Today was kind of lame, partly cause we are very tired, but also because some people think that if you make something technological, it is automatically better. See, we went to the Adventure Science Center in Nashville. It wasn't awful; we had fun and all. But if I had been in control of the amount of money that clearly went into this museum, I could have made a much better one. It was kind of gimmicky. For example, remember that game where prairie dogs pop up and you have to whack them with a big mallet? Well, change the prairie dogs to cylinders with pictures of food on them. You have to whack the healthy food. It might as well have been a worksheet; "circle the healthy food." I prefer the kind of science museums where you use the exhibit to figure out real scientific principles, not just regurgitate info you memorized at school. We did this moon walk thing, where you are attached to a machine that takes away 5/6 of your weight, but that was it. It didn't really teach anything. The scale that showed your weight on different planets was cooler. We played a video game where the pathogens and the red blood cells battle each other in a laser gun kind of thing. It was fun, but not because of anything sciency. We could have just been playing any shoot-em up video game. The museum was too text based as well; Livy wasn't able to figure out what to do with the hands on things without reading, and the points of the exhibits weren't clear without a lot of reading. There were a few things I couldn't figure out how to use at all, and I can read the instructions.
There were some things we really liked. We did a simulated roller coaster ride in a flight simulator. Since Livy isn't tall enough to ride roller coasters yet (and she desperately wants to), it was a real treat for her. We saw a demonstration of how to make bubbles filled with fog using liquid nitrogen (the lady said dry ice would work too), and using soft gloves, Livy got to bounce bubbles. There was a tower we climbed way up to the top of the museum, and we got to look down on Nashville. And I loved the exhibit of the planets to scale so we could see how big they were in comparison with each other.
Final evaluation: It wasn't awful, and if we lived in Nashville, we'd go occasionally. But as far as traveling, don't bother. We like the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville (north of Atlanta) and The McWane Science Center in Birmingham WAY better. Much more real science, much more approachable for children, and no computerized worksheets masquerading as science.
After this, we went to the grocery store and took a rest and ate dinner in the motel room. We like the Opryland Hotel so much that we went back for seconds. We walked through the awesome indoor gardens again, looked at all the waterfalls and fountains, walked through the outdoor lights display again, closely examined the statues of sheep in the nativity scene trying to determine which were boys and which were girls (they were not anatomically correct, to our dismay), and had ice cream in front of the dancing fountains (they shoot up in time to music and change colors). It was awesome again, but we left early, cause we are just so tired.
I think we need a more relaxed day tomorrow. We should have relaxed tonight, but we couldn't resist the Opryland Hotel. So, we are laying around tonight watching a Discovery Channel show on killer catfish (Livy thinks cable is so cool!) Tomorrow, our only real touristy plan is to go back to the Parthenon, and after that, we'll make the drive to Mammoth Cave. We won't actually go to the caves tomorrow, though. I think we will eat supper in our room and then just watch movies together; on a trip this long, I am learning that you have to pace yourselves.
12/14/09
