^TM

Pack Your Bags!

A Kids Ticket to Travel

Free admission offered to evacuees from Hurricane Katrina

Stamp your passport, load your luggage and fasten your safety belt! Children of all ages will be fascinated by this unique and exciting museum experience. Pack Your Bags! A Kids Ticket to Travel provides children with a fun, hands–on approach to learn about themselves and the world.

Tickets to the Museum are free to individuals who have relocated to the Fort Worth-Dallas area as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Evacuees need only show their new Tarrant County identification card or their Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama identification at the Museum Ticket Office. Omni Theater admission is also free.

The exhibit experience begins in an airport terminal where children create a personalized passport to use throughout their visit. Upon arrival, children will check into the Hotel International and drop off their bags. After the journey, dinner at Maylin’s Restaurant next door may be the perfect treat!

Children can hop aboard the train, take a tour, or bask in the sights, sounds, and smells of a new undiscovered environment. Pack Your Bags! A Kids Ticket to Travel will be at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History from October 1, 2005 through Jan. 22, 2006.

The exhibit is presented in both English and Spanish.

Exhibit Features

Pack Your Bags! invites children and adults to explore new places and people, consider why people travel, how traveling affects us and imaginary travel. There are different kinds of travel, such as moving, visiting relatives, traveling to a new place, and using our imagination.

Travel experiences are powerful in shaping who we are. The engaging ideas, activities and special artifacts on exhibit encourage children to think about their sense of identity and community, and broaden their cultural experiences as they learn about the world. Children can learn about the world through investigation and role–playing. They can also prepare for, experience and reflect on their “journeys.”

Terminal One

The journey begins on arrival at the exhibit’s airport departure terminal. Outside, kids can create a personal passport and role–play as travelers and immigration agents. Inside, visitors can watch a video, From Far Away, a short film about a young girl’s move to a new home. The video clip invokes empathy for the little girl’s experience. Children are encouraged to write down and share their experiences of moving to a new place.

Hotel International and Maylin’s Restaurant

The Hotel International provides lodging for our travelers. Kids and adults can check into their room and role–play travelers and members of hotel staff. Kids can even take reservations at the reception desk! After checking in, visitors can walk next door to Maylin’s Restaurant, sit down and grab a bite to eat. Inside, visitors can watch Roses Sing on New Snow, a video about maintaining connections with family traditions. Children will learn that many people travel to stay connected with relatives who are not nearby.

New Places Tour

At the Roadside Information Station, visitors discover new environments as they select their destination and make travel plans. The travel kiosk has games and activities that focus on four senses—sight, smell, touch and sound—demonstrating how sensory experiences help us interpret new environments. Hear We Go! is a guessing game visitors play to identify sounds with travel destinations. Picture This! is a game that uses sight to identify new places. In the kiosk children can discover that sensory experiences help us interpret new environments.

Platform Two

At Platform Two, children will explore a train station and the interior of a train compartment. Visitors learn that traveling requires planning, organization, overcoming challenges and decision–making through activities such as a luggage–packing puzzle, map matching and travel board games. Through problem-solving and planning, visitors gain confidence in taking on challenges in new situations.

Imagination Station

Imaginary flying machines take visitors on a journey to places they dream of at the Imagination Station. Children can make a flying machine using magnetic pieces on a display board, build a dream destination using colorful blocks, or read stories about imaginary journeys. Here kids learn that one of the most important forms of travel is using our imagination.

Visitors will reflect on their adventures, make a travel journal and view collections of souvenirs from people’s journeys at the Make a Memory activity area.

About the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History’s core purpose is education: offering exceptional learning experiences in science and history to the diverse population of North Texas, particularly children, their families, and educators. The Museum features four core exhibit galleries; an outdoor fossil dig; the Noble Planetarium; Kidspace; Museum School; and the Omni Theater, showing IMAX films on one of the largest screens in the world. Since the mid-1980s, the Museum annually welcomes more than 800,000 visitors, making it the most popular cultural attraction in North Texas.

The Museum is located at 1501 Montgomery Street in Fort Worth, Texas. For information on tickets and hours of operation, please call 817-255-9300 or 888-255-9300 or visit the website at www.fortworthmuseum.org.

Edited by Erika Wright

Back to TravelLady Magazine