Expedition Health

EXPEDITION HEALTH

Opens April 4 and daily 9-5.

If you have enjoyed the Hall of Life at the Nature and History Museum in Denver, you will really love this new permanent exhibition.

My husband and I got the chance for a sneak preview and were fascinated by all of the hands on activities for us and there are a bunch more geared towards kids.

Exhibition health is the first project to be completed in the Museum’s new strategic plan, Museum 20/20. The plan includes a new science education center, a new storage facility for the Museum’s collections, and a new permanent exhibition about planet Earth, among other projects.

Expedition Health took two years to design, one year to build and cost $8.7 million dollars. Major donors to the program were the Boettcher Foundation, The Colorado Health Foundation and Gates family Foundation.

You  visit begins when you enter your name and age into the computer and choose your expedition buddy for the trip. 12 Coloradoans were chosen from among 500 applicants to become buddies.

There are 20 activity stations in the Core Exhibition area of Expedition health, and ore than 20 real anatomical specimens on display.  Your exhibition buddies give you their stories of the climb to Mount Evans as you move through the various stations.

“Studies show that people learn more when they have a learning companion whom they can relate to on a personal level, even if that companion is virtual,” said Nancy Walsh, lead educator for Expedition Health.

Biology Base Camp

The 10,000-square-foot Expedition Health gallery is organized into five major components.

• The Core Exhibit – where visitors look at how the body reacts during a trek up Mount Evans.
• The Biology Base Camp - is a participatory lab where visitors put on gloves, goggles, and lab coats and conduct experiments that get to the cellular level of science. These activities are designed to be easy and fun—some are even simple enough for kindergartners to do (with a little adult supervision).
• Body Trek Theater – As the movie begins, you find yourself on an expedition up a 14,000-foot peak with an expert mountain guide. But you’re not just watching the screen – you are actually experiencing the trek.
• Tykes Peak - An area designed for young learners ages 1 to 5.
• Summit Science Stage – Three fun educational activities happen here.
  • Lung Dissection
  • The Super Food Heroes
  • Pirates of the Human Being: Meet Your Microbial Mates

I would highly recommend this new exhibit for this weekend when our Springtime in the Rockies is looking more like winter.

Always a favorite as well is the prehistoric Exhibit which is also alive and well at the Museum.

Prehistoric Journey