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Visitors
enter the World of Life through Life Tunnel,
which introduces the main ideas of the exhibit hall
through large video images cast along the tunnel’s
55-foot wall. The next stop is Cell Lab,
where living single-celled creatures can be viewed
under microscopes. Cell Theater, located
inside Cell Lab, presents a video show and live
demonstrations on how cells perform the life processes
common to all living things. Visitors exit the Cell
Lab onto the main exhibit floor that showcases the
five life process galleries.
Within
each gallery, visitors learn how plants,
people and other animals perform critical life processes.
Control Center explores how living things
react to the world around them; Life Source
focuses on reproduction and genetic information;
Supply Network addresses how plants and animals
take in supplies and get rid of waste; Energy
Factory explains how people, plants and animals
get the energy and raw materials they need; and
Defense Line introduces how living things
protect themselves against the elements, predators
and germs.
The
life process galleries provide a wide variety of
exhibit experiences. Visitors will be able to:
- Compare
the human heart to that of an elephant or even
a mouse.
- "Unroll"
a life-size illustration of the human digestive
tract.
- Watch
chicks hatch or tadpoles turn into frogs.
- Take
a thermal picture of their own body and compare
it with heat images taken of other animals.
- Get
inside a bat head and "see" the world
with sound.
- Discover
what it takes to pump blood to the brain of a
giraffe.
BodyWorks
features Tess, a 50-foot anatomically correct transparent
human model or body simulator. Animatronics, animation
and special effects bring the BodyWorks show to
life as Tess and Walt, her cartoon sidekick, explore
how teamwork helps the body play soccer. It is here
that visitors learn how organs work together to
keep the body in balance or in homeostasis.
The
World of Life Discovery Room creates a park
setting for younger children to explore the living
world. Children can climb up a tree house, create
their own puppet plays, and interact with a variety
of live plants and animals. There’s always something
to touch, explore, and learn with age-appropriate
discovery box activities. Each box provides children
and their families with intriguing hands-on, minds-on
experiences for young and old alike.
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