Field Trips

Please Complete The Form To Start The Booking Process For YOUR S.T.E.A.M. Field Trip!

Pinball PA is committed to proving a safe, fun and educational outlet for today’s youth. With that commitment, we have dedicated a good amount of our offering to education.

Pinball PA is located in the Hopewell Shopping Center at 2284 Brodhead Road, Suite 10B, Aliquippa, PA 15001. We feature both an educational/historical wing as well as over 400 vintage arcade games and pinball machines that serve as interactive exhibits which our customers can play. Most machines have a QR code on them that, when scanned by a smartphone or a tablet, reveals the direct history of that individual machine.

Our museum is dedicated to presenting the S.T.E.M. fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to students and accompanying adults to our museum. Because of this, we are proud to offer field trips to our museum which will showcase the various avenues and effects that gaming has had on all four branches of S.T.E.M.

Our field trips offer a 30-45 minute informational tour of our facilities. Within this tour, we offer the following educational points to students.

  • History – we profile the history of video gaming and pinball since it’s advent back in the 1930s.
  • Science and Technology – Part of our tour is to show students actual pinball machines and arcade machines from the inside out. We discuss how the machines work – circuitry, wiring, triggers, computerized functions and more.
  • Engineering – Our tour touches on the major companies responsible for the development and creation of games, how they are developed, and once developed, how they are mass produced.
  • Mathematics – A large part of both arcade games and pinball machines is the mathematics required in their development and operation. We profile some of the basic algebraic functions, measurement of angles, and required mathematics of programming when writing basic arcade games.
  • Art – While sometimes overlooked, Pinball and Arcade Machine art has become a sub-culture onto itself in the art community. We showcase this facet of game development.
  • Finance – We talk a bit about the financial aspect of gaming, and specifically how Space Invaders caused a Yen shortage in Japan when it was first released.

Some other information of interest about our field trips:

  • Our field trip tours are interactive. We engage the students, and encourage them to participate.
  • More than just about any other industry, our field trips will create great interest with most kids today. Video Gaming is one of the biggest industries in the world, and the core audience is school-aged kids. We’ve found that kids love to learn the history of this industry.
  • We are staffed to provide field trip tours of the facility for larger groups (up to 50). We split a large group into 2 smaller groups, and provide the educational tour from opposite ends of the facility so as to keep everyone engaged without losing attention as generally happens in a larger group.

TYPICAL FIELD TRIP

9:30am – CheckIn/Breakdown Into Groups
9:45am-10:15am – Educational Tour
10:15am-11:45am – Allow Students To Try Many Of The Games
11:45am – Assemble and Load Buses To Return To School

* NOTE: Times are adjustable to the school curriculum.

Please feel free to call us at (412) 423-8532 or contact us by the form on this page to discuss field trip opportunities, rates and scheduling. We look forward to working with you.