The Bootheel Youth Museum located at 700 North Douglas, Malden, Missouri,
offers exciting, inventive and educational fun for children of all ages. The
museum held its grand opening in March 1996. The planning for this
museum took seven years, and is truly a unique facility.
The 11,000 square foot, hands-on museum gives children of all ages a chance to interact
with exhibits that: stimulate curiosity; provide social interaction;
motivate learning; and create feelings of success. The primary focus of the
museum is to provide the youth of Southeast Missouri
with learning opportunities in fields such as:
The math exhibit challenges kids to use their brain to figure
out ways to make the displays work. For instance, they have to figure out how many
different size blocks must be put on either side of a scale to make it balance
perfectly. With the pieces being many different shapes and sizes, this make the
kids stop and use their brain power in order to get this display to work.
There are many science exhibits for the kids to
play with, such as:
- Anti-Gravity Mirror: Ever wonder what you would
look like in space? Here is your chance! This mirror provides all that you will
need to look and feel weightless.
- Bernoulli Ball: Watch a ball
hover in mid air. Is it magic or science?
- Bending Light: Did you know light can bend? Use differently shaped prisms
to experiment.
- Illusion Box: Anything you put inside the illusion box seems to magically
float above it.
- Pneumatic Tubes: These are just like the ones used at the bank, send
the carrier from one tube to the other.
- Laser Show: You control the dial that sets the color, speed, and motion of
this laser light filled room.
- Whisper Dish: Two matching parabolic dishes are set at opposite ends of the
building. If two people each stand in front of one and whisper, you can hear each
other clearly.
- Many other science displays for hours of fun.
The technology room is a popular room with the kids. They have a
network of computers
set up, each running a variety of programs for the kids to learn and play on. Other
displays include:
- Decibel Tree: Watch the tree light up as it responds to sound. Learn
about the transfer of energy.
- Seeing Double: Find a partner, each of you stand on one side of the
mirror, adjust the lights and watch your image transform into your partner's.
- Lego Shake Table: Test your earthquake skills. Build a Lego building
and test it in an earthquake.
- P.E.A.R.L.: Physics, Engineering, And Robotics Lab. Build and drive
Lego robots or learn about simple machines with Lego's.
- Shadow Room: Freeze your shadow on the wall. Change positions and do
it again.
- Propeller in a Vacuum: Learn about lift and thrust as you watch the
starting and stopping of a propeller in the absence of air.
Human relations displays include:
- Health Center: See a skeleton, be a doctor, or be a patient. It is all
possible in the doctors office.
- Miniature Restaurant: Want to become a chef? Here is your chance to practice.
Use the toy food to make cheeseburgers, hamburgers, or many other items from the
menu.
- The Farm Store: Pump water the way your great-grand parents did.
- Kids Kountry Market: Go shopping in a pretend store with real working
cash registers.
The Outer Space section of the museum is the most popular with visitors. With
fun things to do such as:
There are so many things to do at the museum, your kids will not know which fun
thing they want to do next. They have live animal displays such as Ivanna the Iguana,
and other wildlife found in Southeastern Missouri area.
There is a Pre Kindergarten area for those small tots to play in while the bigger
kids enjoy the museum, and a children's theater where the museum puts on shows for
the small kids. These Pre Kindergarten attractions are a big plus for families with kids of
all different ages.
My nephew had his 3rd birthday party at the museum. They provide a big room with
table and chairs, so you can have cake and ice cream. You also get to have up to
15 kids invited at no extra cost, and adults are free. The cost was $60.00 which
considering everything was free it was worth it.
They are open Tuesday thru Saturday 10am - 4pm, and Sunday 1pm - 4pm, Monday is by appointment only.
Admission into the museum is reasonably priced. Adults and children over 12 are
$5.00 each, Children under 12 are $3.00.
They even have a mobile museum that they take to special events, schools,
fairs,
and educational conventions.
If you are ever near Malden, Missouri, make sure you take your kids and spend
an afternoon at this one of a kind kids museum, your kids will love it. And they
will sleep well that night, since they tire themselves out playing at the Bootheel
Youth Museum.
Source: Many visits to the museum with friends and family
and
Bootheel Youth Museum. 14 Aug 2004 <http://www.bootheelyouthmuseum.org/>.