This post is sponsored by Great Lakes Science Center, we received tickets in exchange for this conversation. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
You know that period between Christmas and New Years Day when there is nothing planned…but you are stuck in the house with two children who are close to driving you crazy! Oh, that’s just me…well anyways, I knew that time was coming so I planned a day at The Great Lakes Science Center in November!
A few months back Emma went on a field trip to the Science Center with her school and they went to the Grossology Exhibit and once I saw the pictures I wanted to go!
What is the Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body?
Grossology gives children the chance to explore the good, the bad and ugly about how their bodies and how it works! And its a pretty cool to see their response to the exhibit, and read everything! I actually wish I could’ve gotten a moment to read EVERYTHING because it was so educational! However, we all know how it goes with kids bouncing around at a hands-on museum!
The Grossology exhibit is broken down into sections…
Nigel Nose-It-All
Guests can activate this animatronic exhibit by pressing one of five buttons to learn about how their nose functions including allergies, sinuses, snot trivia, runny noses and more. In addition, microscopes at the exhibits base feature slides of things that cause runny noses. The animatronic figure (over 9-feet tall) moves its head, arms, eyelids, handle and a special snot ball drops out of his faucet nose at various times during his presentation!
Tour du Nose
Enter a giant cartoon nose and explore 10 very realistic nasal features: nose hair; conchae: the opening to the front of the sinuses; the septum; the eustachian tubes; mucus production; a view down the throat; tear ducts; the olfactory epithelium and blood vessels. As people enter and walk to the back of the nose the nose awakens and lets out a loud “sneeeeze”, which triggers a rush of air through the nose!
Skin Climbing Wall
This large-scale fiberglass replica of human skin features pimples, warts, wounds, hair, moles and other skin blemishes. Guests will discover many features of the skin as they climb across this 12-foot wall!
Burp Man
A larger than life cartoon character drinks from a three-foot pop can be pumped by visitors. The stomach pressure increases until the character releases a giant burp, while a second interactive exhibit shows how the sphincter works.
Gas Attack!
Everyone loves to play pinball – Two custom pinball games are positioned in front of an animated pig sitting atop a pile of poo. The games are customized to teach children which foods create more gas in their bodies. The animated pig says funny quips at the start and end of each game.
GI Slide
This exhibit is for our youngest scientists who slide and crawl through its giant 3-D model (over 30 feet long!) of the digestive system from mouth to large intestine.
Patients Please!
Guests can learn their body parts in this activity styled ala the old famous game “Operation”. Can you remove body parts from the game table without touching the sides of the patient?
Click Ick
Play Grossology at one of two computer stations. Each computer has a character face positioned around its monitor.
Listen to Your Body
Listen to various sounds the body makes such as stomach gurgles, air movement in the lungs, heart beating and gulping in the throat by pressing buttons on a cartoon body.
Look Inside
Learn how food is digested as it passes through the gastrointestinal system by watching an X-ray machine.
Up Your Nose
Learn how boogers form in your nose by launching pollen balls at an oversized nose. But be careful! Shooting too many pollen balls into the nose causes the nose to sneeze and shoot back the balls at the visitor!
Urine: The Game
Act as a kidney by using a virtual reality glove and blue-screen technology to grab waste elements and remove them from the blood stream!
Vomit Center
A Rube Goldbergesque structure of the digestive system explores the many causes of vomiting.
Y U Stink
Match the body odors with the area of the body they come from: armpits, lower intestines, mouth & feet. It’s simple: you smell, select your answer, then a red or green light glows from under the bacteria model to identify if you have answered correctly or not!
The exhibit has been running since October and goes until January 6, so if you haven’t been then you should definitely go this week!
If you haven’t had a chance to visit the Grossology exhibit, I highly suggest you get there before its gone! My entire family enjoyed themselves while learning about our bodies! There were even tips posted around the Science Center that taught us more tips about our bodies!
If you don’t get to the Grossology exhibit, you should still take a trip to the Great Lakes Science Center because its still a lot of educational fun! The kids are having so much fun that they don’t notice they are actually learning.
