Field Trip - McWane Center

Before we left Birmingham on Labor Day, we got in a fun field trip. I had hopes of seeing the Birmingham Zoo, but Tropical Storm Lee decided on the McWane Center for us. It was pouring rain that day, so we were very happy to have an indoor Plan B. The McWane Center opened while we were in Tuscaloosa, and I had taken some second graders there the year it opened, 1998 I think. It has changed a lot, and the boys had tons of fun exploring the science exhibits.


The first floor is mostly physics experiments. Here are the boys getting some hands on time with pulleys.

This was an optical illusion room. The boys are in the far end of the room and looking at a monitor on the wall. The way the room was built and painted, it looked as though they were as tall as a six foot tall man at the other end of the room.

A little funny about the principle of chaos. Yes, I would have to agree with this theorem. In case you can't see it, it says, "No matter how hard you try, you can never get through a day without chaos."



They had a little people play area. Jonathan loved the water table. I was very glad when Brent noticed the aprons on the wall behind him.


Upstairs, there were exhibits on dinosaurs.



We had studied fossils the week before, so Andrew and Coleman had lots of fun being archaeologists and discovering the fossils. Jonathan had lots of fun too.



There were other neat things to play with too. The following pics were made at a station where you can put your hand or face into some plastic pegs and then your image appears on the other side. Here's Andrew.

I love Coleman's!

And this is Jonathan's first attempt. Brent was holding him and tried to get him to put his face into the pegs. You can see he resisted a bit.


A little later we got a better shot of Jon Jon.


There was also a huge weather center. Andrew got to do the weather forecast and see himself on the monitor. He did a great job, and talked just like a meteorologist would.



And here are Coleman and Jonathan checking out a model tornado. Hopefully, this is the closest they will ever come to one!

The last area we explored had to do with exercise and nutrition. There was a big maze we wandered through and then Andrew and Coleman got to do this!





We ate lunch in the food court. Our big weekend of fun wore Jonathan out. He laid back in his stroller to eat his pizza. He couldn't even smile for a picture. Just sat there and ate. He was asleep almost before we were out of the parking deck.

It was such a great day. We headed out for a very rainy drive home with some very tired boys. We cannot wait to get back to Birmingham!