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Rookie Mom

Museum for kids rolls out more exhibits for exploring

By KATHERINE SNOW SMITH
Published May 7, 2006

If you've been to Great Explorations: The Children's Museum lately you may have seen an employee meandering through the crowd with a snake around his neck. Or maybe you've been there when they suddenly announce it's boogie time and the staff rushes around encouraging kids and parents to dance. Sometimes they start a Conga line. Even when no dancing is going on, there's usually music playing, tunes from Mexico or Trinidad or theme songs from old TV shows like The Jetsons and Gilligan's Island.

These are some of the little changes that have taken place since David Penn became the museum's new director nine months ago.

"We want to make our guest experience more memorable," he said recently. "We're out there doing something every half hour."

There are some big changes happening as well. The museum, 1925 Fourth St. N, has raised $1.6-million in the past six months from individual and corporate donors. Several new exhibits have opened, and more will be on board by fall. Penn wants to make sure kids and parents realize Great Explorations is not simply a children's science museum.

"We're the every subject museum," he said. "We want kids to learn about diversity, music, art, health, history, sports and a lot more."

Penn was the director of Kid City in Tampa for three years. Before that he was with the Orlando Science Center for 10 years.

By fall, a tree will stand in the middle of the museum, with a tree house and big branches reaching to the ceiling. Parents and children will be able to climb up and settle into "nooks" to read a book together or just hang out for a few minutes. The $250,000 exhibit is sponsored by developer JMC Communities.

"The Great Pet Vet" exhibit recently opened to teach respect, kindness and caring for animals. Kids can choose to help a toy dog, cat, bird or rabbit on the stainless steel examining table. Within a few weeks, a Publix-sponsored exhibit called "My First Supermarket" will open. It will be a 700-square-foot child-sized grocery store with fully stocked shelves, refrigerator case and bakery. Kids can "shop'' or wear aprons to work the scanners at the checkout counter.

Another addition set to start this summer is the Progress Energy Heart Gallery, which will feature portraits of foster children in Pinellas and Pasco counties who are up for adoption. Their own voices can be heard talking about their hopes of finding a family. A similar gallery that tours museums and malls in Tampa has helped more than 40 children find homes in less than two years.

Adoption is an important cause for Penn, who has seen the benefits to both parents and child first hand. After he and his wife adopted a daughter in 1997, they adopted two sons, ages 5 and 9, in 2004. Each of the boys had been in seven different foster homes.

It was years earlier when he was a young human resources director at a Marriott Hotel in Rhode Island when Penn decided he wanted to adopt one day.

An 18-year-old boy carrying a shopping bag came in to apply for a job. He had just been released from a group home on his 18th birthday and, since he had never been adopted, now had to find a job and a life, with all his possessions in one bag.

The Heart Gallery will open at Great Explorations on June 22, then tour Pinellas and Pasco counties.

Penn is also enthusiastic about getting kids involved in structured learning and teaching, not just occasional museum visits.

Pinellas 18, the county's community TV station, is opening a satellite studio at Great Ex this summer. He plans for kids with an interest in broadcasting to write and produce shows about water conservation, hurricane preparedness or any number of topics that can be aired from the station within the museum.

The museum has also started a Youth Apprentice program for children and teens. Each child volunteers at least 12 hours a month helping teach other kids about exhibits and offering input on new exhibits and programs. One of the apprentices' first projects is putting the museum's gift shop inventory on eBay.

There's also a drama program starting for kids ages 14 to 17. They will meet regularly to learn about acting, makeup, costuming and the business side of theater, then put on presentations for museum guests.

"We're letting kids decide the future of the museum's programs and exhibits," Penn said. So far, 29 children are youth apprentices. Penn hopes to have as many as 200.

Even 2-year-olds are getting a say. Moms and children who attend the museum's Terrific Tots activity class, which is offered several times a week, have been asked what more they want from Great Ex. As a result, the toddler area will get more climbing space, more dress-up stations and big mirrors so the little ones can see themselves in all their glory.

The museum also has put added focus on the human body, health eating and exercise.

A new exhibit lets kids literally "balance" eating and exercise by hanging wooden pictures of foods, such as a cheeseburger, soft drink, fruit or chocolate cake on one side of the scale then hang pictures of activities such as swimming, walking the dog, or dancing on the other. They can see how much exercise and food choices stay balanced and what makes the scale top heavy.

By the end of the year, Great Ex will have an age simulator that will allow kids to type in what types of food they eat, if they smoke, how much they exercise and then see how their body will age over time. There will also be a dance revolution game to encourage kids to get moving and a giant model of the human body that they can actually walk through.

With all the changes, it sounds like they are going to have to double the size of the museum, right? Penn says no. The new exhibits will fill in spaces between existing ones.

"We're just going to make it tighter so there is a more busy feel to it all," he said.

Great Explorations has an operating budget of $1-million a year. About 60 percent of that comes from admissions, camps and birthday parties. The other 40 percent comes from grants and donations. Fundraising pays for new exhibits.

Daily admission to the museum is $9, $8 for seniors and free for children 11 months old or younger. Family memberships, which allow unlimited visits, start at $100. You can sign up now for summer camps. For more information, call (727) 821-8992.

IF YOU GO

In addition to permanent changes, the museum offers a growing list of special events and programs. Here's a sampling:

- Starting May 13, Captain Max's Junior Astronomers Club will meet the second Saturday of every month.

- On May 14, Mother's Day, moms get free admission to the museum, and there will be arts and crafts projects to make and take home.

- On May 20, the museum's birthday, there will be a make-your-own-ice-cream station. Admission is free.

- On June 17, kids can wear their bathing suits to Wacky Water Day.nOn June 18, Father's Day, dads get in free and can participate in sports challenges.

[Last modified May 7, 2006, 10:10:44]