Over spring break, my family had the opportunity for a quick day trip to Columbus, where I was excited to share my love of COSI with my kids for the first time. I have so many fond memories of COSI as a kid, mostly from the fun Girl Scout Camp-Ins that I attended with my troop. My kids love science and hands-on exploration, so it seemed like a great fit for a fun family outing.
COSI stands for Center of Science and Industry, and the museum is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. In 1999, COSI moved from the building I loved as a kid into its current location, a 320,000-square-foot building. COSI is consistently listed as one of the top science museums in the country, offering interactive exploration opporunities for kids and adults on a wide variety of subjects.
We all had different “favorites” from our visit. The Progress exhibit was a trip back in time, showing two town streets featuring technology from 1898 and 1962–they liked trying out the telegraph machine, and recognized “ancient” 1962 technology like a typewriter, rotary phone, and console TV. (I was thankful we’re not so far gone that they could still tell what those are!)
The Gadgets exhibit tells all about how machines and structures work. They helped move the pistons in a life-sized engine, watched a robot dance, and enjoyed a bunch of other cool hands-on building activities. The Life exhibit helped them see different ways their bodies work–the boys were both intrigued and slightly horrified by the life-sized models depicting a baby being born–we’d talked about what happens, but when it was right there at eye level, it took a little processing! 🙂 (I think it’s good for them to know though…the exhibit is tastefully done and shows a natural part of life!).
The Ocean exhibit features some pretty cool submarine displays, where kids can pretend they’re navigating underwater and can even control a remote-control sub. They can sit in a real mini-submarine in water too. Then there’s the awesome statue of Poseidon, with water canons that the kids can control and aim. This area is a chance for kids to get wet and explore how water works! Another area where kids can explore water and much more is the Little Kidspace, a special area on the third floor specially reserved for preschoolers. Older kids can play in a separate area, but only the youngest explorers get to build, create, and imagine in this area!
The kids got a kick out of the Big Science Park outside, which featured a giant lever that helps kids lift a car. Among other things, it also had the whisper dishes from the old COSI, which allows you to hear a friend whisper from about 100 feet away. The Space exhibit showed what life is like in the space station, and it was recently announced that the planetarium will be back in service soon, after being closed for years due to budget constraints.
Other cool exhibits include the working PBS TV station (that’s where the picture of the kids getting chased by a shark came from!), and the Columbus Historical Society exhibit on the History of COSI–visitors from back in the day will love the re-constructed old mine elevator…my kids weren’t quite as enthusiastic as their nostalgic mother, but they came along for the ride!
We also had the opportunity to enjoy a 3-D movie in the Big Screen Theater–a really interesting movie about penguins. We opted to skip the Sherlock exhibit and the Adventure exhibit (both add-on costs), but I’ve heard that both are good if those are things that interest you.
In all, I’d recommend COSI for a fun day-trip from the Northeast Ohio area. You could make it an overnight trip to check out all the other things Columbus has to offer, but we were able to leave around 8 am; spend about 4.5 hours at COSI, then stop at the LEGO Store and American Girl store at Easton before grabbing dinner and heading home. It was a full day, but the cost of a hotel room for 6 people made it a little steep for an overnight stay for us.
Who else has fond memories of COSI as a kid? Would you like to take your family? I’m excited to offer a four-pack of admission passes, which also includes four tickets to the Big Screen Theater movie of your choice! Enter the giveaway below–good luck!
Disclaimer: COSI provided passes for my family to facilitate this review, and has generously offered passes for this giveaway, but as always, the opinions expressed are honest and my own!
