Science Museum Oklahoma

I finally managed to take the kids to Science Museum Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.  It's about four hours directly east of our house, and it's the closest, best science center to us.  (The local one in Amarillo is really small, and doesn't actually have any permanent exhibits.  It only houses temporary, travelling exhibits.)

Anyway, I kept hearing really great things about Science Museum Oklahoma, so I was really looking forward to checking it out.  Plus, we get in for free with our COSI membership.  We spent all day running around this (thankfully, air-conditioned) place, and we still didn't see everything.

Things we did see, that were wonderful (in no particular order):

A giant ball contraption:



A giant kaleidoscope that you could climb inside through a secret tunnel in a fireplace of a playhouse (who thinks these things up?):



A giant game of connect four:



Giant dominoes:


That video you just watched?  That was the culmination of at least 45 minutes worth of work, as each one of us accidentally knocked them over while we were setting them up at least once.

A Ford Model T, in that signature color, black:



A Lockheed T-33:



Real military-grade drones:



We really enjoyed their newest area, called Curio-City.  This was a great area to play.  Lex put on a few puppet shows for us:




There was also a tightrope in the circus portion of Curio-City, and the kids tried and tried and tried to get all the way across it, but they never did.  I let them try for a good, long time, too.  And after we left, they apparently kept thinking about it, because when the announcement came over the loudspeaker that the museum was closing in 15 minutes at the end of the day, they asked if they could go back and try again before we left.  They still couldn't do it.  I didn't have trouble with it, so I am thinking we should set one up at home so they can practice their balance.  But that seems like a hard thing.  I still have to figure it out.



Astronaut Lex, with the giant engine of a Saturn V rocket:



The kids got to go for a ride in this Mercury capsule, which tipped them up into the air.  The NASA controller game them quite a show.



I got to watch their reactions on a screen in the control room:



But, I think that their favorite thing in the whole museum was the Segway track.  They were allowed to ride on these Segways, and after they got the hang of them, they even ran the obstacle course.  It was fabulous fun, and I gave it a try, too.