BACK-TO-SCHOOL

An exhibit captures a child's imagination.

Learning can be fun.

Museum hours are Monday
through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5
p.m. but are subject to change.
Further information can be ob-
tained by calling the museum
at (313) 238-6900.
Closer to the Detroit area, the
Cranbrook Institute of Science
offers a variety of displays in ad-
dition to the hands-on exhibits.
Museum visitors can learn

about physics at Cranbrook
while participating in different
gravity, light, and sound exper-
iments.
Anthropology Hall includes
hands-on replicas from Native
American life including a wig-
wam and teepee appropriate for
children of all ages including
adults.
The Nature Place at Cran-

brook is home to live insects and
reptiles and a discovery room
where younger children are en-
couraged to touch and smell
some of the exhibits.
Cranbrook will also host sev-
eral temporary exhibits includ-
ing a Honey and Apples festival
during the weekends of Septem-
ber 28 and October 5.
During the festival museum
goers will be able to make apple
cider using a hand-operated an-
tique apple press and see bee-
keepers at work.
On display until Sept 7 is
"Backyard Monsters, the World
of Insects," featuring five robot-
ic insects and 14 interactive ex-
hibits.
One part of this exhibit allows
children to step into a model of
a fly.
Beginning in October, a trav-
eling exhibit called "Destination
Space" will explore space travel
and includes computers and a
build your own space station.
Dianne Patton, Cranbrook's
membership coordinator, be-
lieves what makes Cranbrook
unique is the diversity of ex-
hibits.
"There are hands-on exhibits
as well as exhibits for people to
look at. We offer laser shows and
classes. The museum's got a lit-
tle of everything. It is a small
museum with a lot going on."

Cranbrook is located in Bloom-
field Hills, off Lone Pine between
Woodward and Telegraph.
Museum admission is $5.00
for adults and $4.00 for children
and senior citizens. Hours are
Monday through Thursday 10
a.m. until 5 p.m., Friday and Sat-
urday from 10 am. until 10 p.m.
and Sunday from 1 p.m until 5
p.m.
The Henry Ford Museum and
Greenfield Village in Dearborn
is boasting a one-of-a-kind
hands-on exhibit called the In-
novation Station.
The Innovation Station oper-
ates with 20-30 visitors who con-
trol the flow of balls throughout
a complex network of tubes. This
gigantic learning center has a
3,200-square-foot maze of tubes
and 5,000 balls all powered by
visitors through pulleys, levers
and pedals. The goal of the sta-
tion is to have players work to-
gether to resolve problems that
may arise while operating the
system. Edwin Schlossberg of
New York designed the Innova-
tion Station to help adults and
children understand innovation.
"In this vast fourteen-acre
building dedicated to ingenuity,
enterprise and the history of
American technology, we want-
ed to focus the attention and in-
terest of visitors so that they
themselves could become inno-

vators," said Edwin Schlossberg
in an article about the exhibit
in House & Garden magazine.
Mr. Schlossberg wanted to cre-
ate an exhibit that is innovative,
not just an exhibit about inno-
vation.
Tickets are available at no ex-
tra cost but are required for each
show and available on a first
come first serve basis.
Henry Ford Museum is lo-
cated at Oakwood and Village
Road just west off the Southfield
Freeway and south of Michigan
Avenue.
Museum hours are daily from
9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Admission to the museum or
village is $11.50 for adults, $5.75
for kids (5-12) and $10.50 for
adults 62 and older.
For further information, call
1-800-343-1929.
Besides children's "rooms" in
traditional museums, there are
at least 300 children's museums
across the country featuring in-
teractive exhibits, said Mary Ab-
bajay of the Capital Children's
Museum in Washington, D.C.
"There's an old Chinese proverb
that goes, see and I forget, I
hear and I remember, I do and I
understand.' That's the philoso-
phy a lot of these museums are
based on. Children learn and get
excited when they can actually
do something."

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