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High Visitation
Admission Discounts
H1N1 Prevention
Join Those Who Support WonderLab
Brabson Educational and Library Foundation
The Raymond Foundation
Experience the wonder and excitement of science!
WonderLab's two floors of hands-on exhibits offer people of all ages and
backgrounds the opportunity to explore, create, design, observe, discover.
. . and have fun!
Nature Packs | Art Exhibitions | Exhibit Galleries
SCIENCE EXHIBITS
Now available in the first floor exhibit gallery!
Water Works “Build-A-Channel”
Installed this past summer, the Water Works exhibit has a new feature: build-a-channel. Construct a variety of dams and channels on a sloping ramp using Duplo blocks to explore characteristics of water, such as how it fills to the shape of its container, how it slips through the tiniest crack, and how the surface of a body of water is always level, regardless of the shape of its container. Water Works is sponsored by the Old National Bank Foundation.
Mechanical Crane
Use teamwork and problem-solving skills to stack a tower of blocks, and then use those same skills to tip your tower over! This new addition to WonderLab’s permanent collection features three control stations that use a system of belts and pulleys to move objects through space. The challenge is to communicate and work together with visitors sitting at the two other control stations to accomplish your task. The Mechanical Crane will rotate being on display in this area of the first floor gallery with the popular Hot Air Balloon.
NATURE PACKS
The museum's beautiful Lester P. Bushnell WonderGarden offers science experiences that change with each new season. Museum visitors may check out nature packs free of charge at the welcome desk to use for exploring nature in the garden. The nature packs contain interactive activity sheets, guides, and science equipment. The packs' activities range in complexity, with some of the contents suitable for preschool-age children and some of the contents better suited for older children. Even teens and adults will enjoy and learn something new from this hands-on approach to studying nature! Sponsor: Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe Co., Inc.
ART EXHIBITIONS
Unconventional Quilts
March 2 - April 30
Quilts by Daren Redman and Michele Heather Pollock on display throughout the galleries. The quilts incorporate unusual materials. Some are created with the arashi-shibori dye method.
The exhibit galleries have a wide range of hands-on experiences with for all ages, including a special enclosed area on the first floor with age-appropriate science adventures for toddlers and preschool-age children. The book nook features thematically-focused books. The current book nook theme is winter.
Upon entering the building, visitors will encounter the Cosmic Dance, composed of five translucent floor panels which briefly light up as cosmic ray particles hit them from outer space.
For many visitors, the highlight of their visit is the Grapevine Climber, a dramatic two-story maze with whimsical leaf-like pads which provide a change of perspective as one goes to higher levels.
The Bubble-Airium on the first floor is another favorite destination in the museum. It provides unexpected ways of using bubbles to explore concepts of geometry and science concepts.
WonderLab's second floor is home to live insects, reptiles, amphibians, fish, coral and more! A special exhibit, simulating a tree trunk, allows visitors to see inside a working bee hive! The nearby fossil dig has real Indiana fossils waiting to be discovered among the rocky beds.
Also on the second floor is a rotating collection of exhibits related to health and the human body. Among these is a an exhibit where visitors strive to improve their vertical leaping ability.
No science museum located in a music-loving town like Bloomington would be complete without a collection of exhibits that examines the science of sound. Check it out on the second floor!
What could be more fascinating than exploring how things work in the world around you? Investigate light, color, electricity, magnetism, gravity, kinetic energy and more by playing with hands-on exhibits throughout the museum.
| © 2010 WonderLab Museum |  |
Get excited about electricity and magnetism!
Enter a liquid laboratory of rainbow colors and surprising shapes. You'll love this "pop science"! Create giant flowing bubbles, put your hand through a bubble wall and blow bubbles of many shapes and sizes as you investigate math and science concepts such as geometry, surface tension, density, light and color.
Discover cosmic rays, which continually rain down on us from outer space.
Get a bug's-eye view of the world as you wind your way through a dramatic two-story climbing maze of leaf-shaped pads.
A world of age-appropriate adventures awaits the youngest scientists, from the bubbling waters of the stream table to the surprises inside the crawl caves. This special area is reserved for toddlers, preschool-age children, kindergarteners and their caregivers.
Dig into fossil evidence of southern Indiana's ancient, watery environment. Observe and interact with a changing selection of live microorganisms, insects, reptiles, amphibians and spiders.