- Journal # 3 of Flat Hannah's Adventure
Today, Flat Hannah went to visit the DuPage Childrenˇs Museum, which is named after DuPage County of Illinois. It is a local community childrenˇs museum. Flat Hannah was recommended to adventure it during her trip in the Midwest.
It was 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, one hour after the opening when Flat Hannah arrived at the museum. The parking lot was already almost full with only a few spots left. "Wow, it must be a good one!" She stepped up and entered the museum quickly.
The two ticket lines were both long and extended back to the entrance door. Quite a number of children and their parents, grandparents or other related adults were lined up in front of Flat Hannah. Some kids looked as young as 2 to 4years old. They were cute and "busy" as they were in adultsˇ arms in one minute and descended down onto the ground in another. Others are older children, from approximately 5 to 10years old. They were also accompanied by adults. The place was packed.
After purchasing the ticket and receiving the map, Flat Hannah took a brief tour of the museum. She found that it has three levels and they are divided into several sections called neighborhoods (like they were in a community). Before Flat Hannah came to the museum, she planned to see exhibitions for children in her age group and up and skip the ones for younger children. However, she observed that each neighborhood was having both younger and older children as they were all doing something there. So,she decided not to pass on any neighborhood before checking it first.
The "WaterWays" Neighborhood sounds fun to Flat Hannah, so she walked there first and joined children at the "Bubbles" station. She saw younger kids were making bubble balls by blowing the bubble solution diligently and excitingly. She wanted to play but make much larger bubbles without blowing. Flat Hannah picked up a bubble-maker, which looked like a simple frame with a handle on one end. She lowered the bubble-maker to the solution, pulled and lift it high to see if she had made any large bubble successfully. It was not easy to do, though. Flat Hannah changed to use bubble-making tools in different sizes and shapes (i.e. square, circle and triangle) and practiced, practiced, practiced and practiced. Finally, she got a real large bubble, which shown in a kind of titled oval shape and literally "stood" in front of Flat Hannah and other 4 people behind her for a long second! "WOW", cried out loudly by Flat Hannah and people whom saw it. ¨"Look", called out by Ben, a young staff of the museum whom Flat Hannah asked to take a few photos for her. He did it; he captured the magic moment! "YES!" Flat Hannah could not help but cheered out happily. Making bubbles seemed like a simple task. However, from doing it Flat Hannah realized that she actually just learned or renewed basic knowledge and concepts of gravities, sizes, shapes, tools, and strengths in her playing. She made the giant bubble when she applied them together and well at that moment. Flat Hannah did not experience this from any traditional museums before.
The "AWEsome Electricity" Neighborhood had a bright and colorful display window which grabbed Flat Hannahˇs attention. It had over 20 different kind of electric circuits being arranged in it. In that room, young kids were busy by flipping "on" and "off" switches to experiment with the lights and colors. Flat Hannah, however, took a closer look at the colorful wires and transformers which connected into circuits. She learned and appreciated the basic concepts and processes of electricity. She found it was fun to learn about them at such an electronic house instead of just studying from textbooks.
Among the rest of several neighborhoods, the "Build It" Neighborhood was a very impressive one to Flat Hannah. When she walked to the gate at a room called "Construction House", Ben, another staff of the museum, came to her and handed her a pair of protection glasses. He asked Flat Hannah to wear them before entering the room. After going into the house, Flat Hannah found the name "Construction House" was very fit for the place since it was looked just like a workshop. There were real wood and real materials, such as nails and screws, which were stored in plastic bins, boxes and bags. There were colorful yet real tools like hammers, screw drivers, and saws. Besides the ones were in use, they were hung orderly onto the walls into those tool boards which with thousand of wholes on them. In addition, several vices were fixed onto the top edge of the working tables. Flat Hannah saw old and young children working on their word structures with great attention and seriousness. Adults relate to these children were also wearing serious facial expression, hovering over or ducking down in helping their kids.The atmosphere of the room was so serious and kind of quite. Yet, it made Flat Hannah to feel so family and dear. While she did not have as much time as she would like to spend in the Construction House, she enjoyed visiting the house very much and took a few good photos there.
When Flat Hannah leaving the museum several hours after she arriving there in the morning, she did not feel time went by fast. Instead, she realized and appreciated that the DuPage Childrenˇs Museum is not a typical traditional museum, It is, however, a fun and educational childrenˇs learning center which fits both young and older children to explore, experiment and experience the basic science, math, art, and technology concepts and processes via though their hands-on play and practices. Flat Hannah also realized and appreciated why she was recommended to visit the DuPage Childrenˇs Museum. She glad she made it!
(Author's note: due to a privacy reason,
the photo with the giant bubble is not to be posted here.)
