Imagination Station

Saturday, Kyle's family and I went downtown to Imagination Station, Lafayette's own Science exploration museum.

We started upstairs in a large room with Legos, magnetic toys, a sand table, fossil dig, and many more hands-on activities.

Addie loved the sand table.

And Braden did the fossil dig, identifying what he unearthed by photos and descriptions  of the various fossils hanging on the wall next to the trench.

Corinne liked the sand table, too.

The biggest kid there, a.k.a. Kyle, played with the arch and keystone (among other things.)

Corinne and several other children helped him construct it. I love how he is using his shoulder to shore it up while he places other pieces.

Ta-da!! The completed arch. Kyle actually built it several times and then let the children who helped him knock it over.

Corinne was so funny with this articulated T-rex. She put a giraffe in its jaws and then made them chew the poor animal! 

On the first floor were interactive displays for the children to play with. This one was my favorite.

It has a magnetic liquid inside, and you turn levers to attract the liquid and make it spike in place. I love how Braden and Addie are peeking through it as they play.

They cooperated - each operating one of the gears that changed the magnet's location. (That's Kyle and Corinne in the spaceship cockpit behind Braden.)

Another fun attraction was the Tornado Wind Tunnel.

Addie and her dad tried it first - the wind blew 78 mph!

Braden got in it for the second go-round.

He and his dad spun around inside as though they were really being buffeted by a tornado.

Imagination Station is a wonderful resource. I hope I can go back with the kids again as we did not get to see everything during our time there.