EAT WELL, PLAY WELL EXHIBIT NOW AT THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF BOZEMAN
What is in the food we eat? Are fruits and vegetables important? Can everyday activities burn calories? Visitors will find the answers to these questions by exploring nutrition and fitness in Eat Well, Play Well, an engaging and educational science exhibit.

The 400-square-foot, hands-on exhibit appeals to children and their families and features text in English and Spanish.

Eat Well, Play Well encourages healthy living by teaching the science of making healthy food choices and helping children and adults discover many fun and interesting ways to stay active. Visitors learn what ingredients are in various foods, how to create a balanced meal, how many servings of fruits and vegetables are recommended each day and what an appropriate serving size looks like.

The exhibit is both entertaining and educational. At the eye-opening Sizing Up Servings area, visitors are challenged to match recommended serving sizes to everyday objects. Eat A Rainbow teaches that it’s important to eat fruits and vegetables from each color group. Be Flexible features the classic sit-and-reach test to determine flexibility levels and compare them to a graph of other average scores. Balancing Act lets visitors time how long they can stay on a balance board. Calories In, Calories Out, demonstrates how much exercise it takes to burn off the calories from junk food compared to healthier choices and how, in order to maintain a healthy weight, calories in have to be balanced with calories out.

Eat Well, Play Well is produced by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. (OMSI) and was made possible by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Administrative Supplement from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The mission of the Children’s Museum of Bozeman is to enrich our community by engaging children and adults in the magic of shared learning and discovery. The Children’s Museum is located at 202 S. Willson Avenue on the corner of Willson and Olive. Please call 522-9087 for more information.

LEONARDO DA VINCI: MACHINES IN MOTION
The highly interactive: “Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion” exhibit is open at the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University in Bozeman. This traveling exhibit includes 40 of da Vinci’s inventions, meticulously built from his technical drawings.

The exhibit, which originated in Florence, Italy, brings together the largest exhibition of full-size machine replicas ever assembled, all constructed according to Leonardo da Vinci’s famous codices. The experience allows visitors to explore history, science, mechanics and physics, invention and innovation, and provides a combination of education and entertainment topped with the intrigue of da Vinci himself.

All 40 of da Vinci’s machines were built by a group of scientists and skilled artisans in collaboration with the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Florence. The exhibit opened in Italy and has appeared in the United States but Bozeman is the first city in the Northwest to host it. After its appearance in Montana, the exhibit moves to Mexico.

Although private fundraising covered some of the cost, ticket prices will rise to $13 for adults, $12 for seniors and $9 for children through the run of the da Vinci exhibit. As always, Museum members get in free.
The exhibit is organized into four areas based on da Vinci’s beliefs of the relationship between humans and nature: earth, air, fire and water. The machines in each category relate to that particular element in some way. For example, the “air” category consists primarily of da Vinci’s flying machines. The construction of the machines was based on the actual materials proposed by da Vinci and the tools that were available at the time each was designed.

Some of the more well-known machines in the exhibit include a revolving crane, a full-size armored car (large enough for several visitors to explore inside), a working robot, the bicycle, the printing press, the parachute and the machine gun.

“Leonardo da Vinci surely would have been fascinated by today’s technology, but he may not have been overly surprised. After all, he predicted much of it,“ McKamey observed.

Museum staff and volunteers will be demonstrating how six of the machines work. Demonstrations will be at 11 a.m., 2 and 4 p.m. on weekends through June 14, and daily through the duration of the exhibit that closes September 11, 2010. Every Friday during the summer the Museum will offer Inventor’s Workshops for children focused on the exhibit.

“Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion,” was created by Worldwide Museum Activities (WMA) and organized by Evergreen Exhibitions.

WATER SAFETY!
by Angela DiFronzo

Montana is a state of outdoor recreation! We love to spend our free time enjoying all the amenities our wonderful state has to offer. But did you know that drowning ranked in the top three causes for unintentional injury death in Montana for children under nine years of age between 2000-2006? (www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars)
Many parents consider water safety when visiting the local swimming pool, but drowning can occur anywhere water exists. Increased awareness is the cornerstone to reducing childhood drowning in Montana where many families actively recreate in and around water.

Many children are drawn to water which can occur in a variety of forms: lakes, rivers, irrigation ditches, creeks, ponds, pools, spas, bathtubs, wading pools, etc. Using multiple approaches to keep our children safer around water is necessary. Follow the Safer3 to help reduce accidental drowning (www.swimforlife.org/safer3):

Safer Water
• Safeguard your pool or pond with installation and use of proper barriers and safety equipment.
• Educate others including nannies, grandparents and friends of water safety tips and use of security devices.
• Wear a properly fitting US Coast Guard approved life jacket when boating, fishing or playing around natural bodies of water like lakes, rivers, creeks and ponds. Check out guidelines at http://www.uscgboating.org
• Drain wading pools when not supervised.
• Store tempting toys and never leave them around water areas.
• Use toilet lid latches.
• Lock hot tub covers.

Safer Kids
• Constant adult supervision with no distractions is your most important defense.
• Whenever you are around water, never assume someone else is watching your children. Always keep on eye on them yourself or explicitly assign the supervision responsibility.
• Avoid using air-filled “water wings” or flotation devices when recreationally swimming. They create a false sense of security for both children and parents.
• Teach water safety to always obey lifeguards, not to run on a pool deck and follow no diving rules.
• Enroll children into swim classes to learn survival swimming skills.

Safer Response
• Keep a phone by the pool.
• Have an action plan in place in the event of an emergency.
• Learn CPR, first aid and other rescue techniques.

Even with parents’ strictest supervision and diligence, accidents happen. Reducing the risk of accidental drowning and limiting severity when a near-drowning incident occurs is possible if discovered at its outset by an adult trained in CPR, first aid and other rescue techniques. Call the Montana Chapter of the American Red Cross at (800)ARC-MONT (800-272-6668) to enroll in an infant and child CPR/first aid class.

Angela DiFronzo is a professionally trained instructor for Infant Aquatics Bozeman. She teaches a program called “Infant Aquatic Survival” dedicated to reducing the likelihood of aquatic tragedy through effective survival swimming instruction of children ages six months through six years old. www.infantaquaticsbozeman.com