We’ve just returned from a couple of weeks at a cottage on Lake Huron. I've a few entries I'll be posting over the next couple of days. Access to technology was limited, which did make for a peaceful vacation, but not a lot of blogging.
While we were there, we visited Science North in Sudbury. I’ve been to other science centers, but I have to say that this one impressed me with the range of interesting exhibits.
We started on the top floor where they have all kinds of stuff on the human body. The kids could find out their speed during a sprint start. There was lots of goey stuff about inside a body including a bellows to let you inflate both a normal lung and the lung from a 20 year smoker. The color of the smoker’s lung should be enough to turn anyone off smoking!
While the kids were at a cooking show (ever seen an onion shatter like glass?), I noticed one of the staff members playing with an animal. It was rolling around on the walkway by the cooking show. It took be a couple of minutes to realize that it was a porcupine, just a couple of feet from me!
While the kids were at a cooking show (ever seen an onion shatter like glass?), I noticed one of the staff members playing with an animal. It was rolling around on the walking by the cooking show. It took be a couple of minutes to realize that it was a porcupine, just a couple of feet from me!
They are much bigger than I thought (over 2 feet long), and it didn’t look nearly as spikey as I had expected. The kids had a chance to pet it. They were warned not to touch the head, but my son reports the body was quite soft. Later I saw it in it’s display. It had climbed a tree with branches overhanging the visitor areas. The photo is looking up at it while it slept. He was much cuter than I would ever have expected.
They had a space section where we got to see a live broadcast from the Shuttle while it was at the Space Station, and learn about the neutrino research project.
The second floor had everything from a fossil dig to a butterfly room. My son was very unhappy to leave the butterflies because he hadn't been able to get one to land on him. Just has he was walking out the door, a little girl ran up to tell him that he had had a butterfly on the back of his head for the last five minutes. He just didn't know about it!
I got to ride a segway! It is an interesting scooter that you control speed by leaning forward and backwards. It was fun to ride, and I discovered I liked doing backwards circles.
My son’s favorite exhibit was in the temporary exhibit on speed. He got to build a lego car and then race it against other cars. You could see who won, but they also had a display board to show the speed of each car. My son was able to remodel his car to increase the speed. He would have stayed for hours. Fortunately, it closed at 6pm and we got to go out for dinner.
