OK, full disclosure: I like words. Math? Not so much. But as the mother of an 8-year-old daughter, I was more than excited to explore with her the Pacific Science Center’s new exhibit, Math Moves!
Although it’s geared toward 9- to 13-year-olds, Ella is an insatiable counter and I knew she would enjoy herself. Case in point: On our walk to the center, she counted the number of lines in the crosswalk (“I was counting by 2s, Mama. There were 18.”), the number of concrete balls in front of KeyArena and even two sets of stairs. I’m all for fostering girls’ interest in math.
Once we arrived at the center, we dove right in. Math Moves! consists of more than a dozen separate hands-on exhibits. Most of them Ella enjoyed, but a few were frustrating, either because of a lack of instructions or, in one case, because the task required was simply too physically difficult.
In Shapes in Circles, we were instructed to shut our eyes and crank a small disk that was inside a larger one. The goal was to feel the shape being made. It was difficult for me to physically manipulate the handle. Ella ended up using both of her hands on the entire disk. We agreed we couldn’t feel any differences between the three sets of disks.
In Drawing with Gears (imagine a spirograph, the drawing toy that creates a multitude of spirals, shapes and swoops), there were no instructions about how to replace the gears to form new patterns. Luckily, a worker happened to stop by to change the ink pens and was able to demonstrate for us. It was an immensely popular exhibit, though, and for good reason. It was just plain fun watching what the random spirals and swoops formed. It was hard for both of us to walk away but alas, hopeful little faces were staring us down.
Other exhibits were a bona fide hit. Comparing Forms presented three chairs of various sizes (“This is like ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ — small, medium and large,” Ella delightedly declared) as well as scaled-down models. Children were instructed to compare the full-size chairs with their miniature replicas and then use the tools on hand, or even their own bodies, to make estimates about how much smaller the models were (or how much bigger the chairs were). Once I redirected my cheerful daughter from socializing with a group of other girls, she really got into using the measuring tape. And the girls went a step further, experimenting with perspective by moving the big chair closer to and farther from the mirror.
Shadow Fractions, really three separate exhibits, was another hit. One feature included figures of wolves, bunnies and houses whose shadows were cast onto the facing small wall. Children were asked to manipulate the figures to compare size connections. Another feature was a stand-up experiment that Ella loved. A light cast her shadow and those of short wooden figures called shadow men onto the facing wall. Ella discovered that when she placed one of them on line 5, “I had to stand all the way at the front to be the same size as shadow man.”
Scaling Shapes consisted of blocks that we were instructed to practice doubling, in height, length and width. I posed a series of questions to Ella and watched her do the mental math. How do you make it twice as tall? How many blocks will it take to double its width?
Another favorite of Ella’s was Motion Math. To a beat, she was videotaped as she walked along a shape on the floor, carefully planning her steps. The second time around, the beats were slowed in half. Then the two videos were merged to see if she had kept in time with herself. She would have done the three shapes several times if there hadn’t been another little girl waiting.
Movie Ratios was just plain fun for both of us. We were presented with a handful of plastic farm animals, dinosaurs and some magnets and invited to make, essentially, a stop-motion movie. When complete, we could speed it up or slow it down. A note of caution: Watch out for little hands. Halfway through our first attempt, a small child came up and hit the play button, so we had to start over. Considering we had already captured 16 of our 32 frames, this was not a welcome interruption.
In the end, I’m not sure how the exhibits we explored relate to everyday life. I was left wondering what our conclusions meant. But we both enjoyed ourselves and I can’t help but think my little counter walked away with more confidence. And I was proud of myself for getting some math in.
Be sure to check out the rest of the Pacific Science Center as well. Don’t miss the Tropical Butterfly House, touch tank and animatronic dinosaurs. There’s something for every interest level.
You can count on it.
Math Moves!
www.pacificsciencecenter.org
The center is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For the exhibits only, tickets are $19.75 (adults, 16-64), $17.75 (seniors 65 and older), $14.75 (youth, 6-15) and $11.75 (child, 3-5).
Math Moves! runs through May 1 and is recommended for ages 9-13. It is presented in English and Spanish, and has a seating area with supplementary books, toys and games related to math.
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