Exploration Station

Exploration Station

Hands-on, interactive experiences for visitors of all ages.

This exhibition, located on the fourth floor, is 8,000 square feet of fun-filled activities and exhibits that encourage open-ended exploration and problem-solving. Here children can discover the how and why of science concepts and processes as diverse as magnetic forces, lasers, sound, and embryology.

Meet new friends while you work together on...

• Constructing working electrical circuits
• Playing the laser harp and the PVC pipe organ
• Engineering dams, locks, channels and flood plains to control the flow of a river

Visit with-and even touch-animal ambassadors, including...

• Uromastyx Lizard
• Eastern box turtles
• Madagascar hissing cockroaches

PinBell Table

A simplified pinball machine allows visitors to arrange a series of metal shapes on the angled playing surface, then release a steel ball to play a tune. Explore sound, vibration, and tone.

Ring Launcher

It's science in motion as visitors run a current of electricity through a wire coil. The resulting magnetic pulse shoots a steel ring high in the air!

Forces and Motion Trio

• Design a Coaster. Visitors can arrange a series of track sections to design their own roller coaster, and then see how differently-weighted wheels run on the track.
• Downhill Racer. The rate of acceleration of a rolling object depends not only on its mass, but on how that mass is distributed - close to the axle, on the rim, in a single mass along the rim, etc. This exhibit allows visitors to try rings, disks, edge and center-weighted disks on a smooth, gentle slope.
• Centripetal Spinner. Visitors can roll any of a series of hoops, disks or balls in a straight line across the surface of a spinning disk and see the resulting change in path and motion.

Structures Trio

• Catenary Arch. Visitors assemble a 13-piece arch puzzle, then stand it up to see how their engineering holds up. Bridges visible right outside the windows reinforce this 'keystone' of physics.
• Resonance Towers. Mounted on a shake table are three nylon rods, each fitted with a center weight that visitors can move up or down, changing the center of mass, and thus the resonant frequency at which they will shake.
• Bridge Strength. Visitors mix and match foam bridge-building pieces to cross a road span, then can test their design with vehicles of different sizes and weights.