Monday, March 23, 2009
Against a backdrop of live fish, a working beehive and a skeleton of an extinct giant sea lizard, guests of all ages explored the marvels of mucus, goose bumps and the human nose.
The Natural History Museum hands-on exhibit “Body Science: blood, boogers and bones” brought in thousands of guests from Tuesday through Saturday last week.
Andrew Forgey, 8, tries to extricate an organ from the giant "surgery" game last Thursday at the Body Science exhibit, held at the Natural History Museum throughout spring break. Several hundred people attended the exhibit each day. Forgey's family traveled from Topeka to see the exhibit.
Jen Humphrey, communications director for the museum, said the exhibit was always popular because it provided an educational activity for families during spring break.
“One of the great things about doing this over spring break is that it gives people an entertainment option that they otherwise wouldn’t have,” Humphrey said.
She said it was the sixth year for the spring break exhibit. This year’s exhibit brought in more than 4,000 visitors, exceeding all previous attendance records.
“As we like to say, ‘School’s out, science is in,’” Humphrey said.
The exhibit featured Anatomy Alex, a life-size version of the board game Operation. Guests used tongs to simulate removing bones during surgery — just like in the board game, touching the metal edges resulted in a loud buzzing noise. The museum also had a seven-foot nose, complete with Velcro nose hairs, a game to test patrons’ sense of smell
Emily Blair, 5, watches a demonstration featuring a hydrogen peroxide catalyst March 19 during the Natural History Museum's Body Science exhibit.
Marcus Gomez, of Topeka, brought his 9-year-old son Jaden to the museum for the third year in a row.
Gomez said the two always enjoyed the varying exhibits and that it was a great way to entertain his son while he wasn’t in school.
Jaden said the giant nose and Anatomy Alex were his two favorite exhibits.
“I would rather go to Disney World,” Jaden said, “but it’s still fun.”
Saira Khan, Lawrence junior, was among the 18 employees who staffed the museum for the exhibit. She said children enjoyed the exhibit because the activities were interactive and sometimes messy.
“The kids seem to be pretty excited about it,” Khan said.
Danielle Mears, of Overland Park, said her family chose to stay at home this spring break because of the poor economy.
“I think this is the first spring break in many years that we haven’t traveled,” Mears said.
Mears and her 9-year-old son Devan have been to the museum before, but never to the spring break exhibit.
“We’re staying local and free,” Mears said. “I think a lot of people are.”
Devan said his favorite part of the exhibit was a video about concentration.
Dawn Kirchner, museum educator, said the video displayed how the brain uses “inattentional blinding” to concentrate and focus.
The video asked viewers to focus and count how many times a group of people passed a basketball back and forth. What many viewers didn’t see was a person in a gorilla suit walking onto the screen.
“They missed it because they were so concentrated on the task at hand, the brain just chops it out,” Kirchner said, “Of course, when we play it again, people kind of laugh.”
Devan admitted he missed it the first time.
“I didn’t even see the gorilla!” Devan said.
Humphrey said that students and museum employees worked on the exhibit for about a year and plans for next year’s exhibit were already underway.
— — Edited by Realle Roth
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