Field Trip: Arizona Science Center!

One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is being able to take field trips whenever you want! Science is one of Jackson's favorite subjects right now, so I decided that a trip to our Science Center would be perfect. We've had it planned for a few weeks, and Jackson has been counting down the days!

One of the exhibits was a Computer Science one. Most of it was over his head, but one of the stations he could have spent the entire day at! Basically, you take pictures of yourself, create images, and then send them to a large screen to view. Or, you could record your voice and watch the sound waves on the screen. Or, make an animated character of yourself and watch it walk across the screen. Those of you who know Jackson probably could imagine the absolute giddiness of Jackson in this exhibit!

Another exhibit was called "Forces of Nature". Now, Jackson has a love/hate relationship with weather. He is obsessed with weather, and frequently asks to watch the weather channel instead of cartoons. One of his favorite apps on the iPad is a Weather Channel one that updates the forecast and radar. However, when it comes to actually experiencing weather...let's just say that he ends up in our bed during an evening thunderstorm. He is pretty convinced that we will all be washed away in a flood, and reminds us of this daily. One of the coolest parts of Forces of Nature was this stage you stood on that simulated a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake, and a thunderstorm. Real wind and rain...it was awesome, for Greg and I, anyway. Jackson freaked out, and demanded that we leave. That is, until he found the cloud section.

He stood here, messing with the clouds, for a good 15 minutes (until the Forces of Nature show started again!). He had studied clouds in the past (I don't know how or when) so he knew all their names and just had a blast messing with it.

Another exhibit was called All About Me. Everything from real human organs to wheelchair races were in this section, and Jackson spent a lot of time here. There was even a stomach slide that made real digestive noises as you made your way through the stomach, including a (ahem) *toot* as you made your way out!

There was just some really cool things here! Above is a real digestive system (kinda gross, but cool!) and a drum that mimicked your hearbeat when you placed your hands on the sensors!

But, of course, the shining star of the whole trip was the Planetarium! Jackson was just pysched to see a show there. Space is also one of his big things right now, so I knew he would really enjoy it. There were only 4 of us in there, and Jackson was the only kid, shouting out answers to all the questions. We visited all the planets and rode a "space coaster" and had a great time!

In the car on the way home, he just kept talking about what a great day he'd had. I think we will do this again!