While staying in Virginia, we took in many historical sites. However, that’s not all Virgina has to offer. The Science Museum of Virginia was a pleasant surprise! Whether you’re into STEM, Space, or even music, the Science Museum of Virginia has a lot to offer.
Even better, it honors ASTC reciprocal benefits, so if your child has done their Young Eagles Flight, your family can get in free!
Exploring Space at the Science Museum of Virginia
One of the exhibits we were most looking forward to seeing while visiting the Science Museum of Virginia was their temporary exhibit on space exploration and Mars. This exhibit was one of the more immersive and hands-on of all the space museums we’ve seen. One of their activities included an experiment with a bell and a fan driving a windmill in a vacuum chamber.
Students could activate the bell or fan while the chamber was at regular pressure, then activate a pump to evacuate the air and both listen to the sound change and watch as the windmill slows down and stops. The exhibit was well-signed and informative, not just unstructured STEM-adjacent play like many of these exhibits can become.
Perhaps our favorite was an anti-gravity simulation. It wasn’t as intense as we were expecting, but there was a reproduction of the ISS we got to walk through and it spun slowly around us, giving us a good idea of the sensation.
The whole exhibition was like this: extremely well-organized and signed. Unfortunately, it was a temporary exhibit and we were there on the tail end of its tenure.
Music, Muscles, and More
Probably our favorite area of the Science Museum of Virginia was their Boost exhibit. This permanent exhibit has many hands-on experiences, from practical leverage demonstrations, generating power with human-sized hampster wheels, to Mom’s favorite: a programable percussion music machine! They had so many experiences in this exhibit that a family could easily spend the whole trip here.
Other Experiences
In addition to the Boost Exhibit, the Science Museum of Virginia has a few other permanent exhibits to check out including their Speed exhibit where kids (or adults) could race against simulated cougars, try to throw the fastest pitch, or watch the strings vibrate on a giant string bass!
If you’ve ever scratched your head trying to figure out General Relativity, the Speed exhibit has a great video series that not only explains what General Relativity is but has great animations that help to make it make sense.
After the speed exhibit, one can explore The Forge, an in-house maker space that hosts build challenges for visitors, or one can explore the art or other “mini-exhibits” peppered throughout the campus.
Overall, the only complaint we can make about the Science Museum of Virginia is it’s a bit hard to navigate. Housed in the former Broad Street Station, a major rail hub in the area, the museum does its best to tuck things into the nooks and crannies. If you’re doing a time-sensitive event, make sure you give yourselves plenty of time to find the location. Either way, the Science Museum of Virginia is worth the visit if you find yourself in the area!