Museo Infantil de la Constancia Mexicana - Field Trip

 A few months ago, we took our school kids out for a field trip. We went to the Museo Infantil de la Constancia here in Puebla. It turned out to be our best, most educational field trip yet!! Both the kids and the adults got enjoyment out of this outing.

The bridge leading to the entrance of the museum

 This museum is an old building...old, as in over a hundred years old and made of stone. Kind of looks like an old cathedral. However, the inside has been remodeled and divided up into different rooms and sections. It's like a maze that you walk through and each turn brings you to a new room, a new scientific or historical theme is being taught. It is so interesting! 

The museum wouldn't allow Elissa's stroller in, but did provide a wheelchair for her to ride around in.

The museum tour started out with this first room. There are glass half-bubbles hanging from the ceiling. Each bubble has different sounds and music genres being piped through. You stand under one and can hear it perfectly. When you leave the bubble, you can no longer hear anything until you stand under the next bubble. We had a lot of fun in this first section!

 

 

 The next part of the museum also dealt with sound. They had these interactive screens and touch pads. We put on the headphones and followed the instructions given on the screen.

 

 

 This wall had shower heads and collander-shaped bowls coming out all over it. Each shower head was labeled with the sound you'd hear when you put your ear up to it.

 This one showed what you'd hear if you stood in the streets of San Marco, Venice.

The sound of someone clearing their throat...

 

 The kids got a kick out of this one, of course! 

Click to zoom :P

 

 

 There was exhibit we went into that was all dark except for a large, clear ball embedded into the floor in the middle of the room. It showed the staged a baby goes though while in his mother's tummy. Again - very very interesting!

 This was the introduction into the next set of exhibits that talked about composers. Here, we watched an orchestra play in an old-fashioned ballroom. It showed the job of the conductor and how he keeps everyone in line.

Learning about Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, and more...

 There was this really super neat exhibit to show the importance of the conductor in an orchestra and how he stays perfectly on beat. I imagine this is similar to how a Nintendo Wii works...

The computer senses the movement of the "composer's" arms when he holds the baton provided. The orchestra plays as fast or as slow as you move your arms. However, the goal is to stay perfectly on time and if you go too slow or to fast for very long, the orchestra gets annoyed and you get a warning about staying on beat!

So much fun! I want to go back! :D

 

I don't remember what part of the museum this was about, but we are all signing "horse" to Elissa! 

Notice the horses on the back wall - :)

There was one really awesome room we went through that was playing super loud music. I don't remember what song it was, but there were a ton of instruments being played and so many different sounds. There were speakers all over the room and it was lit with black lights. 

The excitement was contagious. I have this thing for wheelchairs, whether it's being pushed in them or being the pushER. In this case, Abner was the pusher and we got to going around the perimeter of the room at high speeds. I was screaming and yelling "Faster, faster!" and at the same time, "STOP!" Haha! With the blaring music as our soundtrack, this was the exciting high point of the field trip.

People here tell me that I am all about the "emociones fuertes". Literally translated as "strong emotions", and means I love a good thrill! LOL! :D

 Our little school

The last part of the museum was all about marionette puppets. Apparently Mexico has a long history with them. 

There was another interactive exhibit where you act out and do different moves and the puppet on the screen copies you.

We wanted to know if we could make the two puppets hug on the screen.

We got to watch a little puppet show.

From what I've heard, they've added a whole new wing to this museum recently. I can't wait to take the kids to see it! This was by far the most fun, most interesting field trip we've gone on. I really felt like the kids had fun, but also put their brains to work and learned something!

~Bethany~