The Modesto Children’s Museum wants to give you some “Food For Thought.”
That’s the name of its planned 600-square-foot interactive lab exhibit focusing on agriculture, innovation and the bio-economy.
“California’s Central Valley doesn’t just produce one in four bites of food eaten nationwide; it’s also a place where ideas are planted, grow, and flourish,” a press release from the museum says.
Food for Thought will join the museum’s other nine interactive areas. It will replace the Powerful Pollinators exhibit.
Expected to be completed in spring, the new exhibit will be a “hands-on space as a laboratory of agricultural innovation through play,” the release says.
It will be centered on an interactive sculptural centerpiece of chickens, cows, mushrooms, carrots and other Central Valley ag products. They will be connected by steel tracks and rolling balls to represent energy and action.
The press release says the idea is for patrons to discover unexpected connections “between agriculture and innovation.”
An example in the release explains how “a ball that rolls down a cow’s back and is released via a lift of the tail will land in a power plant. It’s a simplified way of showing actual ongoing work to repurpose what’s been thought of as waste (cow manure) into material that can power vehicles and homes.”
Rendering of a planned interactive exhibit, "Food for Thought," at the Modesto Children’s Museum, which is scheduled to open in the spring. Modesto Children's Museum
Among the other features will be Win-Win Pinball, a three-player pinball game that explores ways that all parts of an almond crop — shells, hulls and tree trimmings — can create value rather than going to waste.
The display was inspired by the work of local nonprofit BEAM Circular, which provided grant funding, the release says.
The exhibit is primarily sponsored by The Raymus Foundation, with additional support from the Kayla Bernardi Bee Positive Foundation and the Steve and Jennie Zeff family.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome families into an entirely new STEAM-and-career-centered exhibit,” museum CEO Katie Trausch said in the press release. “Food for Thought introduces families to the flexible thinking, creative connections, and ‘anything’s-possible’ mindset that will power the Valley’s forward momentum.”
The Modesto Children’s Museum is at 928 11th St. For more, see www.modestochildrensmuseum.org.
Read more at: https://www.modbee.com/entertainment/article317620811.html#storylink=cpy
Rendering of a planned interactive exhibit, "Food for Thought," at the Modesto Children’s Museum, which is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2027.
Rendering of a planned interactive exhibit, "Food for Thought," at the Modesto Children’s Museum, which is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2027.
