I had the opportunity to take my 7-year-old son to The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this past weekend. Although I have been there many, many times over the years, it has been quite some time since I was there last. The Franklin Institute never disappoints. We started our visit at the Planetarium, which I was looking forward to. There are different shows throughout the day with different themes. We chose to go to the showing of To Space and Back. In hindsight, we probably picked the wrong one for my son. This show was all about the effects studying space and the exploration of space has had. My son found it pretty boring. I think he would have enjoyed the other show about exploring the constellations, The Sky Tonight. I guess that is a reason for the next trip!

If you grew up anywhere near Philadelphia, it is almost your right of passage to walk through the Giant Heart at the museum, following how blood flows all while hearing the sounds of a beating heart. When I think of the Franklin Institute, I think of this giant heart, walking through it when I was a child, walking through it when I brought my 14-year-old daughter, when she was younger, and now my son. You cannot visit Franklin Institute without going through the heart and climbing the narrow stairways. There are other exhibits around the heart as well, such as learning how much blood is in your body or the different sizes of hearts of different animals.

On the top floor there is a sports exhibit as well. This is where the children and adults can learn all about how sports and science connect. The children were all lined up to race a simulation of the Philly Phanatic along with other sports icons. For the record, my son could beat him! Some of the other interactive exhibits were how high you could jump by touching the different basketball heights and a surfboard simulation, which we had fun trying.

My son’s favorite time was spent watching the Liquid Air Show. This was a demonstration all about the effects of nitrogen and how temperature affects matter. Watching a balloon shrivel up to a prune and then inflate itself is pretty exciting for a 7-year-old. Okay, for me, too.

Even though I have been to the Franklin Institute many, many times throughout the years, I still learn something new while creating memories. Perhaps my son did, too. Maybe he will write about taking his son or daughter to walk through the giant heart when he is a father.

— Eli R. Shapiro, director of sales