The Discovery Museum in Bridgeport
I decided to take Speed to the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport yesterday. It was our first time, mainly because I have heard that it is very average and badly in need of updating. It was a rainy day. They have a permanent space exhibit and a planetarium, not to mention the visiting robot exhibit… how bad could it be?
My first impression was that it is old and not particularly inviting. There are three floors. We took the slow elevator to the top floor where we visited the exhibits on sound, light and electricity. The displays were very hands on and inviting to try. Most required a fair amount of explaining for my 6 yo to understand, some were broken and some were very cool. For example, there was an air drum exhibit which consisted of a 6ft wood black wooden beam on a table with 8 sensors mounted into it. When you waved your hand over a sensor, a drum (8 different drums) would play that was mounted to the wall. Just by moving your hands over the wood, you could make an amazing little concert of drum sounds. That was my favorite.
Whilst my son had a go at everything, he spent most of his time shooting hoops at one end of the exhibit with some other boys. I liked the different ways they showed how moving energy was converted to electrical energy. They also had “powers of 10″ movie playing which I love.
We spent about 30 minutes on this floor and could have spent longer. I think I will come back here when we do the properties of light.
Then we went to the robot exhibit which is in the main foyer. It was not very inspiring to me. They had a few fun activities where the children could manipulate robotic arms to pick things up and some cute robot models. Speed wasn’t particularly interested. He enjoyed the large photographs of the planets taken from the Cassini spacecraft much more and the moon landing video game.
The floor he loved the most was the lower level. Here there are exhibits about space. In the mock up moon landing module, there is a video game on the control panel that Speed liked. He enjoyed playing with the space toys. This area was designed for play and there are a few educational exhibits such as sorting moon sand, and some information such as the oxygen content of lunar rocks but mostly this is a play spot for the 3-6 crowd.
Also here in the basement is the planetarium which was closed while we were there and some cool exhibits such as a remote controlled vehicle on Mars terrain, which we thought we might try and construct at home. There were computer terminals with content about space explorations and interesting TV streaming on screens suitable for the caregivers to watch whilst the kids explored the displays. There was also a mock up of a NASA space suit.
Honestly, this wasn’t my favorite museum, but there was good stuff if you were prepared to explore and explain as you went. My son didn’t care one bit that it wasn’t new and full of flashy exhibits. He even said that he much prefers it to the Natural History Museum. He had fun playing with the other kids he came across and wants to go back today. Of course I just went with one child so I could follow his interests. I think it could have been a different story if I had been juggling multiple siblings who want to be in different places and don’t share the same passions.
