Bilingual hands-on science exhibit opens at Museum

Victor Valley Museum hosts interactive nutrition and fitness exhibit

Eat Well, Play Well / Come bien, Juega bien, opens at the Victor Valley Museum in Apple Valley on Jan. 26, with an exhibit community opening fair on Feb. 9 from 12-3 p.m. The exhibit is produced and toured by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI).

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 hands-on, interactive 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 there are many fun and interesting ways to stay active. Visitors will discover what an appropriate serving size looks like, see firsthand what it takes to burn off calories, test their flexibility and balance, review the latest clinical research and realize that they can reduce their risk of disease with healthy choices.

Eat Well, Play Well features nine interactive areas: “Sizing Up Servings,” “ Balancing Act,” “ Dinner Theater,” “Calories In, Calories Out,” “Be Flexible,”  “Animal Motion,” “Eat A Rainbow,” “Screen Time,” and “Supermarket Nutrition.” At the eye-opening “Sizing Up Servings” area, visitors are challenged to match recommended serving sizes to everyday objects. “Eat A Rainbow” teaches us that it’s important to eat fruits and vegetables from each color group.  At “Be Flexible,” visitors can take the classic sit-and-reach test to determine their flexibility level and compare it to a graph of other average scores to see where they rank. Information and examples will be given about how to develop better flexibility and why it is important. “Balancing Act” lets visitors step onto a circular balance board and a timer shows how long they can stay balanced. In “Calories In, Calories Out,” visitors pedal a hand cycle and then choose from five different foods. The visitor learns that it takes a lot of exercise to burn off the calories from junk food compared with healthier choices and that in order to maintain a healthy weight, calories in have to be balanced with calories out.

By the end of Eat Well, Play Well, visitors realize that healthy choices are within their reach.

The exhibit runs Jan. 26 through May 31, 2019, and will then open at the Redlands main museum on April 17. Eat Well, Play Well is included with general museum admission.

The Victor Valley Museum’s exhibits of regional and cultural history and the museum’s other exciting events and exhibits reflect the effort by the Board of Supervisors to achieve the Countywide Vision by celebrating the arts, culture, and education in the county, creating quality of life for residents and visitors.

The Victor Valley Museum is a branch of the San Bernardino County Museum located at 11873 Apple Valley Road in Apple Valley. Regular museum days and hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $5 (adult), $4 (senior or military), and $2.50 (student), EBT cardholders are $1. Children under 5 and the San Bernardino County Museum Association members are free. Parking is free. For more information, visit http://www.sbcounty.gov/museum. The museum is accessible to persons with disabilities.

Eat Well, Play Well was produced and is toured by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. This exhibit 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).