Parents & Caregivers

The Flight Fantasy exhibit provides opportunities for addressing these critical areas of growth and development:

Gross Motor Development

• Take a spin on the hamster wheel! Practice muscle development and coordination as you run inside the wheel.

Cooperative Play

• Learning to walk is a milestone of early motor development. Children can pretend they are balancing high in the sky as they walk across the balance beam. Balancing allows your child to improve their kinesthetic coordination and master the skills necessary for walking or running.

Exploring Cause and Effect

• By turning the various cranks, handles, pedals, and wheels in the Flying Machine zone, kids can intuitively explore the idea of cause and effect, and make the connection between their actions and the effects they produce in the exhibits.
• The hamster wheel introduces kids to the concept of cause and effect. As they walk, the wheel spins and they also remain in control of the speed at which the wheel turns.  Or pedal on the propeller bike fly up high.  Practice your pedaling proficiency further on our pedal track.
• On the pedal track, you can exercise your legs while some of our collections pieces go whizzing by overhead.

Early Math and Science Skills

• In our Flying Machine room, kids can examine and question aspects of their ship design and how they might affect its performance; children are intuitively exploring fundamental scientific concepts like gravity, wind resistance, and lift.  By using the timers inset at the base of each launching station to time their ships’ flight, or even by counting down to liftoff, kids can also work on their number learning and counting skills.

Invention and Experimentation

• In the Flying Machine room, you can use interlocking foam pieces to create your own original UFO. You can discover and create your own ways to fit the pieces together to make your ship special! The interchangability of the building pieces means there is an infinite number of combinations and limitless ways to build your flying object.

Building Self-Esteem

• Establishing a goal and working towards it through experimentation and revision can help a child build a sense of self-esteem.  By investing thought and effort into building their ship, and trying new designs in the Flying Machine room, kids can feel a boost to their self-confidence when their ship does what they dreamed it would.