Washington's newest attraction opens this week in the south wing of a downtown elementary school. Its namethe Center for Inquiry and Discoverybelies the informal vitality and animation within, where visitors build geodesic domes out of bamboo, lift weights on pulleys or take car engines apart. CID is a museum for children, ages four through 14, the latest entry in an expanding field. "What's important is participation," explains Doris Whitmore, president of the American Association of Youth Museums. "Without a hands-on approach, it's a dead museum."
Prehistoric Skeletons. Lloyd Hezekiah, director of the renowned...