A Day at the Tech

Our pass to the Discovery Museum could get us into the Museum of Technology and Innovation during the month of August. I planned our trip for this week since most kids would be in school and the museum wouldn't be as crowded. I was right. We had a great time and didn't have to wait in lines or fight with other kids to get a turn doing the different things.

Since I don't like to drive in the city or pay to park we took the light rail in to downtown.
The kids had such a hard time waiting for the train. They were so excited to go.

One of the first things we did when we got there was visit their Going Green exhibit. The kids got to "drive" energy efficient cars. Here they got to learn about solar energy. They had to line up the mirror to bounce the light onto sensors so they could light some houses.

They also had to design some turbines to move in this hydro electric plant.There was also a place to make windmills that would collect energy from the wind. Ian said "Sun, Wind and Water can make energy. Bob taught me that". He has watched Bob's big plan a number of times, I guess.

This was a fun exhibit. The big screens reacted to the kids shadows. The rain would fall and you could catch it.
Or if you stood really still the butterflies would land on you.


There was a whole exhibit on the Earth and we even got to experience an earthquake. But this globe was one of my favorite things we looked at.
It is a relief map that shows the height of mountains on each of the continents. Very dramatic height changes! They also had another globe that showed the different depths and mountain ranges that are under the sea.

Ian loved the exhibit on Space exploration. He even got to try out an astronaut's jet pack.
There was all sorts of fun stations where the kids could do different things. This one is a tilt table and you had to get a ball through a maze by tilting the table around.

Henry loved this painting one. He sat here a long time and created a masterpiece.

The kids could write their own songs on this wall by hitting buttons.

But we all enjoyed watching the robots. This robot took a picture of us and then drew it.
It was a lot of fun to watch.

At the end of the day we watched an IMAX movie about the planet earth. The kids loved seeing a film on such a large screen. It was a long day though and Henry didn't quite make it through. He curled up into a ball and started to snooze.

We had a great time and avoided the heat that hit us the last few days. It was a lot of fun. The kids thought it was even better than the Children's Discovery Museum. I guess next time we will get season passes to the Tech instead.