We recently decided to check out Discovery World’s newest exhibit, Zoo in You — The Human Microbiome. Little T got a family membership last year, so we can come and go as we please without worrying about getting our money’s worth at each visit. Which is awesome. Because some days we stay for HOURS upon hours, and some we can only adventure for 45 minutes before people melt.
When we entered, we went right to the new exhibit. It is contained in one room, and has about 10-15 stations where kids can interact with the hands-on models and displays.
The first stop we made was to a cool DNA puzzle, which challenges kids to connect nucleobases to create nucleotides. Brought me right back to high school biology class. Except way more fun!
We learned how to build viruses and bacteria, and what they do. Not all bacteria are bad, of course, and in fact we need some to digest food and create a balance inside our bodies.
Little T had loved the microscope, which was easy for kids to manipulate. She also loved the green screen where she got to pretend to be a newscaster reporting on the microorganisms in our bodies.
Little A and I had a serious competition with the pinball-like game where we learned about places that humans can pick up microorganisms.
I think the most eye-opening station for me was the interactive video, where we got to zoom in on a single cold virus. We started out looking at objects like a penny, a grain of salt, a yeast cell, a skin cell, and a mold spore. I made my kids watch that about a hundred times because I was astounded at how small that cold virus was!
After spending about 30 minutes in the exhibit, we went to see the Challenger boat and snag a photo.
And then, because it’s summer, we climbed trees and ran around in the grass outside of Discovery World.
I’ll be back with more hikes and adventures soon…it’s been a hectic summer with a few setbacks, but we’ll keep exploring our city, parks, museums and trails!
A. Storm
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