Taking science and technology exhibits beyond museum walls

摘要

As a Girl Scout leader, I've spent sleep-deprived nights surrounded by fidgety girls in lodges, cabins, tents, and lean-tos. But the most unusual overnight our troop ever experienced was the time we spread our sleeping bags on the floor under the Van de Graaff generator at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. The center allows groups of young people the run of its facilities on weekends after its regular closing time. The snowy February night we spent there featured workshops on the chemistry of food alternating with free time to explore activity-filled exhibits installed over three floors. A midnight show on Antarctica at the attached Imax theater was supposed to slow the girls down, but they were still too excited to sleep much.