Let Your Curiosity Soar

September 19 through December 7th

Explore the science of how things move by land, sea and air

Lift, launch and levitate as you experiment with hands-on exhibits that make learning about gravity, friction, and the laws of motion fun. Ride a hovercraft to experience how air pressure works, adjust wind speed to form fabric into an airfoil, and float your sailboat to experiment with the effect of wind, rudder and sail positions.

Visitors can turn up the heat to launch a colorful hot air balloon, operate an authentic canal lock system to move a boat from one water level to the next, and experiment with pneumatics, pulleys, hydraulics and levers to see what kind of mechanical advantage works best.

At the Simple Machines exhibit, visitors can use scoops, ramps, winches, and wheels to discover how simple machines can help move things across land. This ball-pit is fun for all ages, but is designed with the museum’s youngest visitors in mind. One hundred feet of tubing allows visitors to send colored balls in a rushing channel of air from one Air Transport station to another. Visitors can watch the balls as they dart across walls, over their heads, and appear at the other station in record time.

In addition to exhibits like Water Locks and How Do Boats Sail Into the Wind? that explore transportation by water, visitors will have the opportunity to interact with exhibits that explain the principles of how things move.