- Title: USA: THE EXHIBITION OF GROSSOLOGY - THE IMPOLITE SCIENCE OF HUMAN BODY
- Date: 22nd June 2001
- Summary: (L!1) LIBERTY ISLAND, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (JUNE 15, 2001) (REUTERS) SLV PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH GIANT NOSE SV KIDS INSIDE NOSE SV BOYS WALK THROUGH NOSE SLV GIRLS LOOKING AT BIG "OPERATION" TABLE CU PICKING OUT ORGAN FROM BODY SLV GROUP WALKING AROUND GASTROINTESTINAL SYSTEM SV GIRLS GOING DOWN SLIDE SV BOYS WALKING UNDER WINDOW SLV GIRL SLIDES DOWN "RECTUM" SV BOYS SMELLING SCENTS SV BOYS STAND UNDER THE "SNIFF, SNIFF" SIGN SV BOY PUMPING THE "BURP" EXHIBIT MCU (English) ELIZABETH ROMANAUX, LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER SAYING: "Well the reason kids like gross stuff is at a certain age between about eight and 12 there's almost an instinctual interest in these things. And even back in the 50's or today it's about the same that kids just love to talk about snot and poop and all this sort of stuff." SLV PEOPLE IN EXHIBIT MCU BOY SHOOTING "DIRT" PELLETS SV PELLET CAGE SV BOYS CLIMBING "PIMPLE WALL" SV MORE KIDS CLIMBING "PIMPLE WALL" SV KIDS AT SMELL CENTER MCU GIRL SMELLS SV MORE KIDS UNDER "SNIFF SNIFF" SIGN SV KIDS AT SNIFFER MCU (English) UNIDENTIFIED PERSON SAYING: "It smelled like so weird. We had to like figure it out." SLV PEOPLE LOOKING AT "MR. NOSE-IT-ALL" SV "MR. NOSE-IT-ALL SV "MR. NOSE IT ALL" TALKS TO CROWD MCU (English) JASMINE BEECHUM, STUDENT SAYING: "It's gross to know about. It comes from your nose it's all slimy." SV GIRLS PLAYING WITH EXHIBIT CU "VOMIT MACHINE" SV BOY PUMPS VOMIT MACHINE MCU GIRLS AT "TOOT TOOT" TABLE CU PRESSING BUTTON ON "TOOT TOOT" TABLE SV GIRLS AT "TOOT TOOT" TABLE SLV KIDS CLIMBING "PIMPLE WALL" SV BOY CLIMBS UP WALL MCU (English) ELIZABETH ROMANAUX, LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER SAYING: "A lot of kids feel anxious about their bodies 'Am I normal? Am I like other people?" And at this exhibit they can see everything applies to everybody. And it also opens the door for them to ask questions of their parents and teachers later." MCU BOY AT "TOOT TOOT" MACHINE SLV GIRLS JUMPING IN STOMACH SLV BOY JUMPS OUT OF RECTUM SLV PEOPLE WALKING AROUND NOSE
- Embargoed: 7th July 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LIBERTY ISLAND, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Topics: Health,Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVAA32GT8WJZY7LZPPFY2TVD1OLO
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: There's something smelly going on in New Jersey. A science center in the Garden State is hosting an exhibit that teaches kids how and why their bodies burp, vomit, make bogeys, and pass gas, through sight, sound and smell.
Snot, gas, burping, and vomit - that's what the exhibit "Grossology - "the impolite science of the human body"
promises to teach kids. And kids are lapping up the information.
The Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey is hosting the gross-out exhibit. Children are invited to interact by climbing up a pimply wall, listen to a faucet dripping green stuff while talking about bogeys, and traveling through a maze of intestines only to exit out of a rectum.
Elizabeth Romanaux, spokesperson for the Liberty Science Center says "Well the reason kids like gross stuff is at a certain age between about eight and 12 there's almost an instinctual interest in these things. And even back in the 50's or today it's about the same that kids just love to talk about snot and poop and all this sort of stuff."
Covering the full range of smells and sounds the body is capable of, the museum uses interactive displays detailing such delights as pus, snot and vomit.
It's designed for under 12 year olds, who enter the exhibit through a giant nose, allowing kids to feel "mucus"
and learn that humans swallow a quart of mucus every day. The tots are also encouraged to "slide" down the oesophagus, tunnel through the intestine and slip out of the colon in the popular slide and climbing frame made to look like the inside of the stomach.
Factoids along the way teach kids such things as "did you know you shed almost two million skin cells every hour" and "did you know that rhinotillexomania is the study of nose picking!" it may not teach children too much about biology, but it does stoke their interest in science by appealing to the youngsters fascination with bathroom humor.
Easily the grossest display is the section on smells, challenging kids to smell four different hideous pongs and then guess whether it comes from the armpit, mouth, anus or foot.
Kids can also fire "pollen balls" into nostrils to demonstrate the effect of pollen on the nasal system (shoot five right up the nose and the ball of "mucus" comes flying right back at you!) Romanaux says there is a serious side with Grossology not only encouraging an interest in biology but also confidence in their own bodies. "A lot of kids feel anxious about their bodies 'Am I normal? Am I like other people?" And at this exhibit they can see everything applies to everybody. And it also opens the door for them to ask questions of their parents and teachers later."
"Grossology" is currently at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, then it will travel across the US over the next five years. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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