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Bubbling, gurgling, swirling, rising - water flows through this exhibit in amazing ways. Build your own boat and launch it down The River, a 53-foot water table that runs through the Museum's Waterplay exhibit, to see if it can survive the rapids, whirlpools and the lock system. Create your own spouting masterpiece out of Intriguing Pipes. If it springs a leak, try again! Younger kids can splish splash in the shallow Pond with funnels and waterwheels. You will get wet in Waterplay, but it's OK, there's slickers and boots for everyone. And it's not a bad idea to bring a change of dry clothes.
Exhibit space design by Paul Rosenblatt AIA of SPRINGBOARD Architecture Communication and Design LLC
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What’s the Real Stuff?
Batten down the hatches because you're sure to learn something about boat design, river navigation and plumbing in Waterplay.
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 | | Water Ways Check out these amazing facts about water:
- Pure water is virtually colorless and has no taste or smell.
- If it weren’t for Earth’s gravity a drop of water would be a perfectly round ball.
- Water is called the "universal solvent" because it dissolves more substances than any other liquid.
- Water is the only natural substance that is found in all three states: liquid, solid (ice),gas (steam)
* Ice floats because water is in the solid form, ice, is less dense than the liquid form.
*All of these forms can be observed at the temperatures found on Earth. Earth’s water is constantly changing between these states.
|  | | | | | The River Locks help boats navigate rivers as the depth of the water changes, especially where dams have been built.
There are 23 locks and dams on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers.
In Waterplay visitors have the opportunity to see what a lock and dam looks like and place a boat into the lock chamber of our lock and dam prototype. The gate is opened to let the boat continue on its way. | |  | | | | | |  | | Boat Building A boat floats because the pressure of the water pushes up on it. It displaces a volume of water equal to its own mass. A sail catches wind to move the boat forward. If your boat faces a head-on wind, try "tacking"- follow a zigzag course, keeping the sail at an angle to the wind. | | | | | | Anyone Call a Plumber? Forcing water through a small hole with pressure produces sprays and jets, like a garden hose. Pumps in water fountains, squirt guns and dishwashers deliver water to a nozzle or hole for a spray, stream or trickle.
(Referenced from "The New Way Things Work" by David Macauley, pg. 136) | |  | | | | | |
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Explore more
Learn more about these topics with the following books and websites. Many of the books can be reserved online from the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh.
Boats- Ships and Submarines
by Ian Graham and Dave Antram
- Boat
by Eric Kentley
- Tell Me How Ships Float
by BeShirley Willis
- Boats Afloat
- Clay Boats
- Floaters and Sinkers
- What Floats Your Boat?
Water- I Get Wet
by Vicki Cobb and Julia Gorton. Harper Collins, 2002.
- Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean
by Arthur Dorros. Harper Trophy, 1993.
- The Drop in My Drink
by Meredith Hooper and Chris Coady. Viking, 1998.
- Let’s Try it Out in the Water
by Seymour Simon and Doug Cushman. Simon and Shuster, 2001.
- Wacky Water Fun With Science
by Ed Sobey. McGraw-Hill, 2000.
- The Water Cycle, USGS Water Science for Schools
- The Water Cycle, Kidzone
- Water play: A key to children's living-learning environment
- Vortex, Whirling Water Creates a Tornado in a Bottle
- Surface Tension: An Attractive Force
Scroll down menu of activities
- Two Easy Demonstrations of Bernoulli's Principle
Scroll down menu of activities
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Do It Yourself
After you've visited this exhibit be sure you try these activities: Water Wonders.
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