Fresno Indoor Activities

Visitors traveling through Challenger Learning Center's exhibits may feel they've fallen down Alice's rabbit hole. One moment, they're as tiny as a nanobot as they gaze at nanotechnology components developed for medicine, electronics, and space elevators. The next, they're giants who could bat the whole planet around with one well-aimed jump—that is, if the planet is the NASA projection globe across whose surface features of the sun, moon, and Earth flow in vivid color.

Other exhibits take visitors far out, with images snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope or deep inside, with the Body Plaza's skeletons, x-rays, and organ models. A wide slate of interactive programming engages youngsters' problem-solving and teamwork skills with activities such as simulated space missions, where they keep the astronauts entertained over the radios at mission control or assemble probes in the spacecraft while hurtling toward Mars.

In the ongoing battle against boredom, Kickin It stays true to its name by helping visitors boot the "There's-Nothing-to-Do" blues with an arsenal of entertainment options. Lining one wall, flat-screen TVs flash graphics from the latest PS3, Xbox, and Xbox Kinect video games, including 70" LED sets that magnify the heated competition of online play. Friendly competition continues at several billiards and air-hockey tables. Opposite the gaming wall, a row of booths invites allies and adversaries alike to strike an armistice over snacks, including pizza, nachos, and sodas, offering an oasis from the summer heat and the unpredictable downpours of suntan lotion that come with it.:m]]