the moon. The same year, my entire fifth grade class visited the New York Hall of Science. We thrilled as we sat in a theater, our seats moving in time to the floating space capsule on the screen. There, that day, my lifelong love for science centers was born.
Now, more than 30 years later, a new generation of learning centers is poised to win over young audiences with the wonders of science. Brand-new science centers as well as expansions and renovations to established facilities are springing up around the country, offering high-tech gizmos and gadgets for hands-on fun. Some centers are also incorporating entire wings devoted to the visual and performing arts, and discovery areas specially designed for our youngest scientists--children under five.
The Kirby Science Discovery Center in South Dakota is just one of the many new or renovated science playgrounds that dot the country. Begin your child's appreciation of the wonders of science at the Kirby Science Discovery Center or another science center near you.
KIRBY SCIENCE DISCOVERY CENTER
SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA
Built as a high school in 1906, this historic building is now a 255,000-square-foot education and entertainment complex that also houses the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science. The centerpiece of the Pavilion is the region's first science center featuring 80 hands-on exhibits that introduce kids to traditional subjects such as physics, physiology and paleontology.
In Big Sioux Riverbanks, young kids can imagine they're water droplets--evaporating, raining and flowing back to the ocean--or live life on the frontier inside an Old West-style trading post. Admission to the science center and CineDome theater is $10 for adults and $7.50 for kids ages 3 to 12. For more information, call 605-367-7397 or click here.
Troy Corley is a writer in Los Angeles.
Please keep in mind that phone numbers, addresses, and prices are subject to change. Updated July 2005.
