Family Travel,  Midwest,  Ohio

How to Visit the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery for FREE

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Do you have a membership to your local science center, zoo, aquarium or botanical garden? If so, you probably have access to reciprocal memberships, and you’re missing out if you’re not taking advantage of them.

We have a membership to the Kentucky Science Center and have been members there for years. Over the years our $97 yearly membership (sometimes $77 if we renew during a special) has saved us 1,000s of dollars in entrance fees to other museums.

We decided to take a road trip to Ohio and see if we could visit 7 science centers in 4 days. On Thursday afternoon, after working a half-day, we met Rob at his work and drove to our first stop – The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, Ohio.

The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery started in 1893 as the Dayton Museum of Natural History. It has changed over time and operated under different names, finally transitioning into a museum that’s part natural history museum and part children’s museum. In 1999, the museum was renamed The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, in honor of Oscar Boonshoft who was a dedicated supporter of the museum.

This was actually our second time to visit this museum. The first time we visited was in 2014, when the kids were only 5, 4, and 3, so they didn’t remember much about it. We decided to allot an hour and a half for our visit in order to allow us enough time to visit the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, which is also in Dayton.

When you walk into the museum you are immediately immersed in the first exhibit “Ice Age”. Here you will find skeletons of mammals from the Ice Age, such as a sabre tooth cat and an ice age elephant. The ticket booth is also located in this area. We quickly showed our Kentucky Science Center member ID card and driver’s license (reciprocal benefits generally don’t apply if you live within 90 miles of the museum) and we were on our way. Admission for our family would’ve cost us $75. Almost the cost of what we paid for our Kentucky Science Center membership. However, thanks to our reciprocal benefit, we got in for FREE.

The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery has a planetarium, but shows were not included with our reciprocal membership, and we were on a tight schedule, so we skipped this part. Next to the planetarium there are 3 exhibits about space. The Hall of the Universe, Sun Room, and Exoplanets. There is a display about each of the planets, and you can also dress up like a NASA scientist. Cullan and Micah enjoyed watching actual tv coverage of space missions.

Micah and Hadassah enjoyed the Apollo 5 mission control center. The console is the original one that was located in the Mission Operations Back-up Control Room in Houston, Texas. It was actually used during the Apollo 11 moon mission on July 20, 1969. It was also restored and used in the film First Man.

There’s an exhibit for children 4 and under which is called “Kids Place.” Hadassah enjoyed running around this area, playing at the light table, going down the slide, and playing at the water table. Micah, of course, was eager to help her younger sister explore as well. I like that their water table area is actually divided into two sections – one area for kids 4 and under, and another area for older kids.

One of the most popular exhibits is the Climbing Dome which is located in the center of the downstairs area. You can enter from the first floor and climb your way up the rope ladder to the second floor and higher. There are slides you can take to come back down. This area is usually crowded, so my kids have learned to keep an eye out in areas like this, and when the crowds go down they run over and take a turn.

Upstairs there’s a great area for kids to engage in role-play, and it’s definitely my favorite area. It’s an area that I would’ve loved as a kid. I also enjoy watching my kids learn by doing, and this is a great area for that. It’s set up like a small town where the kids can walk from one shop to another and engage in different forms of role-play.

There’s Carl’s Body Shop where you can pretend to be a mechanic and work on fixing and repairing cars. Micah enjoyed changing a tire on the truck.

Next to Carl’s Body Shop is the Discovery Zoo Vet Hospital. This area is rather large. You can pick up a lab coat and a checklist that reminds you to check your animal’s heart, teeth, ears and eyes, and to care for your animal by clipping their nails, washing their fur, and brushing their teeth. The checklist also says to check your animal’s x-rays for strong bones and healthy organs, and to determine what kind of food they eat, whether it’s meat, vegetables, fruit, or insects. In order to complete all of these activities, the Discovery Zoo Vet Hospital is divided into four different sections – exam station, diet station, care station, and x-ray station. Kids can pick up a stuffed animal and get to work.

The Boonshoft Shape Shop encourages experimenting with patterns using different shapes, colors, letters, and numbers. There’s a sorting station and an area to weigh and balance the objects. Or you can just pick up a basket and go shopping for shapes.

The Pizza Kitchen is so cute! There’s a counter where you can place an order, and there are microphones where the kids can pretend to call out the orders. There’s plenty of counter space for multiple children to prepare pizzas and lots of toppings to choose from. Then they can take their pizza over to the brick oven and cook it. There are aprons that they can put on as well. Kids can then cut the pizza with a pizza cutter and bring the pizza over to the tables where their customers are waiting. Hadassah and Micah spent a lot of time in this area.

In the Recycling Center there’s a large recycling truck that you can sit in and pretend to drive. When you’re not driving the truck, you can load the truck by sorting plastic, aluminum, steel, glass, paper, and cardboard into the correct slot. The most exciting part is getting to pull the lever on the back of the truck, and watch the recycled materials come out so you can do the process all over again.

There’s an area that teaches about landfills where you can sit and use trucks to cover the trash with dirt. A neat display on the wall shows what happens when you throw something in the trash versus putting it in a recycling bin.

Silas’s favorite area was the Tidal Pool. A staff member was there to explain what sea creatures were on display, and would let you touch sea stars. This was a great exhibit to learn about the ocean and the biology and habitats of the many sea creatures who live there. (I didn’t get any pictures of this area, but you can see it in our YouTube video linked at the end of the post).

We were also able to sit in on an Otter Talk. The museum has several North American river otters and while feeding them, an animal keeper gives a short talk about what they eat, where they live, and more.

When we were there we got to see an exhibit on Ancient Egypt. One neat Egyptian artifact that we saw were Kohl Tubes. Kohl was a form of eye makeup made from galena and was used to outline the eyes. The Egyptians originally used it to prevent eye ailments, but later started using it for looks and ceremonies.

There was a large turtle shell that the kids enjoyed climbing in and pretending to stick their head out of. There were also live turtles and Hadassah kept peering through the glass telling the turtle to “hurry!”

We had a great time at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery and the kids would love to go back sometime. I would suggest planning to spend longer than an hour and a half there. We split up and were able to cover the entire museum, but if you wanted to see it all for yourself I would suggest spending at least 2-4 hours. If you only have younger kids (5 and under), you could cover all of the areas for younger kids in 1 1/2-2 hours. If you have older kids (12+) you could cover the areas for them in 1 1/2-2 hours as well. Since our kids are right in the middle they are at an age where they enjoy all of it, so we could easily spend a half-day or full-day there exploring everything.

For another look at our trip to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, watch our YouTube video below.

To read more about our reciprocal membership with the Kentucky Science Center, read this post HERE. To learn more about what’s going on behind the scenes at Seek Discover Learn, be sure to sign up for our email newsletter. Sign up form is on the right-hand side of the page.

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