Finding family fun this summer in Topeka doesn’t have to be expensive! Topeka has a bevy of free activities that it offers during the summer to keep your kids active, learning and even eating nutritional meals. In this blog, you’ll find a wide assortment of different no-cost activities.
The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center will be open for special holiday hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Memorial Day, May 30, 2022, to celebrate the final day of its Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies exhibit. This will be your last chance to experience the exhibit before it is packed up and shipped out.
This remarkable, hands-on exhibition offers an astounding array of authentic dinosaur eggs and nests collected from all across the globe, in addition to great hands-on play experiences! Kids can dig for eggs, dress up like a parent dinosaur to brood their nest and feel the texture of dinosaur eggs. Cute babies and fun dinosaur facts will keep the whole family playing and learning.
Regular admission applies, which is $9 for children and adults, $8 for seniors and free for infants under 12 months and Discovery Center members. Admission also lets you play all day at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, with more than 15,000 square feet of indoor educational exhibits exploring science, careers, art, building and more, plus a 4.5-acre certified Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom.
Tiny Titans is part of Topeka Dino Days, a communitywide dinosaur exhibition that includes Dinosaurs Alive at the nearby Topeka Zoo (open through June 30) and Sue: The T-Rex Experience at the Great Overland Station (now closed). It also includes the Topeka Dino Days Base Camp at the Topeka Visitors Center, which closes on Memorial Day, as well.
The exhibit has been a great attraction for the Discovery Center, and was vital in helping attract a record single-day attendance of 1,152 visitors on March 17, 2022, during Topeka’s spring break week.
Tiny Titans is generously sponsored by the Topeka Lodging Association and Visit Topeka.
RELATED: Find out about the different families of dinosaurs on display at the Discovery Center here.
Is your child starting kindergarten this fall? Then the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center has a perfect resource for you!
The museum’s Discovery Kindergarten program helps children prepare for starting kindergarten through several single-day camps and a fair throughout June and July that help improve school readiness. The programs are free, fun resources for all incoming kindergarten students, regardless of school. Registration is done online for each of the camps and the fair.
One of the featured dinosaurs in the Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies exhibit at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center is the Oviraptor, a Theropod whose name means “egg thief.”
That name is a misnomer, however.
Oviraptors were dubbed thieves when paleontologists found their fossilized remains laying on top of nests, leading them to conclude that the dinosaurs fed on the eggs of other creatures, such as the Protoceratops.
However, later studies of the nests uncovered the embryos inside the eggs to be oviraptorid, meaning the dinosaurs actually died guarding their own nests. Paleontologists have concluded that the Oviraptors likely died guarding their nests during sudden sandstorms or other natural disasters.
An Oviraptor skeleton also was found brooding a clutch of eggs just like a bird, providing evidence of bird-like behavior that draws a comparison between the Late Cretaceous Period dinosaur and its close avian relatives.
Visitors to Tiny Titans will be able to re-enact that parental care by dressing up like an Oviraptor and brooding their nest at the Discovery Center. They also will be able to see real fossilized Oviraptor eggs, as well as digging for them in one of our Dino Dig pits.
Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies, open through May 30, 2022, is an interactive exhibition that offers an astounding array of authentic dinosaur eggs and nests collected from all across the globe, in addition to great hands-on play experiences! To help celebrate the Oviraptor and all the other great mothers out there, all mothers will receive half-priced admission to the Discovery Center for Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 8, 2022, when it is open from noon to 5 p.m. Stop in and learn more about this maternal dinosaur while you can!
RELATED: Find out about the different families of dinosaurs on display at the Discovery Center here.
The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center got a helping hand from a great group of volunteers from Washburn University recently.
Students from Washburn volunteered this past weekend at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center as part of Washburn’s Big Event, a university-wide volunteer day.
The students arrived at the Discovery Center on the morning of Saturday, April 30, and cleaned and cleared out paths in the Discovery Center’s Certified “Nature Explore” Outdoor Classroom.
This year marked the 10th anniversary of the Big Event, which in 2011 merged with a similar project called “Bods in the Street” that began in 1995.
The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center offers high-quality, interactive experiences to inspire a lifelong love of learning for every child. Volunteers support our mission by creating these memorable experiences for every family that walks through our doors. Volunteers engage children in fun, educational activities, pitch in at special events, maintain our outdoor space and keep exhibit areas ready for play. If your organization is interested in a fun volunteer day at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, call our volunteer coordinator at (785) 783-8300. We have indoor and outdoor projects for any size group.
Thank you, Washburn University students!
MORE VOLUNTEER NEWS: Read more about future educators from TCALC volunteering their time here.
The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center’s 2021 Annual Report is now available online!
The museum celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2021, and the annual report is a great showcase of how much the Discovery Center has grown in that time. Since opening in 2011, the museum has hosted more than 770,000 visitors from all 50 states and 23 countries, as well as five major traveling exhibitions.
The Discovery Center focuses on four pillars of play to deliver serious fun for its guests while also providing educational resources and community outreach. They include being advocates for children, being an educational laboratory, activating play outside of our walls and being a sustainable nonprofit.
The Discovery Center also has an economic impact on the community that is immeasurable, providing both a community anchor and a tourist attraction. The museum improves the quality of life in Topeka and helps engage the next generation of dreamers and leaders in the fields of science, technology, engineering, art and math through STEAM play.
The museum’s 2021 financial information also is available in the report.
Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies, open until May 30, 2022, at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, is an interactive exhibition that offers an astounding array of authentic dinosaur eggs and nests collected from all across the globe, in addition to great hands-on play experiences!
Kids can dig for eggs, dress up like a parent dinosaur to brood their nest, and feel the texture of dinosaur eggs. Cute babies and fun dinosaur facts will keep the whole family playing and learning. The exhibit is divided into four sections based on the different families of dinosaurs: Ceratopsians, Sauropods, Theropods and Ornithopods, with some special featured dinosaurs within the exhibits, as well. Each space provides visitors with a bevy of interesting information and activities about that particular type of dinosaur.
One of the features in the Theropod section is called “Baby Louie” and is an embryo of a giant oviraptor found in China.
• The embryo was classified as a new species of dinosaur called “Beibeilong sinensis,” meaning “Baby Dragon From China.”
• Adults could weigh more than one ton, the same as a small car.
• It was similar to a gigantoraptor.
• Beibeilong sinensis is the largest brooding dinosaur known to date.
• Learn about other eggs in the nest that contained unhatched embryos, as well.
• Find out how paleontologist Charlie Magovern spent more than 700 hours working to clear away rock from the skeleton.
• See a model of what “Baby Louie” looked like inside the egg.
MORE DINO INFO: Find out more about the Ceratopsians here.
Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies is a traveling exhibit series created by Silver Plume Exhibitions and featuring artwork from Luis V. Rey and Mark Hallet, as well as stunning photography by Louie Pshioyos. The exhibit is generously sponsored locally by the Topeka Lodging Association and Visit Topeka, Inc. Tiny Titans will be on display at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center from February 24 to May 30, 2022, and is included in regular admission.
Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies, open until May 30, 2022, at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, is an interactive exhibition that offers an astounding array of authentic dinosaur eggs and nests collected from all across the globe, in addition to great hands-on play experiences!
Kids can dig for eggs, dress up like a parent dinosaur to brood their nest, and feel the texture of dinosaur eggs. Cute babies and fun dinosaur facts will keep the whole family playing and learning. The exhibit is divided into four sections based on the different families of dinosaurs: Ceratopsians, Sauropods, Theropods and Ornithopods, with some special featured dinosaurs within the exhibits, as well. Each space provides visitors with a bevy of interesting information and activities about that particular type of dinosaur.
One of the features in the Theropod section is called The Enigma and focuses on Therizinosaurs, a subgroup of Theropods that likely ate plants and didn’t quite fit the mold of a typical Theropod. They had big bellies and short legs, probably walking on their hind legs, with huge claws on their forelimbs that earned them the nickname of the “Edward Scissorhands Dinosaur.” However, the claws were not sharp and were probably used in foraging and grasping plant material.
• Therizinosaurs were generally large, waddling creatures that laid relatively tiny eggs.
• They could reach sizes well over 1 ton.
• Their eggs could fit in the palm of your hand.
• Learn about how their tiny, leaf-shaped teeth compared to other primitive dinosaurs.
• Learn how paleo-technician Terry Manning used acid to remove the outer layer of a fossilized egg shell.
• Find out why this dinosaur is so puzzling to paleontologists.
MORE DINO INFO: Find out more about the Ceratopsians here.
Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies is a traveling exhibit series created by Silver Plume Exhibitions and featuring artwork from Luis V. Rey and Mark Hallet, as well as stunning photography by Louie Pshioyos. The exhibit is generously sponsored locally by the Topeka Lodging Association and Visit Topeka, Inc. Tiny Titans will be on display at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center from February 24 to May 30, 2022, and is included in regular admission.
The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center’s Amazing Air exhibit is reopening to the public better than ever!
The air exhibit features three separate machines that use the power of wind to push objects and defy gravity, creating a fun and educational station for children to learn about a force of nature that isn’t visible to the naked eye.
One of the features is a new, bigger Bernoulli Blower, which was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services*. This machine showcases Bernoulli’s Principle, which states that fast-moving fluids or air, such as strong winds, have lower pressure than slow-moving air. Using this principle, blowers on the machine keep beach balls aloft against the pull of gravity. This is similar to how airplanes create lift, with the faster-moving air above the wing creating lower pressure than the slower-moving air below the wing, pushing the aircraft up.
The Air Maze uses the power of air to push objects through a labyrinth of tubes. The direction the object travels is directed by flipping switches along the maze that divert the airflow in different directions. The objects then fly out of one of three openings, depending on how the switches are configured.
The Tornado Tube creates a vortex of wind and allows children to see the spinning motion of the wind by placing objects inside and seeing how they move within the tube. This is similar to the type of vortex that you see when tornadoes or hurricanes occur in nature. A vortex is a physics phenomenon that occurs when a gas or a liquid moves in circles. At the center is a vortex line that the matter swirls around.
The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center is a hands-on children’s museum with a mission to enhance the lives of children and enrich the communities it serves. Since opening in 2011 in Topeka, Kansas, the Discovery Center has become a special place where children can explore, create, discover and learn through play. The museum features more than 15,000 square feet of indoor exhibits and a 4.5-acre certified Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom. Outreach programs bring quality, hands-on experiences into our community to inspire a lifelong love of learning for every child. More than 600,000 visitors from 23 countries have visited The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center.
*The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
It’s been just over a month since Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies opened at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, and the response has been terrific!
Along with the exhibit, which is located in the multimedia gallery, several new dino-themed features were added to the main floor of the Discovery Center, as well. One of those additions – a long, wooden table with a built-in landscape and a painted mural as the background – was created by a pair of employees with a flair for artistic expression.
Maya Beyer, a part-time gallery assistant and student at Johnson County Community College, teamed up with Draque Carver, who has worked for the Discovery Center since 2014 as the exhibit and facilities maintenance manager, to create the popular attraction.
Beyer was commissioned by the Discovery Center to paint the mural, a process that took between 16 and 20 hours to complete. Carver then created the table out of wood and built a colorful landscape for the dinosaur toys to stomp around on.
“I was so thrilled when KCDC asked me to paint for them,” Beyer said. “It’s an honor to have my work featured in the museum. My mural is a landscape that guests can interact with.”
According to Dr. Rachel E. White, playing with objects such as toy dinosaurs gives children a chance to practice both fine and gross motor skills, depending on the size of the objects. It also contributes to cognitive development, including learning about the nature of objects, problem-solving, creativity and foundational skills for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The table is located near the art pavilion at the back of the Discovery Center.
