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Inside information
Science from the inside out
By SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE
Published February 2, 2006
Nothing grabs a kid's attention like poop and vomit.
That's plain to see in the fun new exhibit at Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry, "Animal Grossology," based on the bestselling books that teach science in all its weird and nasty glory.
Sylvia Branzei's five books on human and animal "grossology" have sold in the hundreds of thousands. Branzei said the target age is 8 to 12, but the exhibits try to accommodate everyone.
Among the lessons destined to make kids giggle wickedly at MOSI:
- Freddie, a huge animated fly who cracks jokes like a cruise ship comic as he stars in "Vomit Slurpers" and explains his digestive system.
- The Dung-Ball Rally, featuring a much-larger-than-life dung beetle that boasts, "I can push a ball of poop 50 times my weight uphill."
- A life-size cow replica, which issues thunderous belches, is a see-through model baring the inner workings of ruminants, with more information on cud-chewing than most people want to know. (A cow produces about 220 quarts of saliva a day. Humans manage only about one.) The other end of the cow works, too. The tail flips up each time.
"Animal Grossology" will be on display in the Kids in Charge children's science center at MOSI through April 1 and is included with admission: $15.95 adult; $11.95 child; $13.95 for seniors. MOSI is at 4801 E Fowler Ave., Tampa. 813 987-6100 or www.mosi.org
- SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE, Times staff writer
[Last modified February 1, 2006, 09:05:07]
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