Hartford Courant (Sunday)

Supercharg­ed travel destinatio­ns to fuel your family’s brainpower

- By Lynn O’Rourke Hayes FamilyTrav­el.com

Kids and their parents know it’s cool to be smart. Here are five places that will supercharg­e your family’s brainpower.

More than 600 exhibits encourage every member of the family to see the world differentl­y. A scientific funhouse, the learning lab encourages creativity and “tinkering” as a means of expanding our perception­s.

Young children and toddlers are engaged by shadow, light, bubbles and color as a means of exploratio­n and discovery. Kids can create a marble machine, dance with their own shadow, study plankton population­s, or check out an “upside down world.” www.explorator­ium.edu cated exhibit space. Kids can also use their own bodies to study the concepts of ratio and proportion in the Math Moves exhibit. www.explora.us

Did you know that an octopus has a highly developed brain and is a master of camouflage? Collect the details before you check out Black Tip Reef, a coralfille­d exhibit replicatin­g Indo-Pacific underwater landscapes. Learn about the wild extremes of Australia in an award-winning immersive exhibit featuring freshwater crocodiles, turtles, fishes, snakes, lizards, free-flying birds and flying foxes.

The kids will love their visit with bottlenose dolphins where they’ll also observe training, feeding and playtime with trainers. Before days’ end discover the importance of jellyfish, observe sharks in an open tank and see more than 500 exotic species in an Atlantic Coral Reef Exhibit. www.Aqua.org

 ?? JIM YOUNG/CHICAGO TRIBUNE 2017 ?? Brothers Ian and Bryan Dodson play with static electricit­y at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
JIM YOUNG/CHICAGO TRIBUNE 2017 Brothers Ian and Bryan Dodson play with static electricit­y at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

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