COSI Family Tadpole Workshop

As a Christmas present to my nephew Collin, I took him to a COSI family workshop. He wasn’t too excited about it until he found out the workshop included a tadpole to take home. Don’t worry–I checked with his mom first. My idea was to trick my nephew into learning some science. His idea was to put up with the science to get some tadpoles. Win-win, I say.

COSI has a new exhibit called Frogs: a Chorus of Colors, which explores the diversity of frogs This workshop was meant to explore in a little more depth the life cycle of frogs. I entered into it thinking it would be a talk about frogs, and then after you sit through the talk you get the tadpoles. I was so wrong.

The workshop was held in a large room with containers of water on the floor throughout the room. As we picked a container and sat down, Collin noticed that in the water were tiny little tadpoles swimming around. These were the tadpoles we were going to take home. The whole workshop focused around these little tadpoles. The moment Collin saw the tadpoles swimming around he was hooked.

We began by picking out our tadpoles and putting them in their new home. We could pick as many as we wanted, but I stopped Collin at two (I didn’t want to push my luck with his mom). We learned how to clean their water and how to feed them, what they needed to survive and why. They gave us a poster with the life cycle of the frog pictured, and we did a craft project illustrating the transformation from tadpole to frog. After we had our tadpoles in their new home and named them Michael and Jackson–not my choice; my choice was Aunt and Kim–there was a table set up to see frog eggs and to see the actual different stages from egg to frog.

When they wrapped up the workshop we went downstairs to see the new frog exhibit, which is really cool. If you see it, make sure to check out the poisonous frogs. They are so cute! All workshops also include admission into COSI and to the Extreme Screens. Before we arrived I had asked Collin if he would want to stay and look around afterward, and maybe see a movie, but he informed me he was too old for COSI. After the workshop, as we were leaving, he decided we might as well look around since we are here. In kid talk that means “I am actually having fun, although I won‘t admit it.”

In the end the workshop did just what I was hoping it would do: it made Collin excited about learning and discovering something new. We had fun looking around COSI, and it was great spending some quality time together. He left excited to watch the tadpoles turn into frogs. If you have a chance to take your son or daughter, niece, nephew, or grandchild to a family workshop, I say go for it! It is definitely worth the money, and they did a great job of making learning and discovering fun. They offer workshops for almost any age group, and different subjects, so find one that is interesting and try it!

~Kim

I’d like to dedicate this blog post to Michael and Jackson, whose lives were cut short after being with us for just one day. They will be missed. You will be happy to know COSI replaced the tadpoles and now Aunt and Kim are doing just fine.