Discovery Center Has a Happy 1st Birthday

There was nothing scientific about the Discovery Science Center’s first birthday celebration Saturday.

Hundreds of visitors and employees sang, ate frosted cupcakes and, in a nod to the season, watched Santa Claus scale the center’s landmark steel cube 108 feet above the Santa Ana Freeway, where he clung for hours, waving at passing traffic.

To the science center’s officials, the anniversary was a milestone, an opportunity to analyze attendance, revenue, exhibits and projections for the $24-million nonprofit attraction.

“It’s been one year, and that’s an important time for us to take a look at ourselves and how far we’ve come,” said Chris Trela, a spokesman for the center. “Only then can we know where we’re going.”

Based on attendance tallies for the first year, which fell about 20,000 visitors short of the 310,000 that the center had budgeted for, science center officials said they will lower their second-year attendance projections to 275,000.

The decline is not unlike the drop that most attractions report after a highly publicized debut and months of opening celebrations, said Pamela Shambra, the center’s vice president of marketing. About 290,000 people visited the Discovery Science Center in the past year, including 90,000 children on field trips.

“We aren’t alarmed by our first-year numbers,” Shambra said. “What do they tell us? We’re a hit. We can be an even bigger hit.”

When it opened last year, the museum joined a worldwide trend to teach science at hands-on discovery centers. More than 200 child-oriented science museums have been built in the past 20 years. Orange County’s holds nearly 100 exhibits that range from finger-painting by computer to an earthquake simulator and tornado maker. In other exhibits, visitors can test their balance and watch their shadows projected onto a 10-foot screen in different colors and lights.

The 59,000-square-foot building is officially the Taco Bell Discovery Science Center because of the company’s $2-million contribution.

One change for the coming year will be the launch of an Adults’ Night Out series, which officials hope will attract more grown-ups. The evenings will include hors d’oeuvres, wine tasting, lectures or shows, and plenty of time to experience the center’s exhibits without having to compete with crowds of children.

“Many times parents or grandparents either feel guilty trying out some of the stuff while kids are waiting, or they are hesitant to fiddle with anything because they’re not sure how the things work,” Trela said. “This will give them all the time in the world.” Adults-only nights will be every other month until interest is established, he said.

More traveling exhibits will be brought in next year as well, including an 18-hole miniature golf game that is played indoors and gives participants brief ecology lessons with each swing. A nine-day Bubble Festival will be in the spring, when visitors can watch a master bubble-maker create works of floating art and then try their own hands at it.

But the present, not the future, was the focus of most who came to the center’s birthday party Saturday. Chad Hogan, 11, dashed from exhibit to exhibit, yelling for his friend Jason Downing to keep up.

“Check this out,” Chad hollered, climbing atop a bed of 3,500 steel nails. Stretching out, he waited as a science center worker activated the bed so that the sharp points made contact with his body, eventually supplying the only support for his prone body.

“Ooooh,” he whispered, taking care not to wiggle. “It feels so weird, like acupuncture or something.”