Learning at The Block: Serious Fun
The Block would meld learning with entertainment, offering hands-on opportunities for all ages. Vote YES on the Peoria County Public Facility Tax on April 7 and say YES to education that’s fun, including:
• IMAX documentaries that enthrall and inspire on a five-stories-tall screen. Many are produced in collaboration with prestigious organizations such as NASA, National Geographic, Nova and the Discovery Channel and come with comprehensive resource guides to help teachers integrate content into their class curricula for the ultimate field trip.
• Cutting-edge Zeiss Powerdome planetarium shows that dare visitors to think big. One of the first of its kind in the Western hemisphere, the planetarium would feature a 44-foot dome creating the feeling of infinity. Mind-blowing software would allow audience members to rocket through the cosmos, past the International Space Station, the moon, planets, sun, Milky Way and other galaxies en route to the Big Bang.
• New ways of experiencing the impact of nature at the Illinois River Encounter. Visitors could explore the river’s history and habitats, then “pilot” a towboat pushing barges up the river, control flooding in a replica of downtown Peoria, and manage the flow of a miniature river through functional locks and dams. The River Science Lab would captivate kids with more “I-can-do-that” experiments.
• The Street, featuring a nearly life-size interactive streetscape animating more than 300 years of the area’s often colorful past. Experience Peoria from its Native American and French roots, through its days as a wide-open boomtown abuzz with riverboats, gangsters and distilleries, to its period as the all-American bellwether of U.S. taste…and beyond.
• Memorable area residents in the Oral History Center, featuring recordings and artifacts that would bring to life local history-makers from Lydia Moss Bradley to Richard Pryor. The Wall of Fame would honor local individuals for their outstanding contribution to the Peoria African-American community. And inspired visitors could record their own stories for future generations in the Story Booth.
• Art and history exhibits from around the world and our own back yard. Expanded gallery space would allow Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences to host even the largest traveling exhibits from The Smithsonian Institution, plus display more of its 14,000-piece collection of fine art and folk art. And its highly successful in-school outreach programs would continue to reach thousands of students annually.
• Play-and-learn opportunities for toddlers to pre-teens at Discovery Worlds. Discovery World 1, for kids ages 6 and younger, would encourage learning by exploring and doing. Discovery World 2, for kids ages 7 to 12, would invite creative expression and problem solving. And the Splash Zone, a unique water wall with multilevel tables, would visually divide the two “worlds” while inviting more hands-on fun.
• The Caterpillar Experience, inviting a behind-the-scenes look at our Fortune 50 corporate citizen’s people, products and services—including what it’s like to peer up at a 24-foot-tall 797B Mining Truck and view an orientation film in its 380-ton-capacity dump body. Interactive galleries would span the past, present and future, and offer kids a look at jobs around the world.
• Opportunities to test mind and body at the IHSA Peak Performance Center. Visitors could explore student and team achievements from more than 750 Illinois schools, and test skills like those required of participants in Illinois High School Association’s 39 sports and activities, from basketball and wrestling to chess and music.