WhirlWind
Explore the capabilities of wind and air with our all-new WhirlWind exhibit, designed to promote collaborative play and learning for young visitors.
On display temporarily from June 19 through August 30.
Exhibit Components
Airmazing
Track balls as the air pushes them through twisting and turning tubes. Can you catch them before they hit the ground?
Bernoulli Blower
Test your balancing skills by trying to make balls float on small streams of air. Can you make two, three, or more balls to float at once?
Wind Wall
Make art pieces shimmer by aiming an air blower in their direction.
Rocket Flight Station
Launch small rockets and watch them soar through the air.
Use a fan to flip small painted squares and repeatedly change the image being presented.
Fly Like A Bird
Using green screen technology, see yourself flying high up in the sky.
Learning Goals
- Cause and effect — push objects through tubes, launch rockets, and change the way art shimmers using the power of air.
- Force and motion — move balls up, around, and out of tubes at the Airmazing station, create strong blasts of air at the Rocket Flight Station, and maneuver fans and blowers at the Flipboard station.
- Bernoulli’s principle — make balls float in a fast-moving stream of low-pressure air, kept in place by still, high-pressure air of the room surrounding it.
- Visual tracking — follow balls through the twisting and turning tubes of Airmazing, and predict where balls will exit by trying to catch them.
- Trial and error — learn from experience to improve results: can you make more than one ball float on air at time using Bernoulli Blower?
- Teamwork — each exhibit component promotes collaborative play and learning.
This new exhibit perfectly strikes a balance between learning and play — it exemplifies our mission to create meaningful engagement opportunities while also giving children an understanding of how natural forces impact the world around them.
-Stephanie Bynum, Vice President of Programs