KC Fun - A Day at Science City

 

Our summer is shaping up to look like summers of the past, but we’re still doing our best to stay safe when necessary. We finally made it back to Science City and I don’t think there was a single thing that McKinley didn’t touch! We spent over two hours playing, learning, and exploring and I guarantee we could have spent hours more.

First up, Mr. E Hotel, one of McKinley’s favorites. This “haunted hotel”, as he refers to it, creates optical illusions throughout this mysterious space. McKinley loves the disappearing body at the dinner table trick, the crooked staircase, and the dizzying room. It’s so cool to experience the trickery of the eye in this magical exhibit.

Step Right Up is a new space. This interactive carnival games inspired exhibit was created by students from Tonganoxie Middle School as part of the Burns & McDonnell Battle of the Brains competition. It was unveiled in March of this year and it allows kids to play classic carnival games while learning gravity lessons without knowing it! Bottle Balance is tricky! Lay your bottle on the flat surface, slip a ring around the bottles neck, and then try to lift the bottle to a standing position without letting the ring slip off. IMPOSSIBLE!! Neither one of us were able to do it! I tried several different techniques. No dice. I was determined, but McKinley was ready to move on. I’ll get it next time. Maze Craze was another dizzying game. Place the ball at the top of the maze, turn the wheel to move the ball along the zig-zag design, and watch the ball fall through the finish line. SO HARD!! I love that it gets the brain moving. 

All Aboard is another new to us exhibit and hands down McKinley’s very favorite spot of the day. This is truly a one stop spot for all things imaginative and interactive play! It’s an entire train themed room allowing kids to chug along rails inside a steam locomotive, assist with transporting goods at the Load It Up exhibit, and build their own train line at the wooden train track table. McKinley, along with several other kids his age, worked for a good 20 minutes at Load It Up. They worked as a team to ensure the tractor was loaded with the “goods”, got them loaded in the grain car, and then to the merchants who ordered them. It was fun to watch kids, who didn’t know each other, work so hard at something so innocent. Man, what a world it would be if adults could act so civilized! 

We checked out sea life and reptiles, he took down the bad guys in a police helicopter, dug for dinosaur bones, created electricity using his own energy, and so much more. There were hands-on brain activities we didn’t get to, as others were using their knowledge to solve them, but they are on the list for our next visit. I want to get us tickets to a planetarium show next time as well. Honestly, Science City is not a one day visit. This is a space that can be on repeat for us all year round and I think we would find something new to do every time. 

And the rain stopped long enough for us to head outside so he could play on the zip line, send weighted wheels down the Acceleration Plane, try and lift a giant globe off the ground with all his muscle power, and shoot a tennis ball into the air on a pulley system. Some of the other climbing activities were too wet this time, but I could tell he was itching to slide and climb. I promise, next time we will do all the other things! 

If you haven’t been to Science City in a while, you owe yourself a trip! It’s not just for kids. Adults can learn something too! Get your tickets online, or at the box office located on the lower level of Union Station, and spend a day immersing yourself in the wonders of all things science!

XO,

Andrea