Bubbles And Air Are The Ingredients For Fun

COLUMBIA, SC – June 26, 2008 – EdVenture Children’s Museum is celebrating summer with its new traveling exhibit, AirPlay!, and the returning summer favorite, Bubbleloosa.  Both exhibits are sure to provide hours of hands-on learning and family fun.  They may also literally blow you away!

Bubbles are on the loose again this summer in EdVenture’s outdoor exhibit, Bubbleloosa.  Kids can become a bubbleologist for an afternoon and explore the shapes, sizes and colors of bubbles.  The exhibit’s bubble machine cranks out 25,000 bubbles per minute, ensuring that bubbles are filling the air and lifting summer fun to new heights!  New this year, kids can discover how to make a square bubble and learn what other shapes bubbles can be.

EdVenture’s new traveling exhibit, AirPlay, is now open and helping to unlock the mysteries of air.  “It is definitely a cool place to be on a hot summer day,” said Greg Nagle, EdVenture’s director of museum experiences. 

The exhibit features air cannons, mazes, fans, air streams and hoses to provide kids (and adults) with fun ways to learn about wind, currents, turbulence and air pressure.  Visitors can race balls to learn the effects of turbulence, use air to sail a boat, balance objects on multiple streams of air and learn how a vacuum cleaner works. 

“Having fun is essential to a child’s growth and learning process,” said Susan Bonk, director of education and exhibits at EdVenture.  “Children want to be actively involved in their learning.  They love to be challenged.  The more fully and actively a child is engaged, the more intense the learning experience.”

You can’t beat the view from the top of EdVenture’s new 15-foot inflatable kids-only climbing wall, unveiled this summer to compliment AirPlay.  “Eddie’s Big Climb” is located outside the museum, and is set up Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, weather permitting.  Check the front desk for exact times. 

Also, premiering in July and running through August will be Whoosh, a daily science demonstration in the AirPlay exhibit.  Show times are Monday – Friday at 2 p.m., Saturday at 11 a.m. 2 and 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 4 p.m.  Whoosh is free with paid admission.

Memorial Day through Labor Day, EdVenture is open seven days a week: Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.  Admission is $6.95 for children, $8.95 for adults and children one and under are admitted free.  Bubbleloosa and AirPlay are free with paid admission.  Bubbleloosa is sponsored by NBSC and AirPlay is sponsored by the City of Forest Acres.

EdVenture Children’s Museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring children to experience the joy of learning.   Celebrating its five-year anniversary in 2008, the museum features more than 67,000 square feet of hands-on, minds-on learning for children and adults.  EdVenture is the largest children’s museum in the South, 10th largest in the nation and home of Eddie, the world’s largest child.  EdVenture is located at 211 Gervais Street in downtown Columbia.  To learn more about EdVenture, visit www.edventure.org.