Alice's Wonderland exhibit at the Museum of Discovery
- Ongoing: until Monday, September 6, 2010
- Sunday: 1:00pm
- Monday: 9:00am
- Tuesday: 9:00am
- Wednesday: 9:00am
- Thursday: 9:00am
- Friday: 9:00am
- Saturday: 9:00am
- Where: MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, Little Rock
- Cost: Not available
- Age limit: Not available
Museum exhibit to reveal the secrets of Alice's Wonderland
Little Rock, AR - April 21, 2010- Scientific twists, mathematical turns, literary puzzles and more await visitors who visit the Museum of Discovery May 31-September 6, 2010.
Alice's Wonderland is a new, interactive exhibit based on Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. With 2,500 square feet of hands-on experiences to explore, people of all ages become as curious as Alice in a journey that makes the unknown more familiar, maybe even logical, and most certainly fun.
Visitors are reminded of the story in each exhibit area through quotes from the original book and are delighted by encounters with some of the tale's famous characters. The exhibit features areas such as the Riverbank, the Hall of Doors, and The Mad Hatter's Tea Party.
The target audience for Alice's Wonderland is children ages 3 to 10, together with their parents and teachers but the topic and interactive nature of the exhibit provides broad appeal: day cares, scouts, and youth groups, local families looking for fun outing, and out of state visitors seeking a fascinating summer experience.
Educators will be interested to note that the exhibit was designed to attract especially girls and minorities, populations traditionally underrepresented in science and math, through rich, developmentally appropriate learning experiences in math, science and literacy. The exhibit includes educational resources for educators and families so that learning (and fun) can be extended beyond the visit to the Museum.
There is no additional charge to experience the exhibit; entry is included in Museum admission.
Alice's Wonderland was designed for the Children's Museum of San Jose and won the
American Association of Museum's 2003 Award of Excellence for Exhibit Design.
Alice's Wonderland is presented in partnership with Lamar Advertising, Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, Radio Disney and The Arkansas Times.
About the Exhibit Components
Visitors enter Wonderland through the Riverbank. The streamside knoll where Alice nodded off in her sister's lap introduces the story and offers a delightful reference point for discussion of "make-believe" and reality.
Visitors next follow the White Rabbit into the Underground. A short crawl through the Rabbit's Hole fosters a sense of accomplishment in young children.
Children and adults alike must reconcile what they are seeing with what is reality when they "fall" through the earth with both feet on the ground.
In the Hall of Doors, visitors experience optical illusions created by perspective, and solve scientific puzzles of astronomy, meteorology, and ophthalmology. In this room, children are tall enough to touch the ceiling and a periscope provides the perspective of a rabbit close to the ground.
The Mad Hatter's Tea Partyinvites visitors to experiment with the properties of different liquids by testing their viscosity, to challenge their sense of smell by sniffing tea, and to manipulate time by turning the hands of a crazy clock. Children practice early math categorization by setting places at the Tea Party and build capacity for understanding fractions by serving their guests quarter, sixth, and eighth-sized sections of a tart.
With Alice and the Queen in the Croquet Ground, visitors experiment with balls, force, momentum, and geometry in a crazy croquet course. The magical shape of the parabola and ellipse help even the youngest of visitors achieve a hole in one.
About Museum of Discovery
Founded in 1927, the Museum of Discovery is the oldest museum in Little Rock. It remains a fixture of the River Market District in Downtown Little Rock, attracting visitors of all ages. With over 25,000 square feet of hands-on, interactive exhibits, the Museum is a family destination "where you have worlds to discover."
The mission of the Museum is to ignite a passion for science, technology and math in a dynamic, interactive environment. In addition to permanent and traveling exhibits, the Museum offers special events, school programs, outreach programs, birthday parties and facility rentals.
In 2009, the Museum welcomed over 103,000 visitors and served over 500,000 people through its outreach programs, including those of the Arkansas Discovery Network. The Museum raises support through special events, individual and corporate donations, planned giving, bequests and special campaigns.
The Museum of Discovery is a Smithsonian Affiliate, accredited by the American Association of Museums and a member of the Association of Science and Technology Centers and the Association of Children's Museums.
This event was posted May 25, 2010 and last updated Aug. 23, 2010
