Saturday, August 5, 2017

Moppy Goes to Florida Part III: Orlando Science Center


This summer we decided to get a membership to the Science Museum of Virginia, and we were happy we did because we found out that it gave us a reciprocal membership to other museums, including the Orlando Science Center in Florida! 


This was fun- they had an area where you could make your own paper airplanes and then use a special launcher to shoot them at some targets. 



Here is Tyson working on making some tsunami-sized waves in this big water tank.



This was a platform that shook to simulate an earthquake. Christine held Moppy tight so she wouldn't get scared!



Here are Christine, Moppy, and Charlotte in a hurricane simulator. Boy, did it get windy in there!



Peekaboo! Moppy loved checking out this super cool geode.



Moppy loved this giant graphic all about how to be a good engineer: imagine, plan, create, improve, and ask!



Charlotte, Christine, and Tyson did some engineering of their own to design this neat place for Moppy to relax.



We loved the windowed elevator and the cool trees in the science center's atrium.



Christine and Moppy "dig" for fossils in the dinosaur room. That material isn't dirt- it's actually shredded tires!



Moppy really got into it- she even tried on this cool archaeologist's hat!



The kids played with some iron ferrite and magnets. It made some cool effects!



In one part of the museum they had a machine that would take your picture and then use a computer program to change your image to a different race or gender. Since Moppy is joining us from Japan this summer, I changed my image to Asian. I loved how it turned out! Not quite as beautiful as Yuki's mom, but close! ;-) 



Charlotte decided to give it a try with Moppy.



Yikes! This program clearly wasn't designed for little pink monsters!!



Audrey gave Moppy a ride by pulling on this rope and lifting them both up using a pulley. What a great machine a pulley is!



I tried it too- it was pretty tough!



The lower level had all kinds of plants and animals. It was like walking through nature!




Here is Moppy with a mangrove tree. These are very common trees in Florida, and they are known for their prominent roots. They are very protected as well- we found out on our boat tour that some homeowners were fined over TWO MILLION dollars for clearing some mangroves off their property! Wowsa! 



Here is Moppy checking out some neat fish in this aquarium. Look at all that beautiful coral.



Later, Christine had a chance to "pick" some oranges from this pretend orange grove. Oranges are a huge crop in Florida. They grow really well in the tropical climate.



She and Moppy took their orange harvest to the "factory" where they got to send them through some machines that pretended to wash and sort them. It was really fun!



We took a photo on this rainbow bridge on our way out. See all those hearts hanging from the ceiling? They're made of paper- origami, in fact!

And this doesn't have to do with the Orlando Science Center, but just consider it a bonus- this is where our room was at the resort:


Can you see the kids and Moppy? They're on the second balcony from the top!


We had a great view from up there. We had a blast in Florida but we were happy to get home, too. We look forward to sharing more of our summer adventures in Virginia with you.

3 comments:

  1. We have science museums in Japan, too!! The one in Kobe..., they don't have a machine that shows your face in different gender or race, but they do have a machine that guesses how old you are from your face! Guess how obsessed Yuki's mom gets with that machine! Haha!

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  2. Also..., that's really cool museums are collaborating and you have a reciprocal membership to other museums even in other states! In Kobe city, they pass out these little cards to kids in the beginning of each school year, and with those cards, kids can get into many facilities in Kobe city for free of charge, including museums (like the science museum), zoo, aquarium, and etc., which now that we think of it is a very good program! We think every city has a program like that with different contents. For example, when we lived in Kyoto, kids were able to get a discount for McDonald's happy meals.

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    1. Wow, how neat! I wish our kids were able to get into places like that for free. In Washington, D.C. most of the museums are free (the Air & Space museum we went to was free) but other places it costs money.

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