On Saturday November 29th I took a drive up the New Jersey turnpike to spend a day at the Liberty Science Center. The Science Center is about a thirty minute drive from my home town but I hadn’t been there since I attended as part of a class trip in the 6th grade. I was surprised by how much information I learned over the course of this trip, my memories of the Liberty Science Center where very colorful and cartoonish, I remembered the games we played and the interactive exhibits that served as indoor playgrounds but don’t actual remember gaining any knowledge from the trip. Upon entering the Building it seemed very familiar but much less overwhelming and majestic. As I walked through the exhibits the first thing I noticed was that it was definitely kid friendly and a lot of exhibits where designed solely for children but at the same time their was a lot of knowledge for an older audience that was presented in a fun way.
height="297"/>
I took my ten year old cousin Dale with me because he had never been (but mainly because I didn’t want to go by myself and I couldn’t convince any friends to take the trip). It turned out that having him come with me was a good learning experience for myself, I got to see how he interacted with the exhibits and imagine how I had experienced some of the same things almost a decade ago. My cousins favorite exhibit was one called “Eat or Be Eaten”. The exhibit was all about the relationships between predators and prey, it showed how different animals use different tactics to avoid be eaten and the tactics some predators use to capture their prey. A member of the Science Centers staff was even on hand to show off some of the animals up close (my cousin was much braver than I was, or am for that matter. So I stepped back and let him have his fun).
The exhibit that was the main reason for this trip was called “Our Hudson Home” which as the title states was about the Hudson River. The exhibit didn’t touch on the Blue Crab or Zebra Mussels specifically, nor did it talk about biomagnification and toxins but it did touch on many of the problems facing the Hudson River. As the exhibit showed the Hudson River serves as home to a very wide range of animals such as horseshoe crabs, Star Fish, and oysters (which they had a project for to try and raise their population in the Hudson). The part of the exhibit we spent the most time at (since my 10 year old cousin was the one designating how much time was spent at each exhibit) was a miniature model of the Hudson River. It was basically an area where kids could control water flows and see the effects different amounts of water and man made objects can effect the environment (or just play with water and sand).
While at the science center we also took time out to watch one of the centers Imax movies, which I had done as kid. I don’t really remember the show I watched the last time I was there, I think it was about stars? Maybe something about the north pole? I can’t recall, I just remember it being really cool so I figured we would check it out. The show we saw was all about ancient Egypt (pharaohs, mummies, sphinx) and was narrated by mummies, which was again another part of the center that was geared toward the entertainment of children but once you got over the fact that mummies were speaking to you there was a lot of interesting information packed into the show.
Overall it was a good experience. It was a little expensive (especially when compared to my free zoo trip) and a little out of the way, especially if one was trying to get there from the city, but I would definitely recommend all to go. I felt The Science Center did a really god job of reaching its target audience, it’s a very family friendly environment that could keep children of all ages entertained for hours while still providing parents and chaperones with lots of fun facts and interesting exhibits.
Mostly I enjoyed experiencing something as an adult that I had experienced as a child, and seeing the difference in mind sets and ways of thinking; searching for the information and fun facts, when as I child I remember searching for the first place we could run around or climb on something. I cant say for certain that my little cousin took too much knowledge from the trip (except a fun fact about snapping turtles being able to live over 100 years old that he told just about everyone we saw after the trip) but I can say that he did have a lot of fun, and that was what I think is the main purpose of the center. I think it is (or should be) just as, if not more so important that kids leave the Liberty Science Center with the knowledge that they can have fun with science and that it spans beyond the classroom and textbooks and touches some aspect or anything that interests them. They may not be able to teach kids about all of natures issues that they will face throughout their life time but they can get kids seeing science in a different way and spark some interest in the field.
Benjamin Ruiz