler Room, and La 'Ball’atory, where balls are suspended in space with air hoses in the name of physics.

In the Rockenfield–Bean House, children learn about budgets and nutrition at the Village Grocery Store. In the Parrish House, Dinostories transport youngsters back to prehistoric times.

The biggest draw at Discovery Village is the 20,000-square-foot outdoor facility that contains the world’s largest Erector Set. Standing three stories tall, it’s a metal maze of stairs and passageways and three tubular slides.

The Mammoth Dig is a big sand box lined with fossils to investigate. Kids can crawl through the giant Animal Cell, then climb and dangle from the blue, rubbery Spider Web. On a hot summer day, kids circle a water tank filled with gadgets to make water spout and splash. Coming in spring is the new exhibit,A Child’s Trip to China.

“From our classrooms to the outside play area, kids can spend five to seven hours at a time here,” Krumroy said. “This museum sparks a child’s natural curiosity.”
(503-371-3631; www.acgilbert.org)

EVERETT, WASHINGTON

Imagine Children’s Museum

Imagine Children’s Museum’s motto is “where fun begins and learning never ends.”

“We’re an interactive museum—no sitting still around here—highlighting the things unique to the area around Everett,” said Sally Evans, communications director for the museum.

The Farm Exhibit represents local agriculture, and children can ride a horse, drive a tractor, select vegetables to buy, and milk a life-sized plastic cow.

The H 2 O Discovery Ferry Boat and 7CM7 Airplane exhibits contain reproductions of these modes of transportation. Boarding the boat and playing with water is part of the experience, though kids aren’t too wet when they leave. A 30-foot airplane, complete with cockpit and airline seats, was built by Boeing retirees so kids can get a feel for flying with-out leaving the ground.

Other exhibits include the Bank, since the building was once a bank; the horizontal Climbing Mountain, with a model train; and Recollection Cave, where children’s movements are reflected in colored lights.

Real mountains can be viewed from the roof. Rooftop Adventures is the museum’s notable niche. It’s one of only four children’s museums in the nation to use the roof for exhibits. Tall Timbers Lookout Tower has a telescope to survey the Olympics to the west and Cascades to the east. There’s also a Cloud Watching Station. A stage is set with instruments for making music.

The most hands-on exhibit is the Research Dig, where kids can touch the man-made bones of a 30-foot stegosaurus and dig for dinosaur bones.
(425-258-1006; www.imaginecm.org)

HELENA, MONTANA

Exploration Works

There’s nothing like it in the Big Sky state. Exploration Works is a new science
and culture museum scheduled to open in March.

“This project is about giving students and families opportunities to learn science in interdisciplinary, real-life contexts,” said Suzanne Wilcox, executive director of the nonprofit Community Works Inc., which is developing the museum.

Based on the belief that the best learning takes place through honest inquiry and exploration of ourselves, our world, and the world we create, the museum has outside “classrooms,” robotic labs, and summer camps. When the museum is completed, exhibits will cover three categories: Ourselves focuses
on health and the human body. Our World is about the environment, ecology, plants, animals, and ecosystems. The World We Create explores technology, communications, mechanics, transportation, and industry.

The opening exhibit is Healer Within, emphasizing the body’s self-healing mechanisms. In June, Explore the Air opens with displays about aerodynamics and wind energy, featuring the science of flight and the history of wind power
in Montana.

The museum will have a nature exhibit for 2 to 6 year olds to engage them in climbing and playing, plus a messy space for bubbles and art projects. Science Cafe will have interactive tabletop exhibits and activities.

The Rooftop Garden will have potted plants, lookouts, and outdoor exhibits in summer, and can be used for special events.
(406-457-1800; www.explorationworks.org)

BOISE, IDAHO

Discovery Center of Idaho

You’re invited to “explore, discover and imagine the world around us” at the popular Discovery Center, a 25,000-square-foot museum with three exhibition halls where math, science, and technology pique the interest of young and old.

“The magic of the center is that curious learners of all ages go away with something new,” said Dan Kouba, director of marketing and public relations.

There are 160 exhibits scattered throughout the halls. In the first hall, exhibits are changed every four to six months. The current theme, scheduled through March 15, is Structures, in which a local builder and builders’ supply company show how materials like rocks, concrete, steel beams, and cables are used to construct skyscrapers, arches, and domes.

The other halls feature the Air Brake, where you can easily pull yourself up to the ceiling before coming slowly back to the floor, the Whisper Dish, Bubble Wall, and the Bed of Nails, a lesson about pressure points that doesn’t hurt.

The center offers classes, Young Discoverers, every Friday for children 5 years of age and younger. (208-343-9895; www.scidaho.org)

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Science World

“The one word describing Science World is ‘hands-on,’” said Adam Reibin,  Science World’s marketing and communications specialist, who knows this space-age complex like the back of his hand. After all, he’s been coming here since he was a child.

Science World is bright and noisy from the outside in, a futuristic silver geodesic dome that houses six permanent galleries and the Omnimax and Science theaters.

Children and adults have fun in Eureka!, the biggest and brightest of the galleries, where water, air, and motion are explored. Sara Stern Search Gallery focuses on nature with the added adventure of climbing inside a giant 800-year-old western red cedar and a real beaver lodge. Kid Space caters to 2 to 6 year olds with water, light, color, and movement. In Our World, human effects on the environment are illustrated. Illusions “messes with your mind” using ropes, metal rings, and wooden blocks. Body Works challenges the athlete in all of us with activities that test strength, dexterity, endurance, and speed.

Body Worlds 3, a bizarre anatomical exhibit of real human bodies, can be seen through January 14. (604-443-7440; www.scienceworld.ca)