ENGINE COMPANY 15 FIRE HOUSE
Children learn the importance of having a fire safety plan in place at home and how to stay safe during a fire. The fire station exhibit includes a fire engine, beds, fire pole, a locker filled with child-sized firefighter jackets and boots, a full-sized mannequin in bunker gear and more. St. Petersburg Fire and Rescue provides occasional educational demonstrations onsite.
FIT4ALLKIDSVILLE
Visit our high energy healthy living area. Visitors will discover how healthy habits such as good nutrition and exercise keep their minds and bodies fit. The goal of this exhibit is to assist children in attaining a healthy lifestyle and to offer active experiences that will encourage visitors to challenge themselves physically.
I CAN CONSTRUCT
Climb into our giant tree house and learn about construction! Children can climb inside the tree and spend time among the branches. Children learn about careers in construction while they work at our work bench.
MY FIRST MARKET
The child-sized supermarket exhibit teaches the value of making healthy eating choices in the familiar, yet fascinating environment of a supermarket. The market is interactive and hands-on with checkout counters, cash registers and a scanner that beeps. Children and adults generate their shopping lists based on creating a balanced diet. Healthy fruits and vegetables line the walls, the shelves are stocked with whole-grain choices and shoppers can find lean meats, fish and poultry. Shoppers can also visit the bakery or dairy aisle.
ORANGE GROVE
Visitors learn the process of orange production. Play in a simulated orange grove, pick, pack, and ship oranges and turning them into orange juice. Visitors will be encouraged to work as a team to see who can pick the most oranges.
THE VETERINARY OFFICE:
BE A GREAT PET VET
Children learn the importance of good medical care for pets through a hands-on veterinarian experience. They can conduct examinations with toy stethoscopes and other medical equipment. They may also view real x-rays.
ST. PIZZA
Step inside our pizza restaurant where children take pizza orders, create pizzas with soft sculpture ingredients, “bake” in a brick oven, ring orders at a real cash register and serve guests at cafe tables. Children learn listening strategies, memory and concentration as well as some characteristics of economics and finances in the real world, including basic math skills.
ANIMATION STATION
Children automate the process of animating images by using a digital video recorder to take a series of snapshots of scenes they have made on a small platform similar to a stage set. The photographed scenes are stored, then the “action” is seen when the computer plays the snapshots back with the option of adding sound effects.
BERNOULLI STATION
Children balance balls in streams of moving air and are encouraged to experiment with the floating balls, discovering by touch the power of air pressure.
PULL YOURSELF UP
Safely buckled into a chair, children hoist themselves up into the air with the help of pulley systems that increase their mechanical advantage.
ROBOT LAB
At this station, loaded with parts and power sources, children create a robot and then watch it move.
SOUND WAVES
In this exhibit, children see the three-dimensional nature of sound. As visitors scroll through different frequencies using a dial, a tone generator creates standing sound waves in a clear acrylic tube filled with Styrofoam pellets.
TENNIS BALL LAUNCHER
A huge tennis ball launcher invites children to fire off tennis balls high into the museum assisted by a pulley and air pressure
TOUCH FOR SOUND
In this exhibit, sound is linked to the sense of touch in an engaging and relaxing way. A fixed array of everyday objects, ranging from spoons to doorknobs to nuts and bolts, are arranged on a wall and linked to a computer housing a large library of sounds. When children touch an object, different sounds are emitted. By connecting related sounds, children can play a tune.
