‘Tree House’ rooted in lessons about ecosystem

Fresh educational experiences generally don't grow on trees, but one at Lied Discovery Children's Museum did just that.

A traveling exhibit, "Tree House: Look Who's Living in the Trees," which will be at the museum through Jan. 14, is sort of a tree's-eye-view of life.

The multimedia, multidimensional exhibit - which, like everything else at the museum, is hands-on to increase the learning potential - includes a computerized forest game in which, by using a touch screen, kids can select trees to be harvested (and dumped onto a logging truck) in a manner that will keep both forest and animals healthy. Take too many from the middle canopy, for example, and the screen will tell you that you didn't choose wisely, and explain how your choices can adversely affect the future of the forest and the critters who live there.

And speaking of those critters: They're a big part of the exhibit, and the tools for learning about them have been a big hit with the kids, said Denyce Tuller, the museum's director of marketing and public relations.

"It's the whole boys and poop thing," Tuller said.

Yes, poop does tend to be a fascination for little boys, so its presence makes this exhibit a must-see in certain circles. It's part of the tree house's boardwalk section, where kids are invited to keep their eyes open for scratch marks that could've been made by bears, tracks that are positioned in a number of areas and scat, which is, as the exhibit notes, "the scientific word for poop." Like the tracks, the scat is plastic-modeled as opposed to messy-authentic, which should come as a relief to parents but no doubt pose a huge disappointment for those little boys.

But wait! There's more: Stereoscopic viewers reveal a look at the forest's tiniest creatures. A crow's nest off the boardwalk gets kids closer to displays of animals including a porcupine and a woodpecker, and a periscope lets them spy on a skunk burrowing in the "roots" of the forest. They can step on circles on an adjacent deck to activate sounds, creating a forest symphony.

In the kitchen area, kids can see fruits that grow on trees and pull out cabinet drawers to learn more about spices, medical treatments and other household products derived from them. Also in the kitchen are displays that appear to show wooden items turning back into trees, such as chairs with trunk legs and a bunch of 2-by-4's that's still part of a stump.

Other exhibits showcase tree houses - the actual lived-in kind, and a few from literature. And at a big set of tinker toys, kids can build their own tree houses.

It was all a bit much for Chloe Spier, 7, who was visiting from Chicago with her family.

"I love everything about it!" Chloe said as she dashed back to the boardwalk. Grandmother Lauren Spier, a resident of Las Vegas, was a little more reflective.

"She's very interested in the descriptions" along the boardwalk, Spier said. "She read all of the little tags."

But a huge hit, she said, was the dance floor with its sounds of the forest.

"They all love the things that you step on," Spier said. "It's instant gratification.

"Plus, you can make noise."

Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@review journal.com or 702-383-0474.