Ingenium: Three museums well worth a visit

What better place to spend time with your family while learning than at a museum? There’s something for everyone, with imaginatively designed exhibits that combine technology, artifacts, guided tours and fun zones. Visit the Ingenium Museums, three Ottawa museums that are well worth a visit!

Experiments and innovation

The Canada Science and Technology Museum is a great family destination. With 11 exhibitions, there’s something for everyone, whether you want to exercise your imagination, learn more about transportation, or find out how natural resources are used to meet our needs. 

Daily presentations on the demonstration stage illustrate scientific principles in a fun way. Come and discover, for instance, how fire has played an essential role in technological advances. 

While you’re there, check out the ZOOOM Children’s Innovation Zone, a hands-on exhibition where children 8 and under can let their imagination run wild. The Crazy Kitchen +, the museum’s most popular and oldest exhibition, uses optical illusions to show how our brain can deceive us and change our perception. Our senses can play tricks on us! 

Technology in Our Lives is an educational and thought-provoking exhibition about our relationship with technology in the home, its limitations, and how we use it. 

Down on the farm

The Canada Agriculture and Food Museum—the only farm in the world located in the heart of a capital city—is the place to be for animal lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. Guided tours are offered every day to introduce visitors to the wonderful world of agriculture and its importance, and the farm animals are a perennial family favourite. 

The interactive exhibition Canola! Seeds of Innovation explains how scientists created canola oil from rapeseed, a plant that grows on the prairies. Through digital games and audiovisual presentations, explore the scientific, agricultural, economic and social impact of this versatile plant. 

Museum guides give daily demonstrations about the food we eat and the agricultural products we use. You can also get up close and personal with some of your favourite farm animals! 

During your visit, drop by the language installation Nidòndàdizimin nidjìbikànàng: Thriving from Our Roots to learn about Anishinàbe Algonquin language and culture with your family or friends. This trilingual display (in Algonquin, French and English) by two members of Kitigan Zibi Anishinàbeg celebrates the presence and resilience of the Anishinàbe Algonquin peoples on their traditional territories. 

To infinity and beyond

The Canada Aviation and Space Museum takes you to a whole new world: aerospace. On a guided tour or on your own, explore the history of aviation as illustrated by the aircraft in the Main Exhibition Hall, where you can also view artifacts from the early days of aviation to the Cold War. Don’t miss the immersive Ace Academy: Flying Experience! 

The Eyes on the Skies exhibition examines the rapid evolution of air traffic management. Using various technologies and digital experiments, you can test your skill to see if you have what it takes to be an air traffic controller. A special area invites “tiny controllers,” ages two to five, to imagine themselves in the control tower. 

The new Canada in Space exhibit shows you how the development of the Canadarm, a robotic arm used to repair satellites from the International Space Station, launched Canada’s astronaut program. Take a close look at astronaut flight suits, satellites and capsules. Go for a “spin” in the Disorientation Station to test your resistance to spatial disorientation and find out if you’d make a good astronaut. 

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Visit the Expérience Outaouais + website for ideas to extend your stay in the Outaouais!