Maryland Science Center

Today we were originally suppose to meet up with a bunch of friends from college and their families and go to the National Zoo. But at the last minute just everyone's plans changed and no one could make it except for Jen and her kids. So we switched plans and went to the Maryland Science Center at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. And I have to say, the place is really cool.




The Inner Harbor seems like it would be a fun place to spend the day all by itself, even if we hadn't been going to the Science Center. There were plenty of things for the kids to do and play on before we even got to the Center.



The kids absolutely loved it and we ended up spending the entire day there (Jen ended up having to leave around lunch time due to her parking meter being broken). Now the only thing bad about the trip was that we didn't know where we where the best place to park was, so we ended up in a garage that was near Camden Yards that was like $27 for the day (OUCH!). Luckily this was offset by the fact that because Jen's Mom is a member of the Science Center it let us get in for free (otherwise the entrance cost would have been almost $50, so I look at it as if we came out ahead).


All the exhibits and displays in the Science Center are interactive. And all the stations are geared towards showing kids how various laws of physics work and are evident in everyday life. Above you can see a tornado simulator and below Catherine is playing in the cloud patterns exhibit. I'm fairly certain that Quinn and Catherine didn't pick up much in the way or hard science, but they definitely enjoyed themselves.


Both kids really liked Newton's Alley the best I think. Although a close second would be the kid's room area.

In Newton's Alley Catherine's favorite exhibit was probably the pulleys. They had what looked like an exercise station with a seat and pulley system at each of the four corners. Each quadrant had a seat and a rope, and you could pull yourself up with the rope. Each section had a different number of pulleys, making it so that different amounts of force are required to pull yourself up.

Quinn's favorite thing in Newton's Alley was the marble run case, even though this isn't terribly interactive it was impressive with a lot of different paths marbles can take through the display (and the marbles are much bigger than your average marble).




In the kid's room, Catherine really liked the water area, but both kids spent an excessive amount of time with the pneumatic tube that went across the ceiling from one side of the room to the other to send messages to one another.


Overall there are a lot of really cool interactive activities for the kids. There's a whole area dedicated to the body and senses. I had the hardest time getting Quinn to try laying on the bed of nails at first. But once he tried and realized it didn't really hurt, he tried it again later to try and show Catherine there was nothing to worry about (not that it did any good, Catherine still wouldn't try it).


I doubt we'll go back too often since Inner Harbor is a good hour drive away in the best conditions. We ran into traffic on the way home and it ended up taking over 90 minutes. All in all it was a really long, but really fun day.