One of my goals this summer is to try to utilize our science museum membership. As I have mentioned before, there are a lot of museums that have free admission  via the ASTC Travel Passport Program. One of the other museums is actually located right in our area. CNSE Children’s Museum of Science and Technology (locals call it CMOST) is in Troy.

Last time we went to CMOST was about a year ago and we had Bubbe and Grandpa with us. This time, I went with both of the boys on my own. I had a mission. I wanted to go with the boys to see the Molecularium show in the planetarium. We missed it last time. I still remember hearing about The Molecularium Project at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute when I was visiting for an event featuring Bill Nye.

When the boys and I went into the planetarium, nobody else was there. Since we were the only ones there, we moved to another area of the floor and got ready for the show. Listening to the boys was fascinating. NHL is going into fifth grade and clearly knows about his states of matter, but he really liked watching the adventure of Oxy and her crew. JSL was amazed with the entire concept. He had learned about some of these items in kindergarten, but this adventure really got him talking about science. The science teacher in me really adored this show for young children. Here is a sneak peek in case Molecularium is playing by you.

After the show, we wandered around the museum. The boys adored a private lesson with Dawn by the Hudson River area. She explained to the boys about the tide pool. Then, much to their surprise, she took one of the turtles out for them to see up close and even pet. She was fantastic and answered all of their questions as they came up.

We spent a lot of time in the new (to us) Nano exhibit. NHL read things to JSL and they tried different areas together. I have a feeling we could have spent a lot more time in here if we were able to. More about this area another day. For now, I will share my Instagram video from this section.

If you could go into a Molecularium for an adventure, what would you like to see at the molecular level? Think about the Periodic Table of Elements, organic materials, and even polymers that could be seen.