Bucks County Children's Museum, New Hope

The best way to learn is by doing, yet it's hard for kids to get the chance to do a lot of things, usually because they're deemed too young. But at Bucks County Children's Museum, kids have the opportunity to participate in such activities as running a general store, building a racecar, and digging for fossils.

At the general store, located in the museum's miniature working town, kids stock shelves and sort through produce while learning about money, weights, and measures. Over in the Factory Works exhibit, they can build a K'Nex racecar and test it out on the track or soar through the clouds on a virtual-reality hot air balloon ride. The Big Dig exhibit lets kids unearth artifacts important to Pennsylvania's history while teaching them about chronological events. It also teaches kids how to select the proper tool for the job, instead of using a fork for everything.

The museum's other activities include creating a work of art on a giant Lite-Brite, constructing a bridge, and learning about recycling while building a fort out of reclaimed foam blocks.