We got off the subway, walked a couple of blocks down Broadway to 26th, saw the Flatiron Building ("Built because somebody was good at math!"), crossed 5th, and there we were: MoMath -- the Museum of Mathematics.
1. It's a bit pricey. For the four of us it came to $48. Considering that, it seemed like "good" value to plunk down (or swipe, rather) the $125 for a family/year. I figured that if we even just go twice more before the school year is done we come out ahead. Not sure if that was good figurin' or not. I need MoMath.
2. It seems small, but once you get going with all the different events/games it's clear that there's a lot there. An hour could be spent really learning and exploring just one project. And to be honest, sometimes museums like this work best in small, but frequent doses.
3. It was awesome for the first hour. Then the school groups came. I liked watching my kids having to negotiate/jockey for place, etc... but it did fracture their already-fragile concentration. Watching the horde of students reminded me that when the kids are in school, field trips are just for fun (hopefully), not learning -- it's just a bunch of spastic flurry until the small people are shunted back on to the bus by the larger people. Note: the best time for us to go is right when it opens (before the school groups get there), or around 1pm, when the school groups all seemed to be heading out.
4. Today was our exploration day. We now know what's there. I plan on doing a bit of homework before we go again, with the expectation that we slow it down, and spend some time thinking about what we're doing. The museum says that it's geared toward grades 4-8, but I thought it might be slightly more advanced than that conceptually. I mean, even little bitty kids will have fun there, but the concepts seemed kind of hard (note: that might just be because all of math seems kind of hard to me). My goal for us when we go is to continually expose the kids to the concepts (logic, patterns, angles and arcs, relationships, etc.), and for them to realize how much math is in our daily lives.
5. The kids had fun.
6. I tried to stay out of it. It really is a great place for people of all ages to participate and learn, but I find that excursions like this are often when my kiddos bond and stick together -- if I stay out of it. So I did a lot of lurking. And I carried the coats because I was not about to put ours in the cloak room. We should not get lice if we aren't at school.
7. There was adequate, and friendly, staff. When we go back I plan on utilizing them a bit more -- turn them into short-term teachers.
8. The kids want to go back.
Here's a good clip that explains some of these mathy-machines.
When we were done we walked down towards Union Square and ate some delicious cheesy things at Beecher's while we watched them make delicious cheese. I'm thinking that a cup of macaroni and cheese is going to be their motivation for applying their brains and learning some of the concepts when we go to the museum in the future ("You want a cup of cheesy goodness? Explain to me in your own words what you're learning here..."). Perhaps Pavlov's example is the key to math making us feel happy inside.
