Science Museum of Science!

We took a much-needed field trip this past Friday to the Minnesota Science Museum.  The boys spent the afternoon exploring with friends, and I had a chance to catch up with one of my old friends as well!  

Pterodactyl, how have you been?

One of our favorite bits was The Cell Lab,  a very cool part of the Human Body Exhibit at the museum right now.  Each pair of boys did a different microscope experiment geared to their age level.

Charlie and his pal Liam had a chance to stain and examine their own cheek cells.  They needed very little guidance as a computer prompted them through each step of collecting, mounting, staining and viewing their slides.

Will and his friend Kian identified "mystery microbes" in their lab.  At this activity the boys had to stain, test, and identify one of four unknown strains of bacteria that are commonly found in and on the human body. The lab used equipment and materials typically found in a clinical bacteriology lab. 

Ben had the chance to do a more involved lab, intended for high school age kids. It involved staining DNA from fruit fly salivary glands and examining it in tightly packed chromosomes under a microscope. The specimens were actually live fruit fly larvae that he had to dissect under the microscope. He had to remove the head, find the salivary glands and then stain and process the slide.  He did really well though, and the resulting slide of the chromosomes had the volunteers all excitedly talking about using it as a sample slide for future visitors to the lab.  This was such a cool opportunity, as it wouldn't necessarily be a biology lab that I would be able to tackle at home!

 It was a perfect day of science until Ben stumbled into a nest of dinosaurs and had to run for his life.  This is the third time that this has happened.  You'd think he'd learn...

Meanwhile, Will and Charlie ran off to Egypt to build their own block pyramid...

...and take a spin on an ornery-looking camel.

There is so much to do at the museum that we never quite get to do it all in one go, but we're always satisfied and worn out ( in a good way) by the end of the day. And as long as one of us gets chased by a dinosaur, we know it has been a successful trip! ; )

What are your favorite must-see things at your local science museum?