This museum left a lot to be desired on our visit. Its purpose is to offer hands-on adventures for adults and kids in science, math, and technology, with over 150 interactive exhibits that transform alien concepts into user-friendly steps to learning. However, recent financial difficulties have seriously hurt this attraction. Many of the exhibits were either missing items or not working at all.

When all is in working condition at SciTrek, you can create a magnetic field to hurl a disc upward, change light into electricity, produce electric current using your own hand as a "battery," see how much electricity you can generate pedaling a bicycle (how many bulbs can you light up?), and test various metals for electrical conductivity.

A kinetic light sculpture lets you vary frequency, intensity, and revolutions to create an infinite variety of designs. You can also examine the range of your peripheral vision, step inside a kaleidoscope, watch yourself walking through a distorted room on video (demonstrating how the brain visually perceives things based on past experience), mix over 16 million colors (time permitting) on a computer, bend light beams, and look into infinity. An especially intriguing exhibit for kids of all ages is the frozen shadow room, in which you can "freeze" your shadow on a wall of light-sensitive phosphorous vinyl film; a bright flash causes the panel to glow except in the area your body shields from the light. It's lots of fun dancing and jumping to create shadow art on the wall.

KIDSPACE has simple exhibits geared to the 2- to 7-year-old set. Here the kids can paint their faces, squirt water to float toys downstream, construct a house, deliver news over closed-circuit television, play electronic instruments, make images on heat-sensitive liquid crystal with their hands, and produce a puppet show. There are also very easy computer games. "I Can Discover Nature" includes a huge ant farm and an aquarium that demonstrates the river system in simple terms.

Pulleys, levers, wheels, axles, and such are explored in another area. You can lift billiard balls with a screw auger, become a human gyroscope, and suspend a ball in the air using a Bernoulli blower.

In Mathematica, a history wall portrays the achievements of major mathematicians from the 12th century to the present. Other hands-on displays here demonstrate various aspects of mathematics, from the laws of planetary motion to probability theory.

Exhibits are supplemented by an ongoing series of lectures, demonstrations, workshops, and temporary shows. You can take some science home with you from the Science Store, which has a wonderful array of games, books, and activities. There's no snack bar unless you count the vending area, but you can take your lunch and park it in a locker for a nominal fee until you finish the exhibits. There's a picnic area inside.

Note: As mentioned before, SciTrek has been having financial difficulties, and the administration is contemplating closing its doors. At the very least, the museum may abbreviate its hours of operation, so be sure to call ahead before you visit.