Credit: Maryland Science Center
Johns Hopkins Medicine, known for its world-class care of children at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, is hoping to inspire the next generation of scientists and medical professionals.
Johns Hopkins Medicine is teaming up with the Maryland Science Center to sponsor the museum's new human body exhibit, "You - The Inside Story." The Maryland Science Center, located in Baltimore, engages children and adults with interactive exhibits, traveling exhibitions, and presentations in the Davis Planetarium and the IMAX Theater. The new 12,000-square-foot interactive experience, which opened Nov. 19, showcases 35 hands-on activities to teach guests all about the human body - its capabilities, limitations and possibilities - by putting visitors through a series of tests and challenges.
"As a boy, I was always interested in math and science. For students, these experiences could lead to a lifelong love of science or perhaps even a career at Johns Hopkins Medicine," said Paul B. Rothman, M.D., dean of the medical faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine. "We are honored to be the presenting sponsor of this exhibit, providing critical support for informal STEM education."
Some of the exhibit's features include a Mindball table that allows visitors to compete to see who can move a ball across a finish line using their brain waves; the Stroop effect race, a bizarre version of red light, green light that demonstrates how the brain processes what a human's eyes see; along with a fart simulator, earwax inspection and parasite removal table.
"As an academic health and research organization, we know the pursuit of knowledge can not only lead to extraordinary discoveries, it can also fulfill our very human need to understand ourselves and the world," said Kevin Sowers, M.S.N., R.N., F.A.A.N., president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine. "We want kids to be excited about science and to experience that learning can be fun and informative.
"The exhibit was created with input from the museum's Scientific Council as well as STEM teachers from around Maryland, and follows Maryland state education standards.
"In designing 'You - The Inside Story,' our emphasis was on hands-on collaborative learning that gets everyone from field trippers to grandparents asking questions and uncovering answers," said Mark J. Potter, president and CEO of the Maryland Science Center. "Visitors learn scientific concepts through sensory experience rather than being told or shown on a screen. You'll see, hear and feel for yourself how your body reacts and adapts to different stimuli. Guests will work together and be pitted against each other to learn together. This is exciting informal science education that elevates heart rates and generates big laughs. Nothing is remote or passive."
"You - The Inside Story" is the third new permanent exhibit at the Maryland Science Center in the last three years.
