Still catching up - Great Lakes Science Center - February 21, 2012

In February, we visited the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland with a group of homeschoolers.  I didn't get nearly as many pics as I would have liked, but a couple other moms have graciously permitted me to share a few of their pics, so this post is a mishmosh of pics from all 3 of us.

Probably Monkeyman's favorite part of the museum.  He rode up and down the escalator many, many times.  Photo credit:  Dara B.

Here he is posing in front of actual used space suits.  (I forget whose they were, but I think at least one was John Glenn's.)  The Great Lakes Science Center is also the new official site of the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, so there are lots of very cool NASA artifacts.  Sorry I didn't get pics of more of them!

The kids had an absolute blast playing in the ball pit in the huge play area, and worked together as a team to fill the overhead dump bucket.  Here they are stuffing the balls into an air cannon.  Unfortunately, the dump release was broken, but one of the dads climbed up and pulled the cable by hand several times, much to the joy and delight of the kids.  Photo credit:  Dara B.

 

Photo credit:  Michelle B.

Oh, those poor unsocialized homeschoolers.  They never have any fun.  Photo credit:  Michelle B.

 

Here they are working together to fill buckets on a conveyor belt, and hand-cranking it to raise and dump them.  These kids were like a well-oiled machine, I tell ya!  Photo credit:  Dara B.

 

DUMP!

Bug was pretty much in his own happy little world in the ball pit.  He would climb onto the edge, which was about chest-height for him, and fearlessly leap in.  Photo credit:  Dara B.

Here's Bug looking out the window at the steamship William G. Mather in the harbor.  One of these days we will take a tour of it...

This is my favorite part of the museum.  It's kind of hard to see in this pic, but there is a tornado there.  There's mist being blown by a fan, and you can wave your hand through the tornado and watch it dissipate and then re-form.  So cool.

 

The view of the museum's wind turbine and downtown Cleveland, taken on our way out.