Epcot - Innoventions

The first thing we did when we got to EPCOT was walk around the park arguing for 20 minutes about what we should do first. Maddie had visited EPCOT last summer with some family friends, so she had pretty strong opinions. Finally, an executive decision was made to go through the Innoventions building first. The first thing you see in this building is a Segway Human Transporter display. Since they don't let you actually try out the Segways, we skipped this one. Maddie and I made some smirky comment to each other about the announcers resemblance to G.O.B. They actually had scenes from Arrested Development playing on a monitor there.

Next up was recycled paper making. That's what Sammy is doing in the photo above. Each kid made a tiny sheet of paper and stamped it with an EPCOT stamp. I wrote their names on them and saved them. After that we did Robot Races. First you watch a little presentation about different kinds of plastic. Then we got to design virtual robots and run a race with them, using footpads similar to Dance Dance Revolution pads. Sammy and I ran together. Dave actually won the race, which was included another family. Next stop, you can assemble your own small "robot" out of premolded parts. The next photo is of the kids holding their creations.

We sailed pretty quickly through the rest of Innoventions. We made a quick stop at an exhibit that explained some economic concepts, like the law of supply and demand. I've been boring Maddie to death with lengthy economics lectures lately, in between study sessions for the CFA exam this June. They had some games using these concepts and I thought it would be fun to play them. However, right before we started, the attendant came up and whispered something to Maddie. As soon as the game began, she just hit all the keys randomly, as fast as possible. She outscored me by a mile. I was kind of ticked at the guy for telling her to play the game "wrong", but she enjoyed beating me.