![]() We make these rules about behavior reluctantly. We understand that a visit with children to a public place such as a museum can be both joyful and stressful. A world still impacted by a multi-year pandemic. A world where civility, empathy, respect for others, how we treat each other-aka the golden rule-have deteriorated. And we are not the only museum that has felt the need to take this step sadly, it has become common among our peer institutions nationally.Ĭreating these rules is a response to the current state of the world around us. We’ve not needed one for the first 40+ years of our existence, when we served millions of kids and their families. Rules about how we expect adults to behave when visiting Discovery Museum. "I said Yes to something recently but was not happy about it: the creation of the Museum’s first-ever Visitor Code of Conduct. The message from the museum director said (in part): We have one for parents with kids in sports, but not for everybody else. I wonder if any schools out there have done the same. Having a background in epidemiology and not going to many places throughout the week, I can personally vouch for The Discovery Museum and whatever methods they are employing to keep families healthy.A local children's science museum in MA recently had to institute a "code of conduct" for parents because they've had so many problems this year. That being said, my family has yet to come home with any sort of germ from this place. While the microbiologist in me thinks that the toys should be wiped AND out of rotation (and definitely for more than a day), it does go to show that they are making efforts in this department. ![]() ![]() In fact, while we were checking in during our last trip, I overheard discussions with new volunteers about how to mitigate disease transmission even further – by taking toys out of the rotation for 24 hours. The baby area toys are constantly rotated as there is a dedicated staff member there watching and cleaning at all times. I’m not entirely sure what they clean their toys with, but there are “tasted toy” bags posted to the walls for adults to place toys that have been slobbered on. The Discovery Museum does a really good job of keeping things clean. Handwashing sign at Acton Discovery Museum. I don’t think we’ve gone to the Discovery Museum and missed an opportunity to play here. Elf (Will Ferrell) has found a worthy competitor. My kids have discovered that if you wrap a few poms in a scarf they will all separate and come out rapid-fire. There’s something really fun about watching the scarves and gigantic poms zip through the tubes and shoot out. Conveniently located across from the main cubby area, the kids have a ball with this one – literally and figuratively. One of my absolute favorite exhibits on the first floor is the massive air tube structure. There are two Dyson air dryers in the back corner, but I recommend washing hands after this activity because the smell of chlorine is definitely present. This has only happened once or twice, but it’s a bummer every time. I like to take a raincoat for each of my kids in the event we can’t find a smock in their size. The water play area is a big hit with all the kids, and because of this, smocks are sometimes hard to come by. I would argue the most popular exhibit on the main floor is the water play area. We still haven’t experienced everything they have available and we haven’t brought any germs home, either (knock on wood). I’m so glad we did because we’ve since been back multiple times. When COVID-paranoia began to wind down, but mask mandates were still in place, I figured it was a great opportunity to check it out. Needless to say, I have a pretty good sense of disease transmission, and this objection gave me pause. My degree was about 80% complete when I became pregnant with my daughter and decided to become a stay-home parent. What you may not know is that before my daughter was born, I was running a microbiology lab in a biotech company and working on my Master’s in Public Health. If you’ve read my about page, you may know that I’m a complete germophobe and have been my entire life. I had heard great things about it, but I had also heard complaints of kids coming home with miscellaneous transmissible diseases. I was expecting my youngest any day, and my two older children were 4 and 21 months. The Acton Discovery Museum I still remember our first trip to the Acton Discovery Museum.
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