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SPOTLIGHT
Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl: Home Sweet Home
Now at the Discovery Science Center June 20 – Oct. 4, 2009
Children discover composting, conservation and “leave no trace”
Two beloved American icons come to life in Taco Bell Discovery Science Center’s new educational, interactive exhibit for children, Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl: Home Sweet Home. The West Coast premiere of the 1,500-square-foot green-built exhibit, created in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service, runs from June 20 to Oct. 4, 2009. This is the first stop on a four-year, 10-city tour. This new exhibit encourages families to spend time together outdoors and inspires children to discover and care for the natural resources that sustain our world – our home sweet home. Exhibit activities are especially engaging for children ages 2 to 8, providing them with open-ended play opportunities that help build fundamental academic and social skills. Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl guide visitors through urban, woodland and stream settings featuring a variety of educational activities presented in English and Spanish. Props, costumes and puppets underscore the importance of protecting ecosystems and highlight ways to reduce, reuse and recycle resources. It also features a number of stops along the way including: At Home In the Great Forest Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl greet visitors under a leafy forest canopy where visitors will learn the story of the real Smokey Bear and how human activities can impact our natural environment. A ranger’s station and lookout tower complete with a pretend two-way radio, interactive map, fire safety activity, computer workstation and sighting tube, encourage children to explore the roles of the forest ranger, cartographer and firefighter. Photos and video clips provide views of real forests, reforestation and areas affected by wildfires. On the nature trail, children make their way over a tipsy bridge, through a hollow log, and across a rock-climbing wall as they discover the sights, sounds and creatures that live in the forest. Along the way, children can create a performance at Woodsy’s puppet tree using audio effects, costumes and scripts that promote conservation messages. A pretend campfire and sing-along, stump seating, tent, camping gear and first-aid supplies provide ways for children to experience the fun of outdoor recreation, while learning the importance of safety. A stop at Woodsy’s recycling station helps remind children to “leave no trace.” At Home in the Urban Forest A cityscape mural provides the backdrop for a pretend house with a small yard and garden shed that encourages visitors to explore the concept of urban ecology. Children can pretend to install green building materials, practice recycling and reducing water consumption, and discover the amount of energy it takes to power household appliances. In the yard, children can plant a tree sapling, turn the compost tumbler, and guide a pretend raindrop from the garden shed roof into a rain barrel that feeds a kid-sized plot of vegetables and flowers. Other backyard activities include creating a pretend picnic, assembling a birdhouse made of recycled materials, and enjoying a variety of related reading materials. The Bridge Home A pretend bridge and stream provide a transition between the forest and urban settings, helping introduce the concepts of interdependence and our responsibility for protecting the environment. In and along the pretend stream, children can guide a pretend raindrop around rocks and logs to a beaver’s dam, follow animal tracks, compare the differences in the urban and forest shorelines, learn about water safety, and pretend to fish from a kid-sized rowboat. A directional signpost provides information about local outdoor recreation venues. Also at Taco Bell Discovery Science Center – Robots & Us The Robots and Us exhibition encourages Science Center visitors of all ages to compare sci-fi fantasies of robots with today’s technical realities and to explore why it’s so hard to build robots to be like humans. They’ll enjoy directing light-sensitive robots through mazes that they create in the Robot Arena, and experimenting with walking machines in the Leg Lab to learn how simple changes in anatomy can affect how they walk and handle obstacles. They can interact with Jeremiah, a giant-sized computer-generated character, and discover the factors that influence his “mood;” and even use their newfound robot smarts and some simple household materials to build jitterbug robots of their own. For more information about the Discovery Science Center visit http://www.discoverycube.org/.
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