Tampa’s Museum of Science & Industry – we call it MOSI for short – is a scientific playground with more than 100 hands-on activities! MOSI’s innovative exhibits urge you to ask questions and expand your mind. We show you how cool curiosity can be – there are no tests or quizzes here. We spark conversations about the world and the future among kids and their grandparents, between spouses, and with strangers. There’s no other place like it in Tampa Bay.
Be sure to also check out MOSI’s two newest permanent exhibits: Imagination Playground and Mission: Moonbase. Imagination Playground enables kids to engineer everything from robots to cities using cubes, bricks, cogs, curves and cylinders. Imagination Playground allows kids to play in a way that encourages creativity and collaboration, while continually exploring new directions and initiatives that promote the benefits of learning, social development, movement and, above all, fun. This breakthrough play space concept enables children to create open-ended designs in a safe environment led by one of MOSI’s education staff.
Guests can head over to MOSI’s children’s science center, Kids Charge-in! and dive into a play space unique from a traditional playground not made of monkey bars, slides or see-saws. In this innovative hands-on zone, children work with large foam pieces to connect and build in intricate ways, enabling them to bring their visions to life. I personally enjoyed the presentations at the Saunders Planetarium located here at the same area of the museum and rode the high-wire bike that is carefully balanced with a counterweight. Oh — that bike takes you 30 feet over the main lobby floor, so don’t look down!
A trip to MOSI means planning on at least a half day of non-stop seeing, doing, and exploring. If you go during a busy time of the year, such as the summer, I’d simply allocate an entire day at the museum. I suggest arriving early and check out what is showing at the IMAX theater, which usually plays documentaries geared toward science as well as some popular films.
Don`t forget to stop by the BioWorks butterfly garden. You could make hundreds of fluttering friends! On the way out, you might want to take a little trek through the historic tree grove, which flourishes with more than a dozen trees grown from seedlings of trees associated with significant people or events.
Photo Credit: http://www.destination360.com
