Opening May 26, 2012

An amazing science play space created for young visitors and their adult caregivers, Science in Play is a brand new custom exhibit that will delight the senses, inspire imagination, and tickle curious minds.  Hands-on everyday science experiences come to life in six different activity zones including the Sensory Forest, Testing Area, Big Build and Small Build, Science Depot, and the Shapes & Stuff Store.  In each zone, innovative elements will be introduced that encourage children ages 3-7 and their caregivers to build, test and engineer new science activities through experimental play.  Every visit is a different adventure with unlimited possibilities. 

Science in Play Activity Zones:

Sensory Course
In the Sensory Course, visitors will experience a full-body, multi-sensory introduction to Science In Play that channels the ways children explore and understand the world.  The Sensory Course engages children to use their senses, bodies, and minds to explore new experiences with movement, touch, texture, sight and sound.  Components of this zone include a noodle forest, shadow wall and Optimusic station.  

Testing
Testing provides visitors first-hand experience with a series of activities related to building, designing and testing.  The urge to build emerges early and adults are often eager to engage their children with building activities.  The Testing zone will include activities to build your own roller coasters, a magnet wall, and Airways, a fascinating structure made of a maze of transparent tubes that carry colorful scarves and balls on a 135 foot circuitous route.  

Big Build
Big Build encourages large-scale, open-ended free play focused on construction, design and engineering.  Children are able to unleash their creativity using Imagination Playground blocks—a set of more than 100 large foam pieces, foam noodles, and balls that provide an ever-changeable kit of construction parts.  The variety and scale of Big Build ensures that children and their caregivers have plenty of opportunity to work together and practice a wide range of skills through experimentation and collaboration.

Small Build
The Small Build zone provides building experience on a more intimate scale to complement the activities in Big Build.  Small Build activities encourage fine motor skills, problem-solving and creativity by inviting visitors to build using planks, small and large architectural blocks, and gears.  Building encourages developing language skills, giving directions, negotiating ideas, and describing structures and geometric shapes.  

Science Depot
The Science Depot is a friendly, kid-sized workshop where children and adults can initiate science experiments and projects alone, together, or with the aid of Science Center staff.  The Science Depot provides changing materials and science tools for ongoing, enriched science discovery.  Throughout the run of the exhibit, the Science Center will introduce monthly science themes in the Science Depot to encourage inquiry into different topics.  Monthly themes include nature, big & small, transportation, all about me, physics & motion, animals, architecture, and machines.  Additional weeks within each month will be devoted to detailed exploration of that month’s theme.  

• Big and Small  - May 26-June 30 - Explore proportions, size and scale of a wide variety of common and not-so-common items.
• All About Me - July 1-28 - This month is all about the body and tips for staying healthy.
• Transportation - July 29 - September 1 - How can you get from here to there?  Investigate planes, trains, cars and other forms of transportation.
• Architecture - September 2-29 - Build, test, manipulate, and dissect structures big and small from the ground up.
• Nature - September 30 - November 3 - Seeds, stems, rocks and worms are just a few of the things taking over the Science Depot this month.
• Physics and Motion - November 4 - December 1 - It's all about energy and how things move, as well as how they rest.
• Animals - December 2 - January 1 - Explore how animals that are furry, leathery, and scaly choose a home, find their food, and survive in the wild.

Shapes and Stuff Store
The Shapes and Stuff Store is a completely unique shopping experience, where children can browse and buy shapes, pattern recipes, and more to create an eccentric shopping cart of colors, shapes, and sizes.  The area encourages math literacy skills, counting, geometry, volume experiments, color identification and comparison shopping in both a visual and verbal manner.  

NEW!  Play Pass
Availalbe May 26 - January 1
Check out the best playdate value in town.  The Play Pass offers access to the brand new, custom-built play experience Science in Play, plus KidZone and three floors of interactive exhibits.  This monthly pass offers unlimited weekday admission to the Science Center for one adult and up to four children ages 7 and under.
Cost: $20 per month.  Available on-site only.  Valid Monday-Friday.