Press Release
May 3, 2010
For more information:
Todd Scott
Himmelrich PR
410.528.5400
todd@himmelrich.com
Museum Showcases Theatrics Of Science With Wonder Warehouse
Firebursts, Ooblek, and Fryzooka Expose the Fun in Original Exhibition
This summer, science will bounce, glow, explode, and shoot fire in more than a dozen thrilling, large-scale demonstrations in the Maryland Science Center’s Wonder Warehouse, opening May 22, 2010. Wonder Warehouse will be on display until through Labor Day.
A winding pathway will lead visitors through a 7,000 square-foot “warehouse,” piled high with boxes and sundry spare parts, including machines, motorcycles, and an airplane fuselage. Along the way, they will encounter fun, interactive laboratories where museum staff will demonstrate scientific principles through curious contraptions and live experiments. Activities in the warehouse will reintroduce basic concepts of physics, chemistry and engineering as objects are launched through the air, musical instruments spout fire, and science goop reacts to deep sound waves.
The Fryzooka will create the world’s fastest french fries and illustrate principles of compression in an experiment that is a treat for the eyes and the taste buds. An air-powered cannon will blast “scientific spuds” toward a steel mesh screen, cutting the potatoes into fries. The fries from Wonder Warehouse will be cooked and served in the Maryland Science Center’s Beakers Café.
To explore the science of sound, demonstrators will send fire bursting from atop the flute-shaped Flaming Acoustic Harmonophone. Propane will be introduced at one end of the instrument and ignited, while sound is played at the other, causing flames to fly through holes drilled in the top. The effect creates a visualization of sound waves. In other experiments, amateur Mozarts can experience the science of acoustics by using flip-flops to play a giant PVC pipe organ, the Whackaphone. The Goobulator station will defy Newton’s laws with ooey gooey ooblek, a non-Newtonian liquid that becomes more solid as force is exerted on it. In Wonder Warehouse, it will pulsate and “dance” atop a loud speaker as music is played. Visitors can poke and prod the liquid to observe its strange scientific properties.
Guests can play with light at the Light Doodles station, where different light sources are used to “draw” or “write” in the air while the fluid path of the light source is captured by a slow motion camera to create an image.
Also in Wonder Warehouse are activities that will explore flight in the Totally Torroidal wind tube; use special fuel to send plastic soda bottles rocketing toward the ceiling in Oxidizer Optimizer; and demonstrate values of friction and compression through construction in the Keystone Zone.
Wonder Warehouse was assembled by the Maryland Science Center staff to provide hands-on experiences that demonstrate the fun of science. Stations will be staffed by Maryland Science Center experts, who will explain the science and methodology behind each of the experiments.
Wonder Warehouse opens Saturday, May 22, 2010 in the Legg Mason Gallery in the Maryland Science Center. The Maryland Science Center is located at 601 Light Street at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. For information and tickets, visit www.marylandsciencecenter.org or call the 24-Hour Information Like at 410-685-5225, TDD: 410-962-0223.
About the Maryland Science Center
The Maryland Science Center in Baltimore is visited by more than 500,000 people each year. Popular exhibits include: Dinosaur Mysteries with full-size dinosaurs and interactive paleontology activities; a day in the life of the human body in Your Body: The Inside Story; and dozens of interactive experiments in Newton’s Alley. Other attractions include the Kids Room, the five-story St. John Properties IMAX Theater, and the world-famous Davis Planetarium.