Imagination Station

A wonderful hands on learning facility for kids! That volunteers were friendly and constantly walking around to ensure all stations worked appropriately. Everyone was friendly and there was a lot of stuff to do. My 4 & 7yr old both had a great time.

This is a gem of a little place for small children. Although it isn't very large, they do recruit volunteers from the local community and graduate students and professors from Purdue to show cool things to the kids, like reptiles, chemistry, biology, and physics. They also have a space upstairs for creative and imaginative play. It's just a bunch of random toys, but kids go nuts up there. They are also part of the ASTC Passport program, so you can get access to a lot of other bigger museums with just a membership to this one. You can't really compare this place to the bigger places like the Indianapolis Children's Museum or the Chicago Children's museum. Different scale and different purpose. You don't drive 3 hours to come visit Imagination Station. This is more for locals or families who happen to be in the area and need something to do for a couple of hours.

We really enjoy our time here with our six year old and 9 month old. They have great programming and rotate their first level interactive stations, I think it’s such a gift to have this in Lafayette. When you buy a family membership, you also get free entry into hundreds of other museums nation wide that participate in the ASTC program. Our family saves hundreds of dollars traveling because of this. We go to Chicago and use our membership here to gain free admission to the natural history museum, the planetarium, and the museum of science and industry. The only criticism I have is the unpredictability of their hours. I do think it’s volunteer staffed so I’m sure that makes it difficult but I would recommend calling ahead to see their hours on that day before going. Just this week we went on a Saturday after seeing that they announced new weekend hours of staying open until 5, and at 2:20 the attendant told us she was starting her closing duties and asked us to start cleaning up because they were closing at 3. I asked about the new hours that were posted on Facebook by their page a couple of weeks ago and she stated that they weren’t doing that yet. I pulled it up on the page and she said she would ask but in any regard, she was leaving at 3 so the second level would be closing no matter what. The second level is the play level and interactive for infants as well as older kids, whereas the first level is for older kids. She then told two other families it was time to go. Another employee came up and told her they were open until 5. But we had already packed up, and the other two families had left already. Additionally, we have run by before during other weekends and they were also closed earlier than their hours on their door. So, again, check before going but definitely still go!

Fun place but very short business hours. We would come a lot more if the business hours were practical, but they aren't. Open 5 days a week, most days for only 3 hours and only 5 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday for a grand total of 19 hours all week long. That is just impractical for people with real lives and schedules. It is too bad your hours aren't more accommodating to your customers.

Took my son here for a birthday party. Lots of interactive activities. I found some things interesting as well.