New Blog » Managing Director http://www.imaginationstage.org/blog/ Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:05:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Animal Grossology: For Both the Kid, and the Kid Inside All of Us http://www.imaginationstage.org/blog/2011/12/442/ http://www.imaginationstage.org/blog/2011/12/442/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:17:41 +0000 admin http://www.imaginationstage.org/blog/2011/12/442/ Animal Grossology at the National Geographic Museum is so much more than what its name implies.  The exhibits range from the truly gross to the exceptionally fun and interactive.  As soon as I walked through the door I wished I had brought my great-great-niece and two of my best friends. It is truly a show for borth the kid and the adult with the kid inside.

Don’t get me wrong – the exhibit is educational, but also exceptionally fun.  While you watch a new version of “The Dating Game” that interviews the slimiest creatures on earth, those who have watched the original TV show can relate to the many slimy, or should I say swarmy, contestants in their memory while the younger set listens, learns, and then votes for the winning contestant (and YES, your vote does count!). 

The exhibit’s first big winner is a cow – who expertly releases gas from both its ends with extreme aural dexterity. The life-size, cartoon-style cow has an open side where the intrepid museum-goer gets to experience a pin-ball metaphor or the 4 stomachs that create all that wonderful gas. 

The exhibit’s ‘end’ is appropriately a presentation of the work of a dung beetle – and spectators can engage in a lovely dung ball game set into a 6 foot dung pile.  While that sounds (and is) exceptionally fun, I can guarantee that the most popular part of the exhibit is the submarine and slide (think sea slug).  I witnessed an after-school group come into the exhibit and after a peripheral spin around the room, the slide instantly filled with a line outside. Personally, my favorite exhibit was the interactive frog-spit game (who knew that some frogs spit out their eggs).  The grossest (and according to spell-check, that is indeed a word) is the owl!  It both spits and poops excrement.  I used to think owls were so chic.

Yes – you learn a lot about excrement, gas, and slime, but you also learn about life cycles, habitats, and all those things your science teacher really wants you to remember.  Planted near the exit, although perhaps too close to the distracting slide or dung beetle game, is a video screen that lets its audience play a multiple choice grossology game – if you pay attention throughout the exhibit, you will definitely win. If not, the game encourages you to go back and really investigate past the slime and the slide to see what’s really going on inside.

Overall, I recommend this for families with kids (or adults) who enjoy nature in ALL of its parts, but especially the gross and slimy ones.  Don’t forget to stop in the gift shop – the Animal Grossology books and toys have a display of their own on the far wall, and there is a fun “younger set” focused section around the corner to your left.

This blog is dedicated to my great-great-niece Layla and my friends: Korey and Garvan, man I wish you’d been there with me!

- Brett Crawford, Managing Director, Imagination Stage

]]> http://www.imaginationstage.org/blog/2011/12/442/feed/ 0 The Power of the Imagination http://www.imaginationstage.org/blog/2010/01/the-power-of-the-imagination/ http://www.imaginationstage.org/blog/2010/01/the-power-of-the-imagination/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:05:00 +0000 admin http://www.imaginationstage.org/blog/2010/01/the-power-of-the-imagination/

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Power of Magical Thinking” underscores the raison d’etre of Imagination Stage. The article notes that research shows the importance of imagination in children’s cognitive development:

“ for years, imagination was thought of as a way for children to escape from reality, and once they reached a certain age, it was believed they would push fantasy aside and deal with the real world. But, increasingly child-development experts are recognizing the importance of imagination and the role it plays in understanding reality. Imagination is necessary for learning about people and events we don’t directly experience, such as history or events on the other side of the world. For young kids, it allows them to ponder the future, such as what they want to do when they grow up.” [The Power of Magical Thinking, by Shirley S. Wang, the Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2009.]

 

When we created Imagination Stage (The Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts) 30 years ago, we didn’t know the psychological basis behind our innate understanding of the fact that a fully realized child needs continual and regular access to the three A’s: Academics, Athletics, Arts. That child will grow up to be the empowered, independent thinking, creative adult we need to manage our world – tomorrow.


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