Every year the Center closes for two weeks to update our exhibitions, vacuum the floor, polish the brass and feed the dinosaurs. Well, maybe not the brass thing. We don’t have a ton of brass around here. At least we don’t think so. In any case, here’s a few photos of what we’ve been up to for the past two weeks!

That's one serious night light.

Last week we watched Mike Tyka and a few helpers painstakingly assemble a giant electronic Rubik’s Cube known as the Groovik’s Cube. It’s a brilliant piece of DIY engineering and it will make an epic addition to our main atrium. LSC has had a lot of great exhibits over the years, but you’ve never seen anything like this before. It’ll be a few more weeks before we’re able to raise Groovik’s and make it playable. In the meantime, you can come marvel at its size in Governors Hall and follow all of our updates about Beyond Rubik’s Cube on Google+.

All those miles and still looking good. True classics.

We’ve combined “Got Power?” (the exhibit where you race cars and pedal bikes) with Energy Quest (the exhibition where you gawk in horror at the realization that people used to make radioactive pottery). The result is a comprehensive learning experience about the way our world produces and uses energy.

Two kids enter, one kid kicks a ball. Probably.

Replacing “Got Power?” will be Training Camp, an interactive extension of Gridiron Glory, making its debut at LSC. Kids will be able to get a taste of what it’s like to train like the pros while their parents cheer them on. It’s going to be a ton of fun and we can’t wait to see what the kids can do.

We like to think that, if Andrew wasn't working here, he would still take time out of his day to inspect old stuff.

Speaking of Gridiron Glory, we started breaking open the artifact crates this week. If you’ve ever loved football, or movies about football, or the idea of professional sports, you simply must see this exhibition. We got goosebumps just looking at some of this stuff. Instead of traveling to Ohio, the Hall of Fame is coming to you. Does it get any better than that? We don’t think so. If you’re a football family, this is the exhibition for you and it can only be found at LSC.

Can we build it? Yes we can!

Speaking of families, Bob the Builder — Project: Build It opens THIS WEEKEND! It’s going to be adorable. There are all these little tools. The cuteness is all-consuming. Bring the little ones and let them go wild in this bright and fun exhibition.

Not exactly like changing a bulb at home.

When we first passed our Animal Husbandry folks checking the lights in one of our animal tanks it was a little disconcerting. We couldn’t immediately see the turtles and were half convinced that some sort of insurrection was taking place. That the turtles had organized and were making their escape. Of course, they were actually all like…

Forget the light. Where's the fruit?

You’ve got to love turtles. Loyal companions to the end.

This is just a small sampling of all the work that’s been going on. We have dozens of exciting things coming up and we can’t wait to share them with you. Stay tuned!