By Karen Bloom
The latest exhibit to take up residence at the Garden City museum challenges the hands-on problem-solving abilities of children and adults alike. Even the museum's youngest visitors are challenged, as they engage in a series of physical activities to stimulate cognitive development. Brain Teasers & Body Twisters is collaboration between LICM and the Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI). Brain Teasers, a traveling exhibition created and circulated by OMSI, offers 40 mental puzzles aimed at school-age children and adults. The Body Twisters segment was developed by LICM's education and exhibits staff to provide complementary activities for the museum's infant, toddler, and pre-school visitors. "Brain Teasers is a wonderful exhibition that promotes family interaction as children and adults challenge each other and themselves to solve these mental riddles," said LICM Education Director Edith Gonzalez de Scollard. "Creating the Body Twisters module ensured that all of our visitors would reap benefits from the exhibit," she added. "The activities in this Early Childhood module promote higher order thinking skills and lay the foundation for later learning activities." Visitors are challenged to unravel mathematical conundrums, extricate themselves from tangled handcuffs, arrange geometric shapes to form new patterns, assemble tangram puzzles, and solve a maze that has proved unsolvable to date! Solving these puzzles requires museum-goers to use creative-thinking and problem-solving strategies, including logical reasoning, identifying patterns, thinking ahead, setting aside preconceived ideas and looking at problems from different perspectives. "You'll find spatial puzzles and perception puzzles that explore how you look at things," Gonzalez de Scollard said. One puzzle features two horseshoes with a hoop around the middle. The challenge - seemingly insolvable - is to get the hoop out!For those that get stuck and find themseselvers in need of "hint" or two, LICM staff is on hand to offer some ideas. "We'll give you hints, but we won't give out the answers, unless it is really necessary," added Gonzalez de Scollard.The Body Twister activities build on the positive relationship between movement and learning. Aimed at children from six weeks to five years old, this module addresses laterality, brain integration, and higher order thinking. A "race track" highlights this area. Kids have the opportunity to navigate the race course while utilizing critical "right/left" motions that promote full brain integration. Children can maneuver through the track on the Plasmacar, which derives energy from turning the steering wheel continuously from left to right - harnessing the natural forces of inertia, centrifugal force, gravity and friction. The perimeter of the exhibit features an exercise activity trail to provide room for lateral and cross-lateral activities - skipping, hopping, and jumping. "These neurological activities are building blocks to later learning activities, including reading and writing functions," Gonzalez de Scollard noted. Kids learning to climb stairs can develop their new-found skills in the block climbing area. Mom and dad can help the young set explore "stairs" in a stress-free environment that encourages development of this important gross motor skill. There is also a "Tummy Time" section for the youngest visitors. This section builds on research findings that reveal that developmental milestones are affected by infant's lack of prone positioning (tummy time). "Many infants are spending are great deal of time strapped into infant carriers that double as both car seat and carrier, explained Gonzalez de Scollard. "They are just not doing motions that use both sides of their bodies," she said. "With the Tummy Time activities, they'll get the needed motion and physical activity to stimulate brain development. The components have been selected to promote crawling, balance, spatial awareness, visual perception, concentration, and muscle tone."It's all in the spirit of summer fun and games. "You will be getting a good brain workout," Gonzalez de Scollard declared. And, for those who are ready for a real challenge, she noted that there is that one puzzle in the exhibit that has not yet been solved. "We'd love to be able to contact the Oregon Museum and say we did it, her on Long Island!"
Brain Teasers & Body Twisters
Now through Jan. 8, 2006 in LICM's Comings & Goings Gallery. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Museum admission: $8 for adults and children over 1 year; $7 seniors; members free. 11 Davis Ave., Garden City. (516) 224-5800 or www.licm.org.
