Wordtravels

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Don Harrington Discovery Center

Focussing on physical, earth and life sciences the Don Harrington Discovery Center is set in a 51-acre park with a lake and picnic area. The centre boasts more than 100 hands-on activities and a recently renovated Space Theater. There is also an aquarium on site featuring both saltwater and freshwater tanks as well as a botanical garden. Most popular sights here are a Foucault Pendulum, rotating independently of the earth's gravitational pull, a helium technology exhibit and a weather-watch section with a tornado machine. The center was recently renovated an now includes several permanent exhibitions - Hunters of the Sky, focused on birds of prey, Amazing Bodies, all about the wonders of life and living bodies, Planetary Landscapes, an interactive exhibit that makes planetary weather systems and galactic motion more understandable, and Bounce, an examination into the physics and maths behind round shapes. A focus of all the exhibitions and the center as a whole is hands-on learning, allowing students and children to touch displays and interact with them in ways that are valuable to the learning process. The center runs summer camps as well as so-called Parents' Night Out on Friday nights, when parents can leave kids to learnand play at the center for a few hours.

Address: 1200 Streit Drive

Website: www.dhdc.org

Telephone: (806) 355 9547

Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday 9.30am to 4.30pm; Sunday 12pm to 4.30pm; Closed on Mondays

Admission: $10 (adults); $7 (children aged 3-12); $7 (seniors aged 60+); free for children under 2 and members; group rates also available