Boise, ID

One of my kids’ favorite things to do is play pretend and consequently they love to head to the Discovery Center of Idaho. You may wonder what pretending and science have to do with one another, but one of the permanent exhibits at DCI is a kid-sized grocery store. Knowing this, when it was my turn to plan a field trip for our little homeschool group I decided a great choice for a cold day and a group of diverse ages would be to head downtown to a place that has something for everyone.

Arriving before anyone else in our group, we first made a pit stop and then hung around the entrance area awaiting everyone else. It was there that we discovered the very smart robotic arm. On a computer, we typed in my daughter’s name. Then we watched in amazement as the arm swung around inside its case picking up lettered building blocks from seemingly random placements and placing them in the front to spell out “Anna.” Of course when it had finished we had to start over and spell my son’s name as well.

Once everyone arrived and we had paid our group admission, we spread out through the museum to check out all the “cool stuff.” Like any science activity museum, there is a large assortment of hands-on activities that illustrate various scientific fascinations, from the pulley-system and air brake chair in the lobby, to the GIANT bubble making apparatus, to the bed of nails that you lie on, and much more. One of the current changing exhibits at the time had to do with construction so several large boxes contained wooden pieces with which to construct buildings or whatever struck your fancy. Then, of course, there was the grocery store. Outfitted with plenty of child-sized carts, shelves of groceries (empty mayo jars, honey bottles, cleaning supplies, etc), and plastic produce, bread, and meat displays, it’s really a paradise for kids who love to shop. There are even checkout counters with crank-able conveyor belts and cash registers. At the entrance there is a display with shopping lists and plastic money, although much of that seems to have disappeared. My kids and some of their friends spent a good deal of time in this fun activity, as I knew would be the case.

Finally exhausting the grocery fun, we meandered through some of the other exhibits and visited with our homeschooling friends until we had to head home for a doctors’ appointment. Some of the rest of our group had decided to bring lunches and head to nearby Municipal Park for a cool but sunny fall day picnic, which sounded like a lot of fun but this time we had previous engagements.

As always, it was a fun and educational way to spend a couple of hours. I was really impressed with their group rate program as well. As a school group we got in for a huge discount and had the option of attending one of their special classes. The people there were really nice to work with in arranging this outing as well. Another thing we recently discovered is that there is a group of over 200 science museums around the world that offer reciprocal entrances to people who hold annual memberships to any one of the museums. The Discovery Center of Idaho is one of these and the entire list can be found at www.astc.org. In addition, DCI is available for birthday party rental, with optional demonstrations such as “Liquid Nitrogen Ice-Cream,” “Slime,” and “Dino Dig.”

For more info on the Discovery Center, check out their website, www.scidaho.org or phone 343-9895. It is located at 131 Myrtle near Julia Davis Park in Boise.