Gizmos and Gadgets Gizmos and Gadgets (March 26, 2004)

A new exhibit teaches kids about the basics of physics

By Elizabeth White

Spencer "Rooster" Dember is more interested in yelling out his nickname and noting that he has the same boots as another girl at the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo than talking about the physics of the contraption on which he's walking.

But he's learning about how the kid-friendly lever and its fulcrum work anyway, even if not in the form of equations and formulas.

"Well, you can put a person on it and then you can get on the other side," he said, expressing a bit of exasperation that not everyone else understands quite so easily how this teeter-totter-like apparatus functions. "Or if the blocks are on the side you're not on...," he trails off.

Dember is one of many youngsters racing around the museum, checking out its newly unveiled "Gizmos and Gadgets" exhibit that seeks to teach youngsters a bit about how machines work and how they can make our lives easier.

"We're providing an opportunity to directly interact with the world," said Rachel Meyer, the Museum's executive director. "And that's physics."

"They're learning by doing it," added Darin Wacs, an exhibit designer and curator. "It helps them to ask questions."

"It's all very experienced-based. It's all very physically engaging," said Joe Victory, who, along with Wacs, developed the exhibit over the year and a half. Besides the lever and fulcrum, "Gizmos and Gadgets" features "Screwball," the famous Archimedes screw in which kids can actually make a ball travel uphill (the process is often used in irrigation to transport water), a gear table, pulleys, ramps and huge, soft building blocks.

"We think about the kids," Meyer said. "We think of things they will see outside the exhibit that relate to it, such as workers moving things up and down ramps and off of trucks.

Although Wacs has experience designing exhibits for children and Victory has a background in art and construction, the two enlisted kids -- including Wacs' 3-year-old son -- as guinea pigs along the way, to ensure the exhibit would appeal to the younger set. "Scale is very important, the materials that you use," Wacs said. "We try to make the experience very direct."

Funding for the exhibit came from the city of Palo Alto and Friends of the Junior Museum and Zoo, which includes donors such as the Valley Foundation, Meyer said. All told, the exhibit cost $150,000. The designers said the exhibit, which debuted Jan. 30, is appropriate for toddlers through fifth graders.

Becky Swanson, who has a background in molecular biology, helped conceptualize the exhibit and, along with Victory and Efrat Rafaeli, developed the text displays that accompany the exhibits.

"He pulled together the order and I translated it into kid language," Swanson said.

Information:

What: "Gizmos & Gadgets," a kid-friendly exhibition that demonstrates how work can be made easier with simple machines. The exhibition is appropriate for children ranging from toddlers to fifth graders.

Where: Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo, 1451 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto

When: The exhibition will be open through 2004. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Cost: Admission is free.

Info: Call 329-2111 or visit www.pajmzfriends.org/membership.htm.

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