Children's Museum of Denver - Marsico Campus

First established in a converted school bus 1973, the Children's Museum of Denver opened its current building in 1984 and completed a substantial expansion in 2015. The hands-on, interactive exhibits are targeted toward newborn through eight-year-olds. The museum also offers a café, shop, school programs, field trips, and birthday party hosting [1].

First established in a converted school bus 1973, the Children's Museum of Denver opened its current building in 1984 and completed a substantial expansion in 2015. The hands-on, interactive exhibits are targeted toward newborn through eight-year-olds. The museum also offers a café, shop, school programs, field trips, and birthday party hosting [1]. 

Exhibits

The Altitude Exhibit features "mountain" climbing, a gondola ride, a swaying bridge, and a camping area for kids over 40 inches tall. For those under the height limit, Box Canyon offer toddler climbing, a kayak themed ride, and an indoor "waterfall" kids can run through without getting wet. Big Backyard features animal costumes and animal habitat-style playgrounds. Center for the Young Child, for ages 0-3, is a woodland-themed playroom with pond, meadow, and grove themed areas. The Book Nook offers several daily storytimes and a puppet theater, while kids can play firefighter, dentist, veterinarian, or store clerk and cook at the Fire Station No. 1, Village of Healthy Smiles, Ready Vet Go!, and My Market (featuring real local produce) Exhibits. The Bubbles Exhibit features a bubble booth, bubble "drop zone", giant bubble making, vapor lab, and solution station. The Energy Exhibit offers an "energy quest" to power a hot air balloon, rocket building, erector set racing, a solar symphony, an air-powered light show, and a whoopee cushion wall, while the Kinetics! giant physics playground features ramps, tracks, and ball runs. At the Water Exhibit, kids can create their own thunderstorm, launch a geyser, create a vortex, play with water jets, build boats and dams in a river model, and create music and art with water. The Art Studio offers daily programming, painting, and clay sculpting, while the Assembly Plant lets kids build and decorate their own creations using recycled materials, and D.I.Y. lets kids build their own structures big enough to walk through. The Teaching Kitchen offers daily programming including cooking classes, demonstrations, and workshops for kids of all ages, as well as an aquaponic vegetable garden. Outside, the Joy Park offers a variety of activities, including a zip line, play river, fort building, sandbox, straw bale maze, apple picking, and boat racing [1].

1. Children's Museum of Denver Marsico Campus. Accessed June 22, 2016. http://www.mychildsmuseum.org/.