St. Louis Science Center

Twice a year Scott's work schedule differs vastly from normal.  He works at the St. Louis Temple as a Custodial Assistant Supervisor for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  His normal schedule is Monday through Friday from 9pm to 6am.  Twice a year the Temple closes for two weeks for deep cleaning, allowing patrons to volunteer to help do cleaning that doesn't normally get done (Like the chandeliers).  For this time he works from 11am-10pm.  The only real advantage is that he is home at night.  This schedule he really doesn't see much of the kiddos - so on Saturday we decided to do something special.  After our normal trip to Costco we headed to the St. Louis Science Center.

The St. Louis Science Center is one of the free attractions that we can do as a family.  Granted some of the neatest parts of the Science Center costs extra (Planetarium, Discovery Room, and special attractions).  We want to make it to the Star Trek Expedition, hopefully we will make it back by the end of May!!!

Math

 One of the first things we saw was a teenager volunteering for Pi Day.  They had things set up at different zones of the Science Center where the kids could do hands on math projects.  Donovan wanted to figure out how many balls were in the container and together the two of us worked it out.  He got to use a calculator for the first time - which I found odd, but okay!!  The young man said that the two of us had one of the closest answers all day.  That made me smile!!!  Instead of using a ruler to measure the container we used the six balls, added two more and then figured out the rest. 

Volume = Pi x Hight x radius squared

We then went to the flight simulator and Amelia got drive a plane.  She kept crashing it into the ground.  Scott got it through the St. Louis Arch three times!!

Mia Flying a plane

Ancient Egypt

Child Mummy

I was fascinated by this Child Mummy.  I guess you could say I have always been intrigued by Egyptian History.  THis is the actual artifact (Sad to call him an artifact, he was a beloved child 2000 years ago) given to the Science Center in 1985.  He was "acquired" in the 1900's by a Missouri Dentist.  He is part of the most extensive archeological study in recent history.  In 2006 Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and Washington School of Medicine began to take CT scan 3D models, DNA testing, and carbon dating of this little guy.  What they know for sure is that he was about 7-8 months old when he died.  He lived around 40 B.C. and 130 A.D.  They are attempting to trace his ancestry through DNA (which is difficult at best).  I believe that he was well loved, for it was expensive to get him mummified!

I stood there awhile, looking at his precious face and thinking about how devastated his parents must have been at his loss.  I wondered how he received the fatal wound on his head.  How peaceful he looks.

Dinosaurs

Around the corner from this little guy stood the mechanical dinosaurs.  Mia wanted nothing to do with them.  I also love Dinosaurs so we headed into a room where fossils could be touched and handled.  We had to leave before we were ready though because Mia could see the Dinotrons and she kept saying "Scary Dinosaur".  Poor thing.

Gavin thought it was funny that he got to hold Dino Poop!

Daddy and Mia looking at a Mastodon Molar

Paleontologist actually cleaning a T-Rex tooth

We went through many other areas, Donovan and Dad were fascinated by electricity, the kids had a blast in the sound room, and loved creating an arch out of blocks.  Had a great video for that, but for some reason am having issues uploading (sigh!!!).

Before the arch fell on top of them

It was a good four hours at the Science Center.  As we left we took pictures by the Dinosaur statues.  Mia had no trouble with them, they weren't trying to eat her!

Donovan upset that the park won't let him climb up.

He was told not to feed the Triceratops, but he wouldn't listen!