Great Lakes Science Center: Facing Mars Exhibit – Review

As a Clevelander for the past 10 years, it is a bit embarrassing to admit that our family really hasn’t taken advantage of all the great museums and attractions around town. A few years ago, before Emma was born, we finally made it to the Great Lakes Science Center. Mackenzie really didn’t remember much about it, other than the playroom with big slides and a ball pit.

Mackenzie has within the past year become very interested in science and space. She loves asking all kinds of questions about how and why things work. When the opportunity arose for us to take a trip to the Science Center to visit their newest special exhibit, Facing Mars, she was beyond excited to go and learn lots and lots about more science and space. And Mommy and Daddy were excited to brush up on our science knowledge so we’d have answers for her never-ending questions too!

The NASA Glenn Visitor Center has recently relocated to the Great Lakes Science Center and we were able to see all the exhibits.

Emma liked looking at the rockets, Mackenzie got to drive a moon rover and see space suits that have actually been on a spacewalk.

I like that part of the appeal of the Science Center is that it’s ok to touch most of the items on display – Mackenzie even crawled inside a tire that was part of the space shuttle’s landing gear!

We also learned about the many innovations NASA has contributed to airplane safety, which is important to me as I travel on planes weekly. Mackenzie said her favorite part of the day was pretending to fly airplanes in the flight simulators.

The main reason for our visit was to see the Science Center’s newest special exhibit, Facing Mars running until September 5, 2011.

Facing Mars is all about deciding if you are cut out for a mission to Mars. We learned just how different Mars is from Earth – from the challenges of growing food, finding water, capturing solar power for the brief times it is not dark to dealing with how dusty Mars is and how gravity is so much different. Almost everything in the Facing Mars exhibition was hands on.

Here’s Marc tyring out the training chair to show how astronauts feel experiencing space sickness:

Marc also did a simulated Mars walk where his body weight was adjusted to what he would feel like walking on Mars:

I tried to do simple tasks with my hands while pressurized to feel the same as on Mars:

Mackenzie launched planes too see the difference in gravity between Earth and Mars:

We got to see a real rock from Mars so that was very cool! Everything on Mars is very different and challenging and I think I’ll pass on a signing up for a mission to visit there.

After spending a lot of time in Facing Mars, we stopped for a lunch break and then went up to the Science Phenomena Floor, where everything is supposed to be touched and explored! Mackenzie had a blast exploring science of weather – one of her obsessions – electricity, light, sound and motion. Emma liked being able to touch some things as well and would have happily crawled all over every single station if I let her!

No trip to the Science Center is complete without a visit to the Polymer Funhouse and our visit was no exception.

Both the girls loved the ball pit:

Mackenzie had a great time on the slides:

Emma played with the gear wall for a good 15 minutes, which is a really long time for her!

Marc and I were just happy for a chance to sit down and rest our tired feet.

We were at the Science Center for at least five hours and there was more we didn’t even do, but it was nap time for all of us so we headed home.

The Great Lakes Science Center also has a the Omnimax Theater and Steamship William G. Mather which is open May – September that we’ll have to save for another trip. We all had a fantastic time at the Science Center and with our budding scientist we are looking into getting a family membership so we can visit anytime.

Tickets were provided for this review. No compensation was received. The honest opinions are my own and that of my family.