With more than 500,000 people a year visiting the center, it is one of Louisville's most popular attractions and one of the state's foremost school field-trip destinations. The non-profit agency works to increase understanding of science, math and new technology through interactive displays, technical networks and tutorial style programs. Staffed with young and energetic volunteers, the sensory-stimulating atmosphere can keep children engaged in learning activities for hours. Buttons built into the platform at various spots around the tank allow visitors to release air bubbles into the tank, causing the glittery flotsam to race through the water. Telescopes with fragmented lens' arranged around the tank allow visitors to look view the tank as a kaleidoscope.
Visitors gather around the gears and wheels exhibit.
The exhibit teaches how gears are incorporated in everything from car engines to airplane turbines. The exhibit, encompassing the entire second floor, is crammed with interactive hands-on projects for all ages and ability levels. Each of the more than 40 activity stations in this area teach visitors about the world in which they live and how humans change and redesign the world on a daily basis. Included with the interactive displays are instructional presentations conducted by volunteers. A small paper plate impaled on the record player's spindle gives visitors a drawing canvas to use while learning from the staff volunteer that the turntable is a wheel with unseen gears making it turn.