Discovery Gateway Review
You can be anything you want when you grow up. But why wait? At Discovery Gateway, your child can get hands on experience as a pilot, construction worker, story board panelist, paramedic, grocery store clerk, neurosurgeon, and so much more—even a bumblebee! With so many activities for the little ones, Discovery Gateway located in Gateway Shopping Center in Downtown Salt Lake City is a delight for children and parents alike.
Discovery Gateway has two floors of exhibits that offer “Non-Stop, Hands-On Fun” filled with hours of interactive activities designed to inspire creative play and learning. The first exhibit we encountered was The Garden, where children work and play together in a giant beehive. In the beehive, the kids get to insert multicolored balls into various contraptions and watch as they make their way up the tubes and into the central pit. My niece loved this exhibit and spent a good 45 minutes here.
The next exhibit is the Kid’s Eye View where “children can explore the big, wide world on a kid-sized scale.” Here the kids can play at being construction workers, grocery store personnel, farmers, rock climbers, postal workers, and more. There is a play house and a treehouse where kids of all ages can play and have fun. My niece loved playing with another little boy in the construction zone using a crane to move blocks back and forth. This is a great exhibit for teaching kids how to take turns, share, and cooperate.
The second floor houses the Story Factory, Media Zone, The Studio, and The Terrace. In the Story Zone, kids get to learn what it is like to be story board cartoonists, actors and directors, writers, and film makers. In The Studio, they get to learn about the lives of artists, engineers, and scientists. The Studio was another favorite of my niece’s—we had to tear her away from the pipe-engineering wall where she was having a blast connecting tubes and dropping in Ping-Pong balls.
In the Media Zone, kids can practice being reporters and weathermen in front of the green screen. For an extra cost, you can even experience what it is like to be inside a hurricane. I wouldn’t recommend taking younger children into the wind tunnel because it is very loud and can be scary—I loved the wind tunnel, but my niece did not—so maybe leave this one for the older kids.
The Terrace is home to the Intermountain Saving Lives exhibit where kids follow the path of rescue from the control center, life flight, and emergency room/ hospital. In the hospital, the kids can dress up like doctors and nurses and practice taking x-rays and MRIs, as well put in some hands-on time in surgery. Touch screens imbedded in patients walk the mini-surgeons through procedures step-by-step. It wasn’t just my niece who enjoyed this one. I was—along with many of the other grown-up kids—fascinated by this exhibit.
The museum also offers classes, workshops, field trips, birthday parties, summer camps, and more visit the Discovery Gateway website for class information. They are open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from Noon to 6 p.m. They are located at 444 West 100 South in The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City. Elevators at the south end the Winter Parking Garage lead directly into the museum. Validations are available in the Discovery to Go gift shop.
Discovery Gateway Coupon:
There's a buy 1, get 1 free Discovery Gateway coupon in the Utah Happenings Entertainment book. Don't have a book? No worries, another one can also be accessed online with their new printable coupons and apps. (free 14 day online trial, then $4.95 per month with no obligation). Go here for details>>
Also, make sure to visit Discovery Gateway's website for various monthly specials.
Posted by Anie
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