Impression 5 Science Center is a dynamic, interactive space for families to play, create, and challenge their understanding of science. Our mission is to facilitate learners in scientific exploration through hands-on exhibits and participatory educational programming.
Explore Our Exhibits
Think Tank
Think Tank
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Think Tank
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Think Tank
Turn your ideas into reality inside this teen maker space with real tools, real challenges, and real outcomes! Think Tank is typically open from 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, subject to special programming.
PLEASE NOTE: Think Tank will be closed to the public to host Summer Think Tank Maker campers June 10 - June 28 and July 8 - August 23. During those weeks, it will be open to the public only on Saturdays and Sundays between 1-5 p.m. For information on our Think Tank Maker Camps, click here.
Youth Action Council
The Youth Action Council is an active community of teen influencers who help shape the Think Tank--its activities and its future! Students meet regularly throughout the year and work on making projects and contribute to ongoing research following “making spaces” for youth.
Interested in joining the Youth Action Council? If your teen is between 9 and 14, please contact Micaela Balzer at balzer@impression5.org.
Embrace the universal urge to play and explore in a space created for young scientists ages birth to four years old. Here, you’re safe to roam, touch, crawl, climb, splash, read, create, and get to know science in a whole new way in a comfortable and supportive environment. Park your stroller, hang up your diaper bag, kick off those shoes, and enjoy a thoughtful environment for you and your little ones . . . complete with a family restroom, private nursing room, and snack area.
Amenities:
Family restroomNursing roomSnack areaStroller parking & diaper bag storage
Activities:
Water table (crocs and smocks available)Play structureClimbable steam engineSensory tablePuzzles, books, thoughtful toys, and more
Safety Procedures:
Shoe-free zone (crocs of all sizes are available for water table area!)Safe “smart” electrical outletsRigorous cleaning schedule with non-toxic cleanersDesignated snack tables/areas outside the room (to help with children with allergies)An adjoining nursing room and family restroom to change all diapers in a sanitary spaceDiaper changing in either the nursery room, or family restroom
Discover a world you can't see! In this exhibit, immerse yourself in nanoscale science by playing with magnetic materials, building a giant model of a carbon nanotube, comparing levels of static electricity, and more!
Explore the electromagnetic spectrum and compare different light sources, lenses, prisms and mirrors, and more! Step up to a life-size Light Mosaic to create your own colorful masterpiece then strike a pose with a Shadow Wall. See how plasma reacts to a conductor, experiment with primary colors, paint with light, and more!
Experience a day in the life of a naturalist! Explore natural environments found here in Michigan with a variety of tools and challenges to keep your problem-solving and inquiry skills sharp. Get a closer look at birds using our webcam or scoop up some pond water and magnify the amazing world within it!
Take engineering and building challenges to the next level with materials from blocks to magnetic tiles, panels to bridges, and more! What types of structures can you build? How will gravity, tension, and compression affect a structure?
Take a deeper look at the inner workings of the human mouth! Explore oral health with giant dental tools, get up close to real teeth under microscope, see MRI images to watch the mechanics of your mouth, visit the Smart Mart to discover how the food you eat affects your teeth in an interactive grocery checkout activity, and more!
Explore the wonder of kinetic and potential energy in this hands-on exhibit that allows you to perfect your pitching form and blast targets with an air cannon! Toss things around in the Play Space, then create the most aerodynamic airplane to launch before you hurl a tennis ball forty feet with a trebuchet!
Part outdoor education space, part art installation, part place to contemplate the universe, the Planet Walk Plaza brings us closer together and helps us create more meaningful connections to art and science within greater Lansing.
Our newest exhibit FLOW explores fluid dynamics with two stories of interactive components and activities! Build and test your own sailboat, explore the science of a vortex, power a giant flywheel that shoots a two-story geyser, play with water jets, and much more!
Experience something new each visit! Each year you can expect either a new permanent exhibit or a unique traveling exhibit to explore with your family.
SMASH: A Nuclear Adventure
Opens July 12
Discover the world of nuclear science by building atoms and smashing them to create rare isotopes! Learn about the incredible research happening at the Michigan State University Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and the people who work there.
Experience something new each visit! Anticipate new permanent exhibits or a unique traveling exhibit to explore with your family.
HANDS-ON EXHIBITS
Explore a self-choice, learner-directed exhibit environment that's designed for your entire family.
FIRST IMPRESSION ROOM
Embrace the universal urge to play and explore in a space created for young scientists ages birth to four years old.
THINK TANK
Turn your ideas into reality inside this teen maker space with real tools, real challenges, and real outcomes!
FUTURE & TRAVELING
HANDS-ON EXHIBITS
FIRST IMPRESSION ROOM
THINK TANK
UPCOMING EVENTS
Science of Cinema
April 20, 2019
Science of Cinema returns to Impression 5 Science Center April 20 as part of the Capital City Film Festival! The day's events will feature a pop-up theater showing family-friendly animated and live action short films in Think Tank! Join us for a day of family-friendly activities including set making, filming/editing, and stop motion animation!
Join us 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. on April 18 for an extension of Michigan State University's Sci Fest celebrations and Unvravel the Mysteries with us!
Your Science Center will be full of special hands-on activities, including:
Atomic Explorations
Strawberry DNA Dive
Discovering the story of bacteria
Exploring tiny mysteries of luminenscence
Unraveling the Deep Sea, and more!
You'll also have the chance to suit up like a scientist and learn about Michigan habitats through puzzles and an interactive landscape activity presented by The W.K. Kellogg Biological Station--an ecological research lab run by Michigan State University dedicated to studying questions of sustainability, ecology, evolution, and the environment.
Join the Lansing Board of Water & Light and Impression 5 Science Center for the 26th annual Adopt-A-River community cleanup event on May 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.! Help us keep our local rivers and adjacent spaces beautiful!
We're looking for volunteers to help us clean up our river areas on Saturday, May 11.Please sign up via the registration form below!
Adopt-A-River Event Schedule 9 a.m. Registration (at Impression 5 Science Center) 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Clean-up begins at your assigned locations 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Enjoy a free lunch back at Impression 5 Science Center 11 a.m - 4 p.m. Environmental Fair at Impression 5 Science Center
The Harley Beatty Family presents a night of Music at the Museum benefitting the First Impression Room and young child programming. Entertainment will include four Michigan singer/songwriters performing a variety of genres.
