Free Day at Science World

After picking up the kids from school, on a regular Thursday afternoon, I turned on the radio and we were singing along to our favorite pop song. Our fun was interrupted as the station took its regular break for the not so fun infomercials. For a change, the infomercial was very interesting and just what we wanted to hear. They announced that this
weekend only, there was going to be free admission to the Science World! Aaliyah and I caught that and were super excited. What a cool way to fill our Sunday with. I shared the news with friends and family and couldn't wait for Sunday.

I wasn't really counting on Nasir joining us as I knew it would be time that he could spend studying instead. So, it was just us three. To make it a little fun for the kids and convenient for me, I decided to take the transit. Now that we are living walking distance from public transit, I had to take advantage. The kids just love going on the Canada Line and the Sky Train. Although, for me, eventhough it was the second time on my own, yet, I did have to stop and ask for directions. Better to ask than to board the wrong train and regret later. Anyhow, it was raining and Nasir did not want us to walk to the Canada Line station. So he dropped us off. I remember taking a two-zone ticket the last time I took the sky train with Aaliyah. That was a Monday. A kind lady informed me that we take a one zone ticket because it was the weekend. I did just that. The train was on time as usual and we took it all the way to waterfront station. From there we switched to the Expo line sky train and that took us straight to Science World.

The long line up outside the Science World almost made me change my mind and re-board the train. It did not seem to bother the kids. They were just happy that they were finally at Science World. I did expect a lot of people, as it was a free event however it was silly of me to not factor in this long line-up. The wait was almost an hour and a half. It was wet but not chilly so it was ok Vancouver weather. The kids were kept busy with science demos in the middle of the line-ups. Pretty neat idea of taking the Science outside of the actual Science World. It didn't take too long for Ayaan to volunteer as one of the volunteers. He helped propel a fake chicken with the help of a long bungee cord. Aaliyah was next to volunteer. She helped hold the cords. She also went on a different demo in which she stood on a spinner, arms wide open and kept spinning. Laws of Physics into play here. Do not remember the exact details.

Once we were inside, took the kids straight to the washroom then we stopped at the snack shop for some hot chocolate, and nachos and cheese. After that we went onto the different galleries. Ayaan went straight to the Eureka gallery. He seemed to remeber where everything was at and pretty much went and tried the same things that her tried last year. Like this ball propelling activity. Aaliyah and I thought that we lost him in the crowd. But here he was, hogging all the balls.

 We spent a lot of time at Kids Place. Ayaan went on his space machine and Aaliyah played with flying balls. She always stayed close and like a good Sister, helped her little Brother with the activities.

Then we moved onto the featured exhibition gallery-Amped. Aaliyah took on the Odyssey challenge of protecting a cookie from a the weight of a heavy brick using a styrofoam cup, a tissue paper and a couple straws. Odyssey of the Mind, is a program of the Creative Problem Solving Society of BC. Its main goal is to foster critical thinking in students. While Aaliyah was busy protecting her cookie, Ayaan was on a mission of his own. He had to pick a pencil using a clawed machine. Its amazing that he knew what he was supposed to be doing and was successful in manuevering the machine to get to the pencil.

We watched the live Science Show also. I thought I lost Ayaan again only to find him sitting instead of standing close to us. He was probably not getting a good view. So he found himself a nice and comfy spot, front and center. 

While we were able to go to most of the galleries and stations there were a few like the new Ken Spencer Science Park that we kept for next time. We had a long interesting train ride home and lots of good memories.