Kalamazoo Valley Museum
by Tom Thinnes
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Whether exploring outer or inner space, whether time-machining to the past or time-warping to the future, the Kalamazoo Valley Museum is a “place to do.”
Its 21st-century planetarium squeezes the universe into a domed world full of up-close-and-personal encounters with celestial wonders.
Simulated missions take space crews on star treks far beyond Earth.
For pre-schoolers to grandparents, interactive excursions probe the deep past with a 2,300-year-old mummy and the history that shaped Southwest Michigan.
From touching a tornado to watching a drop of water build into giant surf, this museum connects the human experience.
On weekends, classic American films for adult and young audiences are shown in the Stryker Theater that is equipped with “surround sound” and crystal-clear images on a high-definition screen.
Since the downtown-Kalamazoo museum opened a decade ago, it has been a changing place to go and do, thanks to nationally touring exhibitions booked into its third-floor gallery.
Families have experienced the Civil War, the making of music, children of the world, the science of football, space memorabilia, the secrets of mathematics, and the body’s power to heal itself.
The current attraction, “The Great Lakes Story,” is booked through Jan. 15 and chronicles the fresh-water treasures that were forged by glacial forces across eons, how they have been threatened by humanity’s advances, and how that same technology is being used to preserve them.
Through the end of 2005 on weekends will be documentaries about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Michigan lighthouses, shipwreck disasters, legends of the Great Lakes, and surfing these bodies of water.
For those seeking realistic space adventures, the Kalamazoo museum is home to both a Challenger Learning Center, one of only 40 of its kind, and a Digistar planetarium, an even rarer commodity in North America.
The Challenger can take adults and children into “The Final Frontier” via simulated missions to the moon or Mars, teaching the realistic applications of science and math.
At the end of the first "Star Trek" movie, Captain James T. Kirk is asked "Where to, captain?"
Sitting on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, Kirk, like a wide-eyed child experiencing that first meaningful Christmas, looks toward deep space and says, "Out there."
After the Challenger, it is possible to go back “out there” for an even more realistic visit, thanks to the planetarium theater with its Disney World-like technology. An inventory of 50 star shows, pegged for people of all ages, can fill the panorama of the 15-meter dome.
From the future, it’s only a few steps to visit the past -- way into the past -- and enter the world of a 5-foot-2 woman who lived 2,300 years ago in Egypt.
She's been a favored attraction at the predecessor Kalamazoo museum for 70 years. Through CT-scans, a forensic artist produced a model of what she might have looked like.
She was about 45 when she died, her teeth were worn, abscessed or missing, she had delivered at least one baby, and she was afflicted by arthritis. Carbon-14 dating placed her between 2,020 and 2,360 years old.
These discoveries are illustrated through photographs, X-rays, and videos in "The Mystery of the Mummy" exhibit, a replica of the front of an Egyptian tomb.
It showcases the museum's 70-piece Egyptology collection, how artifacts serve as instruments of learning about the past through the clues they leave in the present, and how the tools of science help reveal history's secrets.
The hands-on “Science in Motion” demonstrates that science is fun and fundamental. It promotes discovery, exploring and experimenting in technology, energy and the human body.
The motion of a speeding vehicle is obvious. Even the coursing of blood through a person's veins can be comprehended. But the gallery also explores the less obvious forms of motion the movement of electrons along a wire, the splitting of a human cell, and the travel of light rays.
Vehicles can be engineered, fabricated and raced on a 14 foot track. Youngsters can use their muscle power to gain understanding about physical energy as it translates to electrical energy, current and voltage.
" Heart Throb" explores the engine that drives the body, pumping blood through an intricate network of small and large vessels and carrying oxygen to all parts
The history gallery tells the story of Southwest Michigan from the bottom up. One can learn about the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, and World War II by looking into what went on in your own community.
Involvement is the key -- how to play a Gibson guitar, taking a step-by-step walk through the scientific method with an Upjohn researcher, timing yourself in lacing up a corset to see how you would fare in wages earned by piecework, and making decisions on how to survive with a salary of $8 a week.
This gallery is not a place to see history by dusting off an artifact. It is a place to do history -- to feel it, to sense it, to live it -- because history is happening
There is no admission charge. While many activities are free, tickets are required for Challenger missions, planetarium shows, and the weekend movies. For more information, call 800-772-3370 or visit www.kalamazoomuseum.org.
So, just “do” it.