Exploration Place Wichita, Kansas

Exploration Place calls itself a “science and discovery center,” and has various exhibits for families to discover together. It’s one of my favorite places to take my family to in Wichita, KS.

One of the best things about it is that in one trip you can visit old favorites and experience something new with both permanent and traveling exhibits. Kids love routine so it’s great for them to be able to explore the same exhibit over and over again.

My 7 year old daughter’s favorite permanent exhibit is the castle in the “Kids Explore” area. Kids and parents alike can travel through the various rooms in the castle. There’s a kitchen where my daughter can “prepare” meals, a throne for Dad to pose for the camera, and even a costume room where kids (and adults!) can dress up as a king or queen, a jester, or even a magician!

Some of the other permanent exhibits include a room devoted to aviation and the Kansas room complete with a towering tornado, a focus on local wildlife, and a water puzzle where you use plastic pieces to block the flow of water in some places so you can control the flow in others. The goal is to get a ping pong ball to flow from one end of the table to the other.

The traveling exhibits are great too! We recently went to an exhibit dedicated to Mr. Potato Head! There were tons of potato head pieces to make your own creation and various games to play.

Before that we went to the “Whales Tohora” exhibit and learned about various whales, watched a film showing how far a sperm whale can dive, and crawled through a life sized model of a whale’s heart. Needless to say, my kid had a little bit easier time crawling through it than I did!

We love Exploration Place, it’s so fun it doesn’t feel like learning.

Visit: http://www.exploration.org/