Bugs, boats, beehives and more! This is some of the fun stuff pre-school and kindergarten children can explore at the SBC Children's Gallery. This 3,500 square foot space features seven engaging exhibit areas for children to develop social and motor skills through an interest in science as play. Exhibit areas and early childhood programs include:

• The Boundary Experience — A highly tactile maze that welcomes children as they enter the gallery. Visitors can observe, touch, compare and experiment.
  
  
• Scapes — An activity area that encourages children to creatively build their own spaces or affect pre-made environments as they aim fans at a flag field, crawl through honey comb cells or build with blocks. This area is designed to address physical sciences, motion, geometry and spatial sense while improving small and large motor skills and social interaction.
  
  
• The Garden — A background for an array of natural science experiences: water play, weather, a bug observation and magnifying station, a rubbings table, animal tracks and aquaria. Activities are designed to address ecosystems, geosphere, atmosphere and the organization of living things.
  
  
• Make and Take — A "science through art" studio where kids can partake in a variety of monthly scheduled themed activities relevant to the gallery or other current science center exhibits. Activities range from making a shooting star windsock to experimenting with surface tension.
  
  
• The Family Area — A quiet space available for children to work on computers or for parent-child interaction time, such as reading science-related books. This area also offers resource materials for caregivers and a place for nursing mothers.
  
  
• Light and Shadows — A shadow room where visitors are encouraged to experiment with shadows using puppets and other objects. Activities are designed to address scientific skills and methods, creative representation and dramatic play.
  
  
• How Does Your Garden Grow? — A hands-on program sponsored by the Visteon Corporation, available Mondays and Tuesdays for little gardeners. Children can explore plants, learn about the required elements seeds need to grow and practice planting in our Visteon Greenhouse.

2003 SBC Children's Gallery Program Schedule
April:	Investigating Water
May:	Sounds All Around
June:	Push and Pull
July:	Space
August:	Under the Sea
September:	Fall Fun
October:	Making Sense of Our Senses
November:	Out of this World!
December:	Making Sense of Our Senses
2004 SBC Children's Gallery Program Schedule
January:	Man in the Moon
February:	Water Wonderland
March:	Up in the Air
April:	Spring Sensations
May:	Ready, Set...Grow!
June:	Water Wonderland

Each month we offer a new 45-minute themed program, which is developed by the Director of Science Programs and early childhood educators who are members of the Science Center's Early Childhood Advisory Board.

All programs are designed to explore science principles that correlate with the Michigan Curriculum Framework Kindergarten Science Benchmarks.

Pre-K to 2nd Grade Planetarium Show
Top off your Science Center visit with Zubenelgenubi's Magical Sky, a Dassault Systèmes Planetarium show designed to introduce pre-kindergarten through second grade children to the wonders of the daytime and nighttime sky. During this lively participatory program, the audience is introduced to characters including Tracy the telephone pole, Hydro the hydrant, and a talking Sun and Moon. A section for constellation identification is provided, which is followed by a story and a stormy sky. Children will pitch in to help to blow the storm away, and the program ends with a peaceful sunrise and a new day.

The SBC Children's Gallery is one of five galleries at The New Detroit Science Center. To complete your journey of scientific observation visit:

• Ford Learning Resource Center
• GM Motion Laboratory
• Dow Foundation Life Sciences Laboratory
• Matter and Energy Laboratory
• Waves & Vibrations Laboratory