Family Science

The first time I went to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), I was about six years old and was with my grandmother.  I recall exhibits with taxidermied animals, old machinery and vehicles, and a giant great white shark hanging from the ceiling that I would stare at endlessly (out of fear and awe–could I fit inside its mouth?!).  She would quietly take me around to exhibits (no running!) in an atmosphere that seemed like a library with some audio tours.

That was over 30 years ago.

Recently, I went with my family, including my son, Jackson, who is almost two years old, to OMSI.  The atmosphere and feel has changed a lot since I was there as a child.  A new location and building, a huge array of interactive exhibits, halls, science labs, a theater, a play room for the small ones, and various halls for learning about human life to dinosaur fossils.

Upon entering the new OMSI, I was greeted with a movie theater-like ticketing area and foyer, and glimpses of exhibit halls.  Once past the entry gate, we experienced the playroom which is complete with wet and dry play areas, science exhibits for touching and crawling, and overall a much more entertaining experience that when I was there as a child.  I saw many parents intermittently watching their kids from the corner of their eye, so many of them sitting on the sidelines, or on their blackberries and i-phones, texting and e-mailing as their kids splashed plastic crabs, fish, and boats in the water table, played with a pipe and ball system, and ran around to the various exhibits.  Not all of the parents were like this.  A few of us, I think the ones who had nothing like the modern extravaganza of OMSI as kids, played with their own kids.  Jackson went straight for the sand play area and the trucks and dinosaurs.  I knelt over the half-wall to play with him.  Who knew a dinosaur could drive a truck with only its head stuck in the cab?!  Jackson wasn’t so sure that  my driver choice was good, so we picked up a plastic cow/water buffalo and set it by the truck.  Having a bunch of sand around to act as food and roadway for the bio mechanical wonder didn’t hurt either.

Jackson in the OMSI sand play area

Next we went to the water table.  I saw a gathering of parents outside the zone designated wet zone watching the kids, dressed in plastic smocks and crocs, splashing with toys and pushing levers and wheels to make water spout and spray from a network of spouts. Jackson was throwing boats to the top of the stepped water table to watch them flow down a few levels to the base pool of water where a whirlpool of sharks, fish, trucks, and boats converged in a water fondue.  I followed his lead and threw boats back to the top level for him to corral through the waterfall-like channels.  I didn’t care about not having a smock or getting water all over–this was good fun with my son in command of the fleet.  I showed a few other kids how a lever and a spout could propel a plastic crab if its rear was placed over the spout for a water-filled liftoff.  It’s nice being too old to get in trouble for that kind of thing I’m finding.  Heck–they do that stuff on Myth Busters, don’t they?

Jackson at the OMSI water table

The T-Rex fossil display was fairly amazing as I don’t recall ever seeing any dinosaur fossils up close.  My son stood on the low wall surrounding the T-Rex and looked up in awe.  Perhaps in the same way I did when I stared at the old taxedermied great white.  He pumped his feet up and down, and made “raaaaaar” sounds when asked about the sound a dinosaur makes.  I was content at staring at the fossils and holding Jackson while mom watched this song and dance with a smile.

We went on to more exhibits and science experiment labs before we left.  One of my favorites being the earthquake house for simulating quakes.  We all took that ride four or five times before getting off.  I thought back to actually being in the 6.8 Nisqually quake in 2001, and assessed that aside from feeling about the same, the quake house was a lot of fun.

While OMSI will continue to be a great place for children to learn and explore, it will be a place I encourage adults to experience too.  Kids or no, you will enjoy something there–I know it.  Get messy and dirty and crawl around a bit–it’s good for you, and you will learn something you never knew before.  The technology, cool gadgets, and science are all there ( in a much bigger and better way than in 1980), so put away your cell phone and do it.

As for Jackson, his mom and me–we have found our new great white shark in an old-T-Rex named Samson.