Great Explorations Children's Museum facts for kids
 |
|
| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
| Established | 1986 |
|---|---|
| Location | 1925 4th Street North St. Petersburg, FL 33704 |
| Type | Children's museum |
| Public transit access | PSTA: Route 4 |
The Great Explorations Children's Museum is a fun place in St. Petersburg, Florida. It's a museum especially for kids, a learning center, and even a pre-school. It first opened its doors in 1986. The museum was started by two groups: The Junior League of St. Petersburg and Hands-On, Inc.
The museum used to be called Great Explorations - The Hands-On Museum. It was in a large building in Downtown St. Petersburg. This building looked a bit like the Salvador Dalí Museum. Outside, there was a cool, life-sized model of a Tyrannosaurus rex. This dinosaur was made completely from old scrap metal!
Inside the old museum, the exhibits were grouped into big rooms. Each room focused on a different sense, like sight, sound, or touch. One very popular exhibit in the touch room was the "Touch Tunnel." This tunnel was about 90 feet (27 meters) long and completely dark. Kids had to use only their sense of touch to find their way through the fun, twisty path. The original museum also had a smaller part located in the St. Petersburg Pier. It had smaller versions of some of the museum's favorite exhibits.
Later, new people took over running the museum. They moved it to its current spot, right next to the beautiful Sunken Gardens. At this time, the name also changed to Great Explorations Children's Museum. The words "Hands-On" were dropped from the name. The new museum was designed with more offices and classrooms. This was because the museum wanted to grow its staff and offer more educational programs.
Preschool and Early Childhood Education
The Early Learning Institute at Great Explorations started in 2007. It was founded by Jeanne and Bill Heller. This institute offers classes every day for children aged 2 to 5 years old. The classrooms for these programs are right inside the museum building. The institute also provides special voluntary pre-kindergarten (VPK) classes. These classes help young children get ready for school.
