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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Lancaster Science Factory

science factory0806 (34)The Lancaster Science Factory  (LSF) in Lancaster, PA is a hands-on, interactive technology and science center.  As our road trip was ending last weekend, this was a great place to visit on a rainy Sunday.
While inside and outside, it resembles a factory, it’s not an old building that underwent a facelift and conversion. James Bunting, a retired PA advertising executive, founded the LSF after seeing a science center in Florida.  His science factory0806 (40)goals were to increase children's’ interests in math and science, provide an interactive learning environment outside the classroom, and be accessible to all local youth in Lancaster County. The Science Factory opened in January 2008 after several years of planning and a $1 million capital campaign.

Here children – of ALL ages – experiment and create through exhibits, work stations and mini-labs, while learning the principles of science and its application in engineering and technology.

That’s because the over 50 displays housed in the LSF aren't just exhibits, they are interactive. Visitors are encouraged to touch, try out, play with, and most of all, experiment. science factory collage
When we visited, parents and grandparents seemed to be having as much fun as the kids who took them along.

Even though we didn’t have any young(er) children with us, trying out the nearly ALL the exhibits was FUN. science factory collage2
Exhibits are related to a scientific or mathematical concept in categories that include: light and vision, electricity and magnetism, mechanics and motion, structural engineering, acoustics, fluid dynamics, puzzles and brain teasers.

Admission is charged, but kids to age 15 (under 2 years are free) and seniors get discounts. science factory collage3
Grenville tried to convince the folks there that he was just a big kid who was young at heart. He was still charged the senior rate cause he was “big for his age.”

19 comments:

Lois Evensen said...

That looks like SO much fun! I'm sure My Honey the Engineer would love it, too. :)

possum said...

I LOVED taking the boys to the interactive museum in Roanoke. Not sure who had the most fun. We left their mama sitting in the lobby! They had to round us up at closing time.
Did they have to take your Big Boy by the hand and show him out?

Anvilcloud said...

The kids, both young and old, seem pretty absorbed.

grammie g said...

Hi Beatrice..men are nothing,but big kids..lol
Kids are so fascinated with things like this ...I love to see there faces!!

Carole Barkett said...

what a wonderful place to bring the grandkids

Montanagirl said...

Great post!

Ludwig said...

Beatrice,

I bet you don't know that when you use yellow text ir is impossible to read in Google Reader (it is shown yellow on white). Of course when you use white text it is shown white on white - absolutely invisible. This is not, of course, your fault. You'd thing Google was smarter than that.

I do just go over to your blog, where it is as beautiful as you intended it. And fun to read!

Elaine said...

Looks fun!

Anonymous said...

I just love places like that! To bad those places didn´t exist when I was a kid.

Have a great day!
Christer.

JoJo said...

I wish there were more of these fun places. I would have a ball.

john bain said...

Looks like the grown ups are just using the kids as an excuse to play. I don't blame them I would too.

MadSnapper said...

a fun place to visit, I would have been playing too. not to far from where my hubby was born and raised, Perkasie is a hop/skip/jump from Lancaster

DeniseinVA said...

This is a wonderful place to take kids and even for us adults. It must have been very enjoyable.

Eggs In My Pocket said...

This reminds me of a history museum that we used to take our children to when they were small. We had so much fun there! blessings,Kathleen

Scott Law said...

I've been away for a couple weeks, but I'm glad for the chance to get back and try to catch up. I see you're keeping busy on your blog.

Looked back over several of your recent posts and enjoyed them although I do hope your back is much better. Glad you had fun at the science factory and hope your back continues to improve.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

While we didn't have any "little" kids with us during our visit, but us 60+ folks and the the 30+ folks, daughter & fiance, had a good time playing.

Lois, your engineer honey would enjoy this place.

Nope Possum, he was ready to leave cause we were heading for pizza & ice cream.

AC and Grace (grammie G.) it was fun for any age and some of the kids were better than the adults!

Hi Carole, definitely a good place to bring grandkids, but none with us cause we left them in RI.

Thanks Mona and Elaine.

Hi Ludwig, thanks so much for the heads up on the type color issue. I havbe never used Goggle Reader so didn't know about how the text color appears on the background. But as you said, this would seem to be a Google issue. Glad you could read the post directly on the blog. Thanks for the kind words. We try to keep the posts interesting and sometimes informative!

Jo-Jo, I agree that more of these places are needed vs. skate parks, for example.

Hey John & Sandra, it's fun for adults to play too.

Denise, enjoyable yes and more so on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Thanks Kathleen. Glad it brought back some good memories for you.

Hi Scott, hope you had some good travels. I'll check out your recent blog posts. Thanks for your comments. We really do enjoy posting on the blog - it's a fun thing for us. Grenville's back is doing much better and he had a 2nd session with the chripractor today. This will be an extended therapy to loosen his muscles.

Cicero Sings said...

There is a Science Centre in Vancouver but I haven't been there in YEARS. Especially fun to visit if you have a couple of kids in tow. They so love to try everything out and that way you get to see the workings too.

Out on the prairie said...

Hands on learning makes science easy to understand.I went to a nice center at UCLA for families.
hope the kink gets worked out for you, I need my potatoes dug also.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Eileen, having young folks along would have made the trip a bit more interesting, but the grandson lives in RI and we had just left there. We did our best to try as much as possible :-)

Hi Steve, Grenville's back is feeling much better - chiropractor is helping a lot! Not sure how to tell when the potatoes are ready to be dug :-(