A Visit To The Carnegie Science Center

On Sunday, we decided that we all needed a break from the routine. So we skipped church (insert guilt here) and went to the Carnegie Science Center on the North Side of Pittsburgh. It's a very fun, on hands science facility that is full of learning and adventure. We all had a blast! The picture above is the first activity, located in the lobby as you walk in. Water is always the best way to get everyone in the mood for fun. Works for us every time! The kids love trying to balance the balls on the water.

Outside in the back of the Science Center is a full sized real life submarine, the USS Reguin. A tour is included as part of admission to the Center. My husband really loves going in. He says it's very, very tight in there. No thanks!

This tube is part of the first floor activities. All of the displays are related to the basic elements like water, sound, etc. You can stand on one end of this echo tube and hear a small tap made on the other side.

This is an actual NASA robot. Really cool to realize it was part of the space program.

This is the train display. It's actually pretty famous around Pittsburgh (as in "I'll meet you by the train at the Science Center"). It's so amazing to see in person. Everything moves and is in such detail including workers digging in a quarry, a child swinging in a tree swing, and people enjoying an amusement park. A train runs around and throughout the display and the lights change the display from day to night then back to day. As you can see, it's hard to capture a good picture of it.

These are two of several tanks on the second floor. The computer is a program all about the reef. There is also an activity area where kids can use grasping mechanical arms to try to grab treasure and a display where they can touch live horseshoe crabs. Cool!

This is the top of the building with the cone shape that is saying "here we are"! It makes the Science Center easy to find if you are a Pittsburger and if you are not, asking "what's that thing?" gives you a chance to find out!

The weather area is really unique. You can give a local weather report and see yourself on T.V. You learn a lot about temperatures, weather conditions and you get to see how a tornado works. This display forms a cloud that you can touch.


In case you want to know more, here's the web site-

http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/

They explain it all so much better than I just did :)