story and photos by Kayte Deioma
If you’re traveling with kids and they’ve had their fill of Guadalajara’s colonial history, head over to neighboring Zapopan to El Trompo Mágico, the Magic Top, for an indoor play day for the whole family. This interactive museum, which opened in 2003, has activities for kids of all ages. It’s not uncommon to see adults on their own or groups of seniors visiting Trompo Mágico as well.
The Museum was designed as an educational enhancement to school curricula, but it won’t feel like school. The mission of Trompo Mágico is to develop a learning environment that will “uphold universal values while empowering people committed to a better world.” There are exhibits reflecting the themes of peace, diversity, equality and tolerance, but if you don’t speak Spanish you might mistake them for just more fun and eye candy.
The museum is filled with helpful Nei’wáma (plural for Nei’wá, meaning friend, companion or guide in the Huichol language) to facilitate the learning experience. They can be identified by their brightly colored vests. Many of the Nei’wá are students from local colleges doing required community service hours.
There is a good chance that no one at the information kiosk when you come in will speak English. If you call ahead from your hotel, they can arrange to have an English speaking guide meet you. There is also a bilingual brochure, but they may have to call upstairs to the office to find one, since they don’t always keep them at the information desk. However, you don’t need an English speaking guide or even a brochure to enjoy the activities the Trompo Mágico has to offer.
You enter the museum into a large lobby with a cutout globe around a yellow spinning top overhead. After buying your tickets, most of what you want to see and do is through the Voy Derecho (Straight Ahead) Hall of Children’s Rights, filled with touchable sculptures by local artist Rodolfo Padilla, and around the circular courtyard (or across if it’s not raining) to the Pabellón Mágico (Magic Pavilion).
The Pavilion is divided into seven exhibit areas. Each exhibit area includes a reading corner with books relating to the theme of that area. The books are, of course, in Spanish.
From the entrance of the Pabellón Mágico, to the far right is Maroma (Summersault), a children’s role play area. Here little ones can don the appropriate garb and get to work making tortillas and selling vegetables in a child-size market; creating and stamping letters at a mini post office; administering shots and listening for baby doll heartbeats at the hospital; cooking up and serving some yummy play food at the restaurant; or building something monumental at the construction site.
Behind Maroma to the left is Burbujas, the bubble area. I have seen a lot of cool bubble exhibits at science museums around the U.S., but this is by far the best I’ve come across. I am not quite sure how making giant soap bubbles teaches responsible consumption of water. The message gets lost in the fun of creating a giant string of bubble that stretches across the room; using teamwork to wrap a huge bubble from two long soapy poles; putting your soapy hand in and out of a sheet of bubble without breaking it, or, best of all, getting inside a massive tube of bubble.
In the Garabato (Scribble) exhibit, you might expect something to do with painting, or drawing, but in reality, you’ll find a variety of high tech exhibits on modern cultural expression demonstrating how art and science come together in daily life. On the low tech end, you can join in a drum circle with traditional Brazilian drums. If you want to go more high tech, you can sit in on a jam session with electronic musical instruments. Children and adults can learn how a radio station broadcasts; create your own film and learn to edit it; experiment with four different ways of creating animated films; try your hand at digital photography; and learn how a newspaper is put together.
Ombligo (Belly Button) contains exhibits related to the function of the human body, but mostly in an abstract functional way, rather than anything diagrammatic. Reflexes, equilibrium, how your heart pumps and how your eyes, ears and nose work are a few of the exhibit themes. The metal bits dancing to different songs are not actually responding directly to sound waves, but rather to a computer program using sound patterns to create electromagnetic patterns. It is a representation of how your ear responds to sound, but if someone hadn’t explained it to me, I wouldn’t have gotten the underlying lesson. I did figure out that pushing the buttons for different songs made the metal bits dance differently.
Cacalota (Giant Marble) looks at the earth’s natural resources and the 
biodiversity of the planet. Learn how a tornado is formed or take a virtual reality submarine tour. The final area, Eureka, has hands-on and interactive computer exhibits allowing you to operate robots, take trip into space and explore telecommunications possibilities. This area also includes the IBM Try Science exhibit, a computer game that gives you points for learning the science behind the action.
Back in the front building, a Tentempié (snack bar) awaits the hungry. 
The Mediateca(Computer Room) offers dozens of computer terminals with fun and educational programs for all ages designed by the in-house educational media team. Off the main lobby is the Museum store and the temporary exhibit hall with rotating exhibits. Through February 2006, an exhibit on Charreria, Mexico’s cowboy and rodeo tradition, includes regularly scheduled 
roping demonstrations. At the other end of the building, three workshops provide hands-on arts and science projects for children, teens and parents. Upstairs, a gallery between the administrative offices and the circular conference room hosts art exhibits.
If it’s not raining, the grounds of the Museum offer much more to 
explore. Three playgrounds with age-appropriate equipment for pre-school, elementary and secondary students are near the cafeteria. On the opposite side, the Peace Labrynth is a circular maze where various activities are held promoting non-violent conflict resolution. Beyond that, on weekends and holidays you’ll find Voy que Vuelo (I can fly), which includes a sky diving simulator and canopy ride (additional fee).
Trompo Mágico is located at Avenida Central 750, fraccionamiento Residencial Poniente, Zapopan, Jalisco. C.P. 45136. Hours of operation are Tuesday through Friday: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Weekends and holidays: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For general information, within Mexico call (33) 30 30 00 30 or visit the web site at www.trompomagico.com.mx
As I mentioned in the intro to Rainy Day Cleveland, my 14-year-old nephew opted out of a return visit to the Cleveland Natural History Museum, having visited several times on school field trips. Rebecca, on the other hand, had been on one school visit in first grade and couldn’t wait to go back and show her little sister around.
The number one “must see” item on my list for the CMNH was the controversial “Lucy” replica. The original skeletal remains were discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 by a team including the museum’s anthropology curator at that time, Donald Johansen. This earliest and most complete skeleton of a human ancestor, described by National Geographic Magazine as “the most widely known and thoroughly studied fossil find of the 20 th century,” was studied in Cleveland for six years before being returned to Ethiopia where it has been in storage since 1980. Cleveland Museum of Natural History has one of two reconstructions that is assembled in the upright position. Even my five and seven-year-old nieces had heard of the 3.2 million-year-old “Lucy”, the closest relative so far to the evolutionary “missing link.”
Also high on my list was “Happy,” the giant skeleton of a Haplocanthosaurus delphsi, the only assembled example of this 70-foot-long dinosaur in the world. My sister makes jewelry, so the gem exhibit was tops for her. The girls were happy to look at everything, but Becca had a hidden agenda that we didn’t find out about until we were heading out to lunch.
We backtracked out into the lobby to observe the motion of the Foucault Pendulum and took a quick photo of a two-headed lion before heading into the Sears Hall of Human Ecology.
old friend “Happy,” the specimen by which all other Haplocanthosauruses delphsis are measured, was keeping company with his 160-million-year-old meat-eating cousin Allosaurus. Nearby stood, Smilodon, a saber-toothed “tiger” from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles (my favorite bone collection), a Mammoth and the Johnstown Mastodon from Ohio.
In the Reinberger Hall of Earth and Planetary Exploration, Sarah entertained herself by running her fingers over the texture of the Molten Earth wall and trying to climb the ledge to touch the giant textured globe while Becca tried her hand at making a rock on one of the interactive computer displays. Then we visited the Earthquake Zone, where Sarah had so much fun being shaken that she wanted to do it again and again. We convinced her that it was time for lunch.
Friends had recommended that we pass on Steggie’s Café in the Museum of Natural History in favor of the highly-rated cafe in the Museum of Art across the park. We just happened to be visiting on a Monday and the Art Museum was closed, so we decided to try out the café next door at the Botanical Garden instead. The kids were quite content with their grilled cheese and chips form the children’s menu. My Cobb salad was fresh and tasty and Ellie enjoyed her bowl of chili, so we were all happy with our choice.
After the Planetarium show, we headed downstairs to the Smead Discovery Center for some touchy-feely fun. In addition to lots of furs, skins, bones and fossils to touch, there were dozens of toy dinosaurs, puzzles, and books and live lizards and butterflies to admire. Becca settled in for a while to examine a stack of slides with seeds, bugs and other tiny things under a microscope. Sarah flitted like a butterfly herself from activity to activity, always tempted away by the next possibility.
the promise of live animals to visit in the outdoor Wildlife Center & Woods Garden. On our way out to the Wildlife Center through the Hall of Prehistoric Life, we finally came across Lucy and other representatives of human evolution. Lucy looked to be about as tall as Sarah. The bits of her that look like bone are resin casts from the original skeletal remains, filled in with plaster to complete the remaining skeleton. The original bones have never been displayed publicly.
The bald eagle, bob cats and deer were all worth a few moments of observation, but it was the river otters playing “bumper butt” in their pond that won the day.
If you’re a regular reader of RainyDayTraveler.com, you might have noticed that I lean heavily toward science related museums when I am looking to get out of the rain, with or without kids. It is not because I was ever particularly good at science. It is because, like most kids, I prefer a museum where I am not only allowed, but encouraged to touch stuff. I may or may not get the underlying concept being illustrated, but I like to turn the knobs, push the buttons, move the mouse and generally play with stuff to see what it will do. My nieces and nephew are with me on this one. If it has a button to push, it’s good. If something actually happens when you push the button, even better. If we understand what happens when we push the buttons, we’re brilliant.
The Great Lakes Science Center lets you lift a one ton car, drive a blimp, generate electricity, operate a train, be a fashion designer, play music, fly a hang glider over the grand canyon and so much more.
Derick, whose first comment to me when I asked how he liked high school was “I don’t like science. We’re studying atoms.” was fascinated with the tornado exhibit, where he could create a tornado within a clear eight-foot-tall tube. The big black circle that made cloud formations that looked like smoke signals was also high on his list. “The noise volume thingamajig where you could test the decibels of noise
how many decibels your voice was
.” was also interesting.
He spent a lot of time on the various stationary bikes. Two different models measured speed, one generated electricity. The thing that impressed him the most was that the stationary bike used to generate electricity had high-end state-of-the-art Profile Racing cranks. This is a kid who regularly takes his bike apart and puts it back together. He knows his cranks.
Becca, seven, was partial to the outdoor playhouse. “It had the steering wheel of a boat and different colored windows and fountains. And I liked looking out of the telescope and seeing a big boat in the water.” The outdoor balcony looks out on Lake Erie and across to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“I liked the part where the ball flew up in the air and my hair too
I looked like an iguana,” she recalled of the Bernoulli Blower. “And do you remember the giant wall of bubble? Derick made it almost to the top before it broke. The light on the bubble made rainbow colors.” “I liked making pictures on the wall with our shadows when the flash went off,” she continued. “And I liked when Mom and Derick rode the bikes and Mom won.”
Five-year-old Sarah called it the Body Museum. She was as impressed as Derick with the IMAX Human Body film. Her Aunt Carol is expecting a baby and the footage of the baby being born was terribly fascinating and relevant for her, providing many days worth of questions for her mother and aunts. Outside of the IMAX Theater, Sarah mastered the art of pushing the red buttons that sent a body in and out (and in and out and in and out) of an MRI machine. She also excelled at the concept of momentum on the outdoor solo merry-go-round and enjoyed playing in the Polymer Funhouse.
From their Mom’s perspective, the best thing about the Science Center was seeing the kids interested in and entertained by the exhibits and activities. She had half-expected her son to be a typically disinterested teenager and was amazed that even he was thoroughly engaged by the exhibits.