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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Halle Heart Center


Today's field trip was yet another that had been on my list of places to visit for the past few years.  I'd heard about it and wondered for a good long while whether the field trip would be worth taking or not...because, let's face it.  Thinking about a children's museum dedicated to the heart doesn't exactly sound, well, um, very exciting.  However, I kept hearing rave reviews from other people who had been to the Halle Heart Center.  I finally put it on the calendar for Just Field Trips.  My big kids thought it was soooo cool!

The museum was bright, open and colorful.  It was divided into specialized areas.  While we were there, there were several other tours for children going on.  The museum staff moved everyone along efficiently.  There is a guide assigned to each tour.  The guide spends a few minutes at every station explaining what that station is about and providing additional information related to the topic.





That red tunnel above is a replica of an artery.  There is a mechanism for closing the artery off, the way plaque does.  The kids get golf-ball sized balls and they get to try to shoot them through the artery without the artery closing off. 

In this area, the docent talked about cigarette smoking and what it does to your heart and lungs, too.  My son was appalled to hear that there is cyanide and other nasty chemicals in cigarettes!  One of the hands-on activities in this section is a demo of what it's like to give someone CPR...


We moved into a room that was set up like a giant live-stage theater.  This was their "911" room.  The kids learned about the signs of a heart attack and a stroke.



After that, we went into the "Healthy Kitchen" for a talk about nutrition and heart-healthy foods...


Then we went to another theater for a short movie about how proper nutrition fuels your body, and how an unhealthy diet makes it pitter out.


Our next area was all about exercise and working that heart! 




After all of the exercise, the kids lined up to have a giant stethoscope pick up their heartbeat.  If you notice the balls in the tube, their heartbeat is supposed to make those move.



Keeping going, our next stop was right in front of a life-sized replica of a whale's (forgive me, I cannot remember which one, blue, I think - but I was chasing after my 2-year-old!) heart.





We finished up in "The Marketplace", where the kids were tasked to "buy" food from the pyramid and make it as nutritious and complete as they possibly could at the "check-out".





We were there just over two hours.  The toddlers and preschoolers had a hard time with the length of the tour, and while none of them were disruptive, they weren't able to focus, either.  In my opinion, this field trip is best for 3rd - 8th grades.

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