Minnesota Children’s Museum – St. Paul, Minnesota
The Minnesota Children’s Museum exhibits have been specifically designed to encourage learning through play. Seven themed galleries allow children from infants through ten years of age hands-on opportunities to learn, play and have lots of fun.
Museum Specifics:
• Location: 10 West 7th Street, St. Paul Minnesota (corner of seventh and Washaba streets – downtown St. Paul)
• Telephone: 651-225-6001
• Parking: Across from the Museum – Discounted parking available. Pick up a parking coupon at the Museum’s box office.
• Admission: Children and adults $7.95 – under 1 year free
• Special Group Rates: Wednesday through Friday year-round – 2 hour visit – $4.50 per child for minimum 20 children to 120 children maximum. One adult admitted free for every four children.
• Directions: From the West: 94 East –exit 5th st. – left on 7th st
From the East: 94 West – exit 6th st – right on Washaba, left on Cedar
From the North: 35E South – 10th st. exit – left on Cedar, right on 7th
From the South: 35E North – 11th st. exit-right on St. Peter, left on 7th
Among the many exhibits designed to pique children’s curiosity and encourage participation and learning are:
• Raceways Exhibit: Children explore velocity, gravity, friction and momentum by sending golf balls looping and rolling through several courses. Many of the exhibits activities are modeled after ceinturies-old experiments created by Newton and Galileo.
• World Works Gallery: Using tools for investigation and experimrntation, children use a giant crane to move foam I-beams and turn a gooey mess into art in the paper factory.
• Water Works Area: Children and adults have fun building boats and racing them down a water chute. Another enjoyable hands-on exhibit in the Water Works Area is moving ping-pong balls through a hydraulic maze and creating huge bubbles.
• Theatre of Light: In this exhibit children and adults can explore the properties of light by manipulating different colors of light and making light “bounce.”
These exhibits and others throughout the museum pose a wide variety of gentle, problem-solving situations, encouraging children to compare, observe and participate in cooperative play. Children are encouraged, for example, to find the best way to move packages on conveyor belts and inclined planes
Infants and toddlers six months to four years of age have an exhibit especially designed for them. Called “The Habitat Gallery.” This gallery allows creeping, crawling and cruising through a series of four tot-friendly environments created exclusively for them; the Habitat Pond, Prairie Forest and Bluff Caves are designed to support infant and toddler cognitive, physical and social development while visible to caregivers.
The fourth Sunday of every month is “World Works Sunday” at the Museum, allowing children to explore the way the world works through special activities. All-in-all, a day at the Children’s Museum is a day well spent for you and your children.
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