Our day among Stars

Last week I took the kids again to the science center, but we stayed on the planetarium side of the freeway. The science center here spans the freeway with a fun bridge running between the sections. The side near us in Forest Park is the planetarium side. Every wednesday morning they do a show in the planetarium called "The Little Star that Could" about a new yellow star on his quest through the universe for planets, and the friends he meets along the way. The kids learned all about the different colored stars, the solar system and the universe, and I kept thinking through the entire show "This is WAY over their heads - who came up with this for pre-schoolers?" Oh ye of little faith. Erick told his dad that night all about the nine (eight plus pluto) planets, what they were called, what the rings were made of, which stars are the hottest, etc. I was completely impressed, and I already thought the kids were smart! Apparently I still underestimate the genius. :-)

Lying on their mats before the show began. Even Audrey sat through the show and talked about the star finding his friends. After the show we toured the space center and learned about astronauts. The kids thought the space toilet and food were really funny, but who doesn't?

Outside the planetarium they have a kind of physics playground where the kids can learn about different sensory properties - sight, touch, sound, etc. This picture shows Izzie and Audrey in the color maze. They're encouraged to look at the world outside through the different colored panes, and the further inside the maze you get the more layers of panes you see, changing the views.

The friction slide. The kids took the wooden blocks to the top of the slide, raised the bar so they'd be released together, and could see which slides moved the fastest. They of course predicted the smooth slide would be the fastest, and were surprised it was consistently the one on the far side - the bumpiest - because of the lower friction.

This was their favorite - the ball run. The idea was to guess which track would be the fastest - it was a lesson in gravity - but even after you know, who can resist watching the balls run again and again? We spent some serious time here. There were also different prisms, a gear mechanism for the kids to turn and watch the results, and some acoustic experiments. The kids loved it and hardly missed the regular swings and climbers.