Welcome to virtual/explanatory blog of 

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Museum, 

where children discover the fun of learning!

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center at Balboa Park is a great way to explore and enjoy science. All the exhibitions and activities in the museum address visitors of all ages. The aim of the museum is to focus on public understanding and spreading the enjoyment of science and technology. And I can say that they are on the right spot!

When you first enter the museum you see a machine with four sensor bars where pumping light strikes sequenced with participants’ heartbeat. “It is designed to inspire experimentation as a team and to visually celebrate each individual as a necessary and valued part of a whole”.

Get ready for hands-on activities, because this one is only one of many! 

Face Collage station raises questions about symmetry, how right and left side of our face resembles/differs, and gives information on golden ratio.

Turning gears station get visitors to observe in what conditions do gears work.

Explore kinetic friction in action! Visitors can observe how friction and gravity force affects motion depending on the change of material and mass of your slider. 

You can explore which ramp is slowest/fastest, and how force of kinetic friction changes accordingly with different weighted blocks and materials.

Liquid isn't the only stuff that flows. Explore it with a hands-on activity.

The museum is filled with twelve exhibit galleries and more than 100 interactive activities. You forget about time when engaging in live experiments, entertaining activities, and hands-on workshops. The twelve interactive exhibitions they have provide visitors self-guided discovery learning and authentic activities.

These interactive stations include: Block Busters, Cellular Journey, Gallery of Illusion and Perceptions, Kid City, Look! Touch! Listen!, Nano, Origins in Space, Power Play, San Diego’s Water, So Watt!, Makerspace and Tinkering Studio. Getting engaged with these interactive exhibits let visitors to have a glance into science, where they can learn pretty amazing and exhilarating information in various areas such as, mathematics, physics, biology, technology, and so on!

Let’s look how some of them look like!

Makerspace

Dream it! Draw it! Do it!

Every visitor is welcomed to explore various materials they have, and carry out their innovative ideas into life.

Cellular Journey

This exhibition is a one large area that is only dedicated to explore human cell biology, and impact of stem cells on medical research and medicine. Series of interactive activities, virtual of a human cell, a realistic lab where you can hear the latest news on medical research will take you on a tour into the world of biology.  

Tinkering Studio

In The Tinkerers’ Club visitors can explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics with art and design. “The Tinkering Studio is a creative place to explore ideas, investigate phenomena, and collaborate with others”. Range of tools and materials invite visitors of all ages to make something unique, and build their own creation.

Block Busters

It’s a huge Lego building area where you can use your imagination to build structures with wooden planks. I saw many children building towers, and spiral shaped designs, while at the same time other children demolishing the already built towers. It’s an area where it’s welcomed to build or demolish! Visitors can use their imaginations to build their dream constructions, and have fun at the same time.

San Diego’s Water

In this exhibit visitors can view the sources of San Diego’s water and observe the methods of delivering and processing this vital resource through virtual stations. The activities in the exhibition raise questions on effective irrigation, recycled water, water conversation/preservation and so on. There is a big poster answering all this intriguing questions as all other sections do, however it becomes caretakers’ and parents’ duty to engage children with “hows” and “whys”. 

It is very likely to see a child pushing all the buttons and activating the stations and not realizing the reasons of the things going on.

So Watt!

This exhibition is aimed to explore different ways to generate electricity, learn how solar panels work and discover other common ways electricity is produced.

In this video you can see the solar panel activity. By adjusting a small panel with a light source, you can create enough electricity to power a small fan, which makes the ball rise up.

What can be done to make children to understand what is going on in an activity? 

At this point asking intriguing questions while children are exploring hands-on activities can make them to think and try to understand. Even a simple question like "What is going on in this activity?" will lead children to notice some essential elements and give them an entry point to understanding "hows" and "whys". Also, there were some volunteers and staff throughout to explain the content of the activities, which I found really helpful. 

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Museum is an informal setting where there are no rules, and no boundaries. Visitors from all ages can learn a new information just by exploring the hands-on activities and carry out their innovate ideas by attending tinkering sessions. The relaxed atmosphere of the museum distinguishes it from a formal setting and sets children in a comfortable environment.

Simulations of practices lead visitors to transfer their knowledge into real-life experiences, through actively participating and collaborating sometimes with their peers and sometimes with their parents. Observing real life situations provides contexts to create knowledge in action, which can help children to build basis knowledge maps for their future learning. This enculturation experience is a great way to comprehend some topics in meaningful and purposeful way by having fun at the same time, since motivation of learners of all ages enhance when they can identify the usefulness of the content (Boaler, 2002).

However, just as an individual cannot be though separate from his/her environment, learning activity also cannot be though separate from its cognitive and social elements. Therefore, one should not only interact with activities regardlessly, but also should raise some intentional questions and conscious thoughts towards understanding how something works, which brings parents and caretakers into action and to work collaboratively with their children.

A process where the knowledge is formed through creative ways is always an appreciated way in an educational context. As it is said in Meyer and Turner (2006)’s article, “The more learning is rewarding and enjoyable and the less it is boring or anxiety producing, the more students will seek it for its own sake”.

May the fun of learning be with you!

References:

Boaler, J. (2002). Experiencing School Mathematics: Traditional and Reform Approaches to Teaching and Their Impact on Student Learning. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Meyer, D., & Turner, J. (2006). Re-conceptualizing emotion and motivation to learn in classroom contexts. Educational Psychology Review, 18, 377-390.

"Reuben H. Fleet Science Center - San Diego, California." Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. Retrieved from http://www.rhfleet.org