By Rachel Hawkins NDG Staff Writer
There are more layers to human existence than most people will ever imagine.
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science celebrated the reimagined of their Being Human Hall on May 10. The new hall unveiled with twice the number of displays in the original. Also, all of the experiences are offered in English and Spanish.
“We want this exhibit to encourage guests to understand their bodies better and take responsibility for their health,” Linda Silver, Eugene McDermott Chief Experience Officer said. “We found that it was important to make a number of changes for the hall. We wanted to make sure that as we move forward that all of our exhibits were presented in two languages.
The hall is broken up into seven different section where guests can experience hands-on activities and visuals. These areas include My Face, My DNA, My Hands, My Brain, My Walk, My Voice, Becoming Human, and Bio Lab. These sections will take guests through various human characteristics from seeing your voice, to testing your agility, and hand-eye coordination through maze balance boards. Visitors can also play a game inspired by the class children’s game “Operation” and try on prosthetic runner blades.
This is the first new exhibit hall the museum has opened. The planning and construction, took the Perot team two years to complete.
“This is much more interactive, there’s more opportunities for families to experience and experiment in the hall,” Silver said. “We know that science changes, and medical science in particular. It changes rapidly and we wanted to keep up with it.”
The lab was designed with a digital format as much as possible. It allows the museum to keep the materials fresh, relevant, and reflective of the latest scientific theories. The museum anticipates refreshing all of the halls in the museum within ten years.
“One of our more popular exhibitions is the brain,” Silver said. “It was sponsored by UT Southwestern. It’s a fully dissected real brain that is connected to the spinal cord and major nerves. It’s fascinated to look at. The virtual reality experience that allows to go into the cave and look at the fossils is something that we have that no one else in the world does.”
Students from Dallas’ Uplift Luna Preparatory helped unveil the new hall. As they wore lab coats and glasses, the children tested out several parts of the hands-on exhibit.
One of the places the students appear to enjoy was the Bio Lab. In this section, groups of guests can come in and select from one of four experiments presented to them.
“Each one can take up to 15 minutes to do,” Callan Kaut, Bio Lab coordinator at Perot Museum said. “They can deal with different topics, some are about DNA, there is one about anthropology, and there is one about neuroscience. This is for anybody ages eight and up.
“I have a lab background, and a formal education background so it’s really a joy for me to work in here,” Kaut said. “My job is to run this area, and it’s great. I love interacting with the groups and I can learn so much from not just kids, but particularly the students that come in here and learn from the experiences.”
Kant desires for the guests to leave believing they can be a scientist and a better understanding of science.
“If they explore the world around them, then they are a scientist,” Kaut. “For their career in the future, I want them to feel that they are empowered and able to do any type of science career if they want to.”
