The Science Center isn't downtown. It's about 3 miles down the road and not a walkable kind of road. You have to cross over an interstate. Plus, parking at the museum is $8, which is pretty much like paying an admission fee, since you can't get there any other way unless you live in the neighborhood or have a good understanding and the time and patience for St. Louis bus routes. Inside the museum, there are a lot of choices. The "free" exhibits are older and run down and more older child focused. The one exception is the dinosaur and fossil exhibit on the lower level.
If you're willing to pay some extra dollars there are, of course, extra items for you. The first is why we went in the first place: an exhibit called Dinosaurs Unearthed. Lots of giant, robotic dinosaurs, information on fossils, dinosaur poop, etc. X-man was a little scared when he walked in and saw a gigantic Triceratops making moaning sounds and turning his head.
"He'll eat me!"
"No, he's a herbivore, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. -- Is he real?"
"No, he's a robot. Dinosaurs are extinct. That means they're not around any more."
"Like a robot Superman has to crush?"
"No, like a robot you can control."
"Huh?"
Then we walked around the corner where several of the dinosaurs had simple push button controls so that kids could make them move their heads, roar, shake their tails, etc. X-man was in heaven. We spent around 30-40 minutes just examining the dinosaurs and learning how they are related to birds. This exhibit was free for kids 3 and under, but it was $12.50 for kids and adults over 3. When we finished we visited the free part of the museum, where an employee excited X-man by telling him about the Spinosaurus, which was bigger than the T-Rex, but doesn't get any play.
We skipped the new I-Max theater showing of Under the Sea, since we didn't think X-man would be likely to sit still, even watching his favorite -- scuba divers -- on the big screen during "quiet time." Instead, we opted to pay $3 each for him to go to the Discovery Room and run out his "I'm not tired" mania there.
And this is where I think the Science Museum has kind of a good idea -- that they made bad. The Discovery Room is a perfect science learning area for kids 6 and under. It's like a compact, high-quality children's museum. Kids are allowed to play for 45 minutes at a time and they control the number of people in the exhibit so that it doesn't get turned to crap in a matter of seconds. I like the crowd control, but if you're not going to have pre-school friendly exhibits anywhere else in your museum -- what you do have should be free. You can still control the numbers with tickets and you could probably shorten it to 30-minute intervals, but seriously, it was the most X-man friendly exhibit where he could touch things and play with things and understand them. And the toys in the room were pretty fun. His favorite was the table completely devoted to space exploration. But he also raced cars of different weights, sat in a Teepee, played doctor in a hospital, etc.
Lunch time was spent under a ball track that is very cool. It zings brightly colored mini bowling balls (like a pin ball machine) around the ceiling area and into all kinds of crazy contraptions. Lunch choices are either Pizza Hut or a small café that has very healthy salad and sandwich choices. The downfall here though is the portions when it comes to kids. The only kids-sized meal that they offered at the café was a PB and J sandwich. X-man is more of a ham and cheese kind of guy, so we had to get him the adult combo (with a chips pile that could have fed a family of 4) and a sandwich that could have fed two adults.
The gift store was filled with fun science stuff. Seriously, I'd see if I could get dropped off to just shop there if I was in town and looking for gifts. If you're a teacher, they offer a 10 percent discount. There is also a Build-a-Bear store on the lower level that lets you create bears -- or DINOSAURS. X-man came home with a Spinosaurus named Sidney who is dressed as a superhero. :-)
Overall, I think you'd be better off visiting some place like the Indianapolis Children's Museum than the Science Center any day of the week. Indy has exhibits in much better shape and offer much more to the younger set. In addition, you know right away that you're paying admission for quality rather than having it sucked out of you for everything cool at a museum that pretends that it's free and friendly for the whole family.
2 comments:
It does not sound as if you will be going back anytime soon, but fyi anyway--there is free parking on the Forest Park side. You enter through the planetarium where there are more theaters and a very cool, retro, "old school" exhibit on the early space shuttle program. You can then walk the bridge that spans I40, and has some cool information on the history of aviation. There is also a scale that tells you how much it would cost to launch you into outer space (not one of my favorites to TRY, but cool nonetheless). There isn't much parking in the lots, but you can also park along the streets in Forest Park, and they are not metered. You may have to walk a bit, but those of us from the area just know to expect it.
The small planetarium used to be THE entire science center. It was tiny. The "new" one that you visited, when it was new, was awesome in its hey-day. I agree with you that some of the displays could use some updating, but considering the HEAVY usage the Science Center gets from EVERY public school system within an hour's drive (I mean EVERYBODY takes a trip to the Science Center) and the fact that they are always bringing in new, if paid, exhibits. And considering the high percentage of low-income or unemployed families in the area, I'm willing to trade a little wear-and-tear and slightly outdated exhibits to make it more available to the public-at-large.
I totally agree with your assessment, though. There's no question that it isn't the best museum as a "destination" for visitors. But for people who live around here, once people know what their kids do and don't like... it's a pretty fun and relatively cheap place to take your kids.
I tend to take all of Forest Park as a whole... where the Science Center, St. Louis Zoo, and Art Museum are all free to the general public. Are their $extras$? Yes, but I admire the city's commitment to maintaining the concept that a city park, and the amenities therein, should be affordable for everyone. Even the outdoor Muny Theater has four rows of free seats for every performance... and you can bring in your own food. Sure they're in the back, but the theater is so small they are still good seats. You just have to get there early because it's on a first-come basis.
Again, I don't disagree with your assessment of the Science Center at all. I just thought I'd share a slightly different perspective about the "free" issue.
I just realized that my typo in the 4th paragraph, which should have been $$extras, actually looks like "sextras," which makes it sound like the exhibits are more "adult" in nature at the Science Center. Obviously, that is not the case.
I hope you don't get a lot of traffic from people who are looking for such entertainment. Sorry about that. :-)
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