New exhibit to help teach kids to stay healthy, Sesame Street: The Body at the Orlando Science Center

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Orlando Science Center’s newest traveling exhibit, Sesame Street Presents: The Body, is set to arrive on Saturday, Sept. 28. A result of Sesame Workshop’s initiative Healthy Habits for Life, Sesame Street Presents: The Body is an interactive exhibition created in response to the current childhood obesity crisis in the United States. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, and Thinkwell Design & Production created this experience to teach families about how to maintain a healthy lifestyle, especially at an early age.

Sesame Street Presents: The Body is set in the fun, familiar and reassuring world of Sesame Street where the Sesame Street Muppets anchor an exciting collection of hands-on, interactive multimedia experiences. Each exhibit area has multiple activities to provide age-appropriate and exciting learning opportunities for children at a variety of developmental levels. The exhibition emphasizes scientific investigation and developmental and curriculum-based learning goals, which tie into the National Science Education Standards, the Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the Sesame Street Healthy Habits for LifeCurriculum.

Sesame Street Presents: The Body features three different education zones related to the human body:
1. Your Insides – “Your Insides” is an exploration of what goes on inside the body. Activities include the “Count’s Count the Organ Organ,” which musically teaches kids about their internal organs’ locations and functions; “Digestion with Oscar,” a display that shows kids what happens to food when they eat it; and ”Oscar’s Sneeze Machine,” where children pull a lever to irritate a big nose that actually sneezes on them!

2. Your Outsides – Children learn to identify different body parts, discover what they do, and explore the many ways they can put them to use. Exhibits include “Your Wonderful Hands,” featuring puzzles, sign language games, shadow puppets and more; “Your Legs and Feet,” an interactive exhibit that shows what happens when you put your legs in motion; and “Your Amazing Body,” an interactive video game where children choose the correct body part based on clues from Ernie and Bert.

3. Staying Healthy – Learn how staying clean, eating healthy foods and getting plenty of physical activity as well as sleep can help the body stay healthy. Ernie and Rubber Ducky get kids started in “Rub-A-Dub Tub,” a silly game that shows them just how much fun staying clean can be. Then it’s on to “Mr. Hooper’s Store,” where children scan groceries and learn specific messages about how different healthy meals are good for their bodies and “Baby Bear’s Mini Mart,” a toddler-sized activity area where children can stock up on a variety of colorful, healthy foods. And kids can put their bodies to the test in “Rosita’s Locomotion,” where they learn how the heart and different muscles work while pumping, rowing or running.

The exhibit will be on display through Jan. 5, 2014. Experience it with admission to Orlando Science Center which is $19 for adults and $13 for youth (ages 3 – 11). Tickets include access to all four floors of exhibits, giant screen and 3D educational films, one Hollywood feature-length film and live programming.
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