Global 2012: 10 Places Every Kid Should See

SeaWorld San Antonio (Photo credit: Wikipedia)What made a monument worthy of inclusion? It needed to be fun, educational, and especially magical through the eyes of a child. It needed to inspire adults to tap back into that childlike sense of wonder. And it needed to have universal appeal.

Of course, the surest way to rile folks up is to publish a list, and this case was no different. Our nominations process was fierce and brought out the full range of emotions in our audience—passion, joy, sadness, anger. You spoke up to nominate 562 attractions and voted over 138,000 times.

So how did we arrive at the final list? As we explained in the rules, we used your votes—combined with factors such as geographic and thematic diversity—to guide our selection-making process. And we automatically eliminated places that had made our story last year. The final list for 2012 represents the best that our nation has to offer our children.

The Field Museum
Chicago

SeaWorld San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaii

U.S. Space & Rocket Center
Huntsville, Ala.

Carlsbad Caverns
New Mexico

Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco

Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York

National Museum of American History
Washington, D.C.

Arches National Park
Utah

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Birmingham, Ala.

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