Love the Saint Louis Science Center? Now There's An App for That

As a busy mom with a full-time job, I want to be able to access everything on my smartphone and other digital devices.

(It amazes me that I can't get grocery coupons for local chains delivered to my cell, like I can for Target, because the last thing you'll find me doing on a Sunday afternoon is clipping coupons. But I digress.)

So I was really excited this morning to find news of the new Saint Louis Science Center app in my inbox (on my phone, of course). The app was released today, and by 8 a.m. I had installed it on my iPhone via the app store (there's also a version for Andriod). Once I had explored the app, I learned It's easy to use, well organized, and that I can even follow the SLSC Twitter feed right from the app! (That last part may not appeal to everyone, but I think Mr. T. Rex's tweets are quite entertaining.)

In a press release, the Science Center said it created the app, in collaboration with AT&T, because of a sharp increase in traffic to their web site via mobile devices. (This came as no surprise to me; I've seen the same to this site).

"Our smart phone web site traffic is up 52 percent from the same time last year and we expect it to increase," said Bert Vescolani, CEO of the Center. "Through our new mobile app, we want to provide our visitors with a fun, on-site experience that is unique to the Science Center. It allows us to give people a slightly different experience every time they visit."

The app is packed with information, and has a handy visit planner so that you can make sure you don't miss a thing. I'll be using that feature even though one of my favorite things about visiting the Science Center is that we always find something we didn't anticipate that ends up being one of the coolest parts of the visit. (Such as the Dana Brown Fossil Dig Site. Don't miss this.)

The app also gets you the most up-to-date information on current exhibits at the Center, admission costs for exhibits (if any), what movies are playing in the OMNIMAX Theater, parking information and hours for the day. You can plan your visit based on the ages of those in your group and your group's specific interests, such as dinosaurs, physical science, aviation, math, space, earth science and several other options. You can also save your plans to access later.

An unexpected and really fun part of the app is the "DIY Science" section, which is a guide, complete with photos, on making your own science experiements at home. That will be useful for school snow days, though I'm starting to doubt we'll see any of those in St. Louis again. You can also find science experiment how-tos, complete with videos, at the Center's sister site, www.scienceoffcenter.org.

And finally, everyone loves an app that saves you money, and the SLSC app does that too. Visitors can present the mobile app on their phone to any ticket station to receive $2 off a non-member ticket to the Wildlife Rescue Exhibition or a film in the OMNIMAX® Theater through December 31, 2012. (Nothing has to be printed out, clipped, saved, organized or carried around to receive a discount, you just show the app on your smartphone. Why can't everyone do this???)

The SLSC mobile app is free to download and is compatible with Apple devices using iOS 5 and newer and Android devices using version 2.3 (Gingerbread) and newer. You can learn more about the SLSC mobile app by visiting slsc.org

One more thing. I'd like to offer a suggestion for the app's icon, which is currently the Science Center's logo. It's a great logo, but Mr. T. Rex is quite fetching, don't you think?

Maybe for the update?

By Julia Bollman, Publisher of St. Louis Kids and SmartParenting

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