Technopolis, Belgium

Student Led Conferences at school lasted two days. My children had their conferences Wednesday leaving Thursday open for fun! We were going to head out for the zoo, but with 80% chance of rain, we changed our minds and ended up inside at Technopolis in Mechelen, Belgium. Memories of the Children's Museum in Indy came flashing back as we stopped to enjoy the exhibits.

My thoughts were back home as we walked through the Grossology section based on the book by Sylvia Branzei, a favorite among my fourth graders! I took many pictures to show them all the exhibits.

This was a huge game of Operation with rubber guts and bones to excavate.
Here was a station equipped with smelling devices. The kids would stick their hands under the table, squeeze the bottle to release a scent that comes from the body, and identify the smell by pushing a button on their left side. The bacteria would light up as green if the child guessed correctly. The scent choices were either from the mouth, feet, armpits, or bottom. The hilarious part was that the kids had been skipping from one exhibit to the other, not even reading signs. So I just told one of them to come smell this and squirted the scent as they took a huge whiff, only to surprise them with how nasty the smell was. You can tell by the look on R's face how disgustingly real those scents are!
Looking into these nostrils, the children shoot germs into the nose, some being knocked down by the nose hairs. Others are shot right into the nasal cavity. After a few balls make it up, the man says, "AAAAAhhhhh choooo!" as all the germs come flying back. This definitely paints a picture of how our body works!
J is sliding down the digestive system. She started in the mouth over to the right (you can make out the lips) and ended up in the stomach.
After venturing out of the Grossology section, we made it to the much advertised bed of nails. Trying to get the picture, I missed where the nails came up to J through the holes, but you get the idea. She said it didn't really hurt, but just a little on her elbow bone.A museum for kids isn't complete without a water area where the kids can play! J is shooting a ball with water, pushing it to the coils.
R explores building a bridge with wooden blocks.

Lunch was yummy...consisting of J's whole head and R's eyeballs.

Can you catch a cloud? We couldn't!
Not daring to look down, I rode this bike on a 5 meter high tightrope. The kids weren't quite tall enough.
R flew a plane. My brother is a pilot and we thought it would be funny to see if a real pilot could master this simulation.

The kids also raced against various animals, explored with bubbles, and enjoyed many other activities. They had a great day and reported that their favorites were the water and Grossology areas.

Eurpean sidenote: Many high school kids were visiting this day on a field trip probably for science class. Anyway, they were from the public schools and it was surprising to me to see some of them outside taking a smoke break. Culture Shock! Kids back home aren't allowed until they're 18 - basically out of school. So you would never see teens smoking at school functions! Here the law is that vendors aren't to sell cigarettes to anyone under 16, however, there is not an actual age limit for smoking. I have been overwhelmed at how many Europeans smoke. Do they not have the same awareness we do at how unhealthy smoking really is? I'm not sure.