A few days ago, I blogged about visiting SportsWorks at the Carnegie Science Center. A couple weeks ago, I brought my son and his friend to see an extended tour of the submarine USS Requin.

This post is mostly about visiting the Exploration Station, part of the fourth floor installation that features more of the hands-on, kid-friendly exhibits that make the Carnegie Science Center such a wonderful place.

My daughter and I brought along three younger friends and their mom. Here our friends are, learning about circuits.

Making a stop-action movie.

Trying to build a quakc-proof building. (Here the budding engineers are learning that buildings on the other quake table, the one that has the structure turned 45 degrees on the z axis, are far more stable than this one.)

There are a lot of cool things to do on this floor, but the most memorable has to be the huge water table. The Exploration Station is for kids 6 and under. My daughter, who is now 10, was sad when she outgrew the room, so we were glad the rules let older kids accompany younger party members.

This has to be the most fun anatomy lesson possible. Of course the girls ripped the organs off of each other when they finished.

Live long and prosper, now that your Vulcan heart is properly placed where the human liver should be.

While I loved the crazy energy throughout the rest of the building, the girls spent some peaceful time tending to a flower garden, gathering up their produce, and pretending to sell it to me.

Here they are, making vegetable soup.With some ping-pong balls, too.

What’s that? The girls notice something…

This owl was moving by itself!

Well, maybe it had a little help…

Not sure what they were looking at…