As all our friends know, we are proud Roanoke-based members of the Science Museum of Western Virginia. They've recently rehabbed some spaces, making more room for creativity and interaction. Specifically, there's a kid-oriented maker lab, a wonderful new area for designing Big Blue Blocks creations and ball tracks, and a space for toying with robots and other coding "toys." In two cases, these areas resemble similar spaces we've adored at Marbles and Amazement Square. They are smaller, but they are here at home and we adore them, too! In the case of the robotic coding toys, Science Museum of Western Virginia for the win--first exhibit of its type that we've seen!
Let's start with the showstopper in the eyes of educator K--Wonderlab, a space for exploring coding, robotics, and associated logic. Right behind the entry desk in the former gift shop space, Wonderlab provides an exploratory area that is basically classroom size. Multiple "toy tools" are available to explore and are appropriate beginning with the early elementary grades--and will also fascinate adults. There are computers for doing a little Scratch coding, but it was more fun for us to manipulate Cubelets and Dot and Dash. On the Sunday afternoon we visited, no one was around except E and his friend. What a great time to explore!
Those cool ball tracks and that area for Big Blue Blocks creations? It's all part of Design It! Build It! Test It! We've played with Big Blue Blocks before at Marbles and at Greensboro Children's Museum but never in so perfect a space. A wall-mounted grid really adds to what can be done with the blue blocks, foamy huge tinker toy-type pieces that inspire all sorts of construction. There's also a nice magnetic wall with various tubes for ball tracks reminiscent of the same type of walls at Amazement Square, only these have more space for building. Additionally, there's a paper plane test area.
And the Maker Lab? It's fun, too! Quite perfect for the early-to-mid elementary set and well-designed for visitors who adore their creations, it has a Lego wall, magnet manipulatives, straws and connectors (used to so like having these as a center as a kindergarten teacher), and similar building toys. There are also a large number of craft supplies, giving it touches of ArtVenture from the nearby Taubman. You could always say you could "do this at home"--but you'd be buying a lot of stuff and making a mess.
If you go, we suggest bringing a friend--from 7-year-old E's perspective, this was so much fun with a similar-age guest! Never miss the butterfly garden, even if only for a quick stop, when visiting the museum, and we spent a fair amount of time in Pixel Play as well, especially enjoying the multi-player Gauntlet game. When visiting Center in the Square, never miss a quick visit to the roof, a great place to enjoy a brought-with-you snack in fair weather.
Friends who ask: THIS kind of close-to-home adventure is a big part of the reason you become a museum member--new play spaces!! Think about it: Sunday afternoon fun, free parking downtown, minutes from the house. Join your local museum--especially if they are part of ASTC Passport. There are periodic membership sales, too--watch the museum blog at their website.
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