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We visited MOSI about 5 years ago and really enjoyed ourselves, yet unfathomably  never made a return visit. So when we were invited to the science festival we jumped at the chance – and boy, are we glad we did

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Myself and our boys are really interested in science – and my husband is a gadget geek – so the information on the website really whet our appetite and we had great plans for touring the various locations.
When we arrived, we were greeted by friendly faces who explained how to navigate and what we could expect from our visit. We received a lovely information pack, some cards with bar codes to scan and a plan of the MOSI site. My husband decided that we should head to the coffee shop and have a feed first to recover from a train journey from hell – which gave us time to recover and gather our strength for the mammoth day ahead.
We scanned our bar codes, had our photos taken and marvelled at the Rube Goldberg machine which was still under construction (I’m kicking myself that we weren’t there to see it in action).
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Next was the textiles gallery and you got a real sense of what working in a mill was like whilst walking around.
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Our youngest tried his hand at brass rubbing
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and the ‘My Den’ was also a huge hit as it was a quiet, dimly lit area full of cushions.
We then left the building and headed to the 1830 warehouse where we were absolutely blown away by the Ice Lab workshop. The photos of space stations alone on such a barren landscape are spectacular… On a lower floor the ‘Connecting Manchester’ exhibition proved a hit with us all – as I’ve said, my husband is a gadget geek and loved seeing the telephones, televisions and computers through the ages, whereas our teen and tween laughed heartily at the large and cumbersome equipment that we remembered in our homes when we were younger. One comment our teen made on the way home though, was that he would have liked to have seen programmes on the televisions from the respective era, rather than just equipment behind glass.
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We promised ourselves that we would return to the building to watch a 4D film (at a small cost) once we had seen everything, but as it turned out we were so busy we didn’t get a chance.
The Electricity Gallery was wonderful; I’m a huge fan of the 1950s and 1930s so to be able to see recreated kitchens and living rooms was fabulous – and the old adverts for electricity were amusing but also made us think about just how lucky we are to just ‘flick a switch’.
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We needed some fresh air so we sat outside and watched the steam train pass by then headed into the Power Hall to see the engines.
Our tween was keen to see the sewers so we went to the Station Building and en route were lucky enough to find a vacant table at the Learning Studios. The experiment was basic enough for our 4 year old to participate in – and gave our older ones a chance to show off! The were further experiments in the Waiting Room but they were fully booked so we headed downstairs to the sewer. The exhibition was really interesting, detailing the improvements to the sewerage system through the years and culminated in a walk through the sewer – complete with rats and ‘brown sludge’.
We were now flagging so we headed back to the coffee shop for a drink and a well deserved cake (the chocolate muffins are to die for; chocolate sponge, chocolate chips and a delicious gooey centre – highly recommended!)
Suitably refreshed we headed up to the first floor, to Experiment! This is an interactive area that allowed us adults, our teen, our tween and 4 year old to work together to complete tasks. We loved the Viscosity of Liquids and the boys competed to make the bubbles travel faster and faster. The hidden skeleton was fascinating too.
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We decided that we would need to head back for our train as time was ticking on – and I think the only disappointment of the day was that we didn’t have time to visit other sites, however we definitely LOVED our day out and will definitely be returning to do it all again. Thanks MOSI