Editor’s Note: Updated on January 3, 2019

The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum has created a space for children of all ages to explore STEM ideas (that’s science, technology, engineering, and math).

The new Children’s Learning Center opened last weekend. It consists of 10 interactive stations designed as an out-of-classroom experience for children to experiment and learn about science, technology, engineering, and math and the physics, forces, and technology of flight. Families can easily spend an hour here, especially if the children get into building structures at a couple of the stations.

I explored with my preschooler and first-grader and they had as much fun as the older kids there. Some activities were better suited for the limited patience of little ones than others, but with the help of an adult, they could build and experiment alongside the big kids. 

Thank you to the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum for the complimentary passes so I can visit and get some great pictures. It was a fun day!

What you’ll find at the Children’s Learning Center

Bernoulli Blower: Discover the principles of airflow and how air speed and pressure effects objects, like beach balls.

KEVA Planks: Create structures and gain first-hand experience with balance, leverage, geometry and the principles of physics.

Make-it-Tables: Experience the engineering design process by building machines or structures using materials provided.

Interactive Kiosk Station: Explore the four forces of flight.

Wind Trainer: Learn about the science and technology of flight in terms of aircraft roll, pitch and yaw.

Dual Test Track: Learn how friction, drag, weight distribution, and gravity affect the design and operation of aircraft and other vehicles.

Innovation Station: Create inventions, environments, and activities with large scale foam blocks that encourage teamwork and imagination.  

Quake Table: Design structures and explore the phenomena of earthquakes and their effects.

Tennis Ball Launcher: Explore the effects of gravity on different sized and massed objects.

Twin Air Blaster: Experience how airflow impacts aircraft design.

What else is for kids at the museum?

If your kid loves planes, you’re set. This place has a ton of them, and many that you can peek inside. There’s also an area dedicated to Nebraska’s astronaut, Clayton Anderson, who’s from Ashland, Neb.

There are a few items that are an additional cost to admission, but can be a big hit with kids. When they were younger, it was the 50-cent rides. Now, they’re all about the flight simulators.

The museum also regularly has traveling exhibits now. Read about those and other things to do with kids at the museum in this post about what’s new at the museum.

If you go

Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum

Where: 28210 West Park Highway, Ashland, Neb. (about 30 miles west of Omaha)

When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 7 days a week; 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve; closed: New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving & Christmas

Cost: Adults, $12; senior citizens, military, $11; children (ages 4-12), $6; FREE for children aged 3 and younger

Extras: Fight simulators, 2D rides are $9 for members $10 for non-members, and 3D rides are $12 for members $13 for non-members.

Website 

2019 events & exhibits

Here are a few of the upcoming events and programs offered at Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum. Find more events here, and explore the educational offerings here.

Jan. 19 – Indoor Air Show

Jan. 19 through May 10 – “Robot Zoo”

Feb. 16 – Nebraska Robotics Expo

March 2 – Leprechaun Chase

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I’m torn about the traveling exhibit at the Strategic Air & Space Museum in Ashland, Neb. “Math Alive” is supposed to inspire kids about math using pretty cool interactive displays… and all I want to do is leave my kids at home so I don’t have to wait my turn at the snowboard game. If they’d made the climbing wall big enough for adults to use it, we parents would claim the exhibit “ours” and never bring the kids.

The climbing wall at “Math Alive” was too small for me… my only complaint.

Alas, it is truly an exhibition designed to entertain and educate kids, and I’m not really that selfish.

You really ought to check it out before it ends on Jan. 5, 2014. The appeal is clear – it’s highly interactive with engaging graphics and hip pros celebrating math – from musicians to engineers to skaterboarders, math looks cool.

I visited the exhibit recently with a 2- and 4-year-old. Here’s my take-away:

Who’d like it

It’s engaging for all ages, but I’d say kids in grade school on up will get the most out of it. Take a look at the featured videos and interactive games. My kids tested a bicycle game and boardercross game. The instructions were over their head and they were just a tad too small to move the pedals, but they had fun doing what they could.

My kids perpetually wiping out while virtual snowboarding together.

Obviously, if your child enjoys math, he or she will love it. The exhibit’s creators, though, went out of their way to make this appealing to the math challenged.

What’s the highlight?

My kids are attracted to bright lights, much like the common moth.

Tough call. The kids’ were drawn to the adventure sports stuff like the snowboarding game and climbing wall, as well as anything that was flashing lights (which, let’s be honest, was a lot of stuff there). I would’ve liked to check out some of the stuff in the design area. The display that seemed to draw the most people to it was the 360-degree image generator. Twenty cameras take your picture from every angle while you strike a pose, and then the resulting image/video is emailed to you. I could’ve played studied the concept for 20 minutes had the kids stayed still long enough.

Why go

Fun with shadows at “Math Alive” at the Strategic Air & Space Museum in Nebraska.

According to the Math Alive website: The exhibition is designed to answer the age-old question: “Will I ever use all this math they’re teaching us?” Having an answer to that question is reason enough for me.

I say, if your kids used to love playing at the children’s museum but they think they’re too old for it now, they’d have a lot of fun here. If your kids are young and still enjoy the children’s museum, take them to this exhibit. And if you don’t have kids, check it out and play all the games you want there without guilt of wanting to nudge your child away from the screen so you can get a chance to play. (Sorry about that tiny rock wall, though, it’s just not for us).