Display attracts visitors at local museum

Lite Brite exhibit showcases a frame filled with colorful bottles, establishes new learning tool for children

Fourteen-month-old+Macie+McNeilly+interacts+with+the+new+Lite+Brite+exhibit%2C+which+features+removable+multicolored+bottles+Tuesday+%0Aafternoon+at+the+Palouse+Discovery+Science+Center%2C+950+NE+Nelson+Ct.

BENJAMIN MICHAELIS | THE DAILY EVERGREEN

Fourteen-month-old Macie McNeilly interacts with the new Lite Brite exhibit, which features removable multicolored bottles Tuesday afternoon at the Palouse Discovery Science Center, 950 NE Nelson Ct.

JAYCE CARRAL, Evergreen reporter

The Palouse Discovery Science Center (PDSC) introduced a new exhibit for children and adult visitors.

The exhibit is called Lite Brite and consists of a frame filled with removable multi-colored bottles. The movement of the bottles allows children to create pictures and write letters, said Sara Merrick, PDSC education director.

“The exhibit is really great because you can use it as a learning tool, in a way that kids aren’t necessarily aware they’re learning something,” Merrick said. “You can do a lot of math skills on it and pattern making.”

The frame of the exhibit was built by Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) volunteers, she said. The museum’s staff and board made the bottles.

“They were filling, dyeing, gluing and testing to make sure [the bottles] don’t break open when they get thrown,” Merrick said. “That process took a little bit of time.”

Lite Brite attracted Colfax practicing nurse Makayla Morrison and her 14-month old daughter, Macie.

“Our friends told us about this today, and it’s actually pretty cool,” Morrison said. “It’s got a lot of stuff for [Macie] to learn and play with.”

She said Macie is entertained by pulling out the bottles and putting them back in.

The museum also partnered with Pullman Regional Hospital to create a hospital exhibit, which displayed scrubs and different medical instruments a doctor would use. The exhibit attracted three-year-old Mason, said his mother, stay-at-home mother Kayla Largent.

Largent and her two children are frequent visitors of the museum.

“There’s not really much to do in the winter time, so this place is great,” she said. “Mason loves to dress up and pretend to be a doctor.”

Another exhibit in PDSC is Matter Splatter, a traveling exhibit. Largent said this also had Mason busy. He calls it “monster slime.”

Merrick said Matter Splatter originated at Boise Discovery Science Center and will be displayed at PDSC until April.

She said other exhibits include Little Learner’s Lab and an art space. The lab is available for toddlers to build and play with toys that help refine motor skills.

The Mad Matter Table, an exhibit featuring kinetic sand, is another popular attraction, Merrick said. There are brain and math puzzle pieces available as well as a nanotechnology exhibit.

“It’s a family center, a place where most adults and kids are spending their time together,” Merrick said. “It’s really nostalgic for the adults and really exciting and bright for the little kids.”