A new exhibit to teach students about human anatomy is headed to the Carnegie Science Center and is planned to open in a little more than a year.
The science center on Wednesday announced a new educational program called BodyTech, which it is developing in partnership with the Allegheny Health Network.
The three-faceted program includes a permanent exhibition at the center called BodyWorks, which, according to a news release, “will present hands-on, interactive experiences to help visitors grasp science concepts.”
BodyWorks, expected to open in late summer of 2016, will teach about the cardiopulmonary, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal and nervous systems and the brain. It is targeted to upper-level elementary and middle school students, and will be installed on the center’s third floor.
“The entire 3,500-square-foot space will be devoted to exhibits around medical technology, interactive science experiences, looking at body systems, looking at an area like the brain, looking at the circulatory system, how our muscles works,” said Ronald Baillie, co-director of the science center.
The initiative also includes a new traveling show called “Anatomy Adventure,” an addition to the center’s outreach program, “Science on the Road.” It is planned to begin this fall.
“It travels in a van and it goes out to schools in a five-state region,” Mr. Baillie said. “That show is designed to take programming that we do here on-site, but to take it out to schools and to locations where people might not necessarily be able to visit the science center.”
Mr. Baillie said “Anatomy Adventure” uses computer animations to “take a simulated trip through the human circulatory system,” something Mike Hennessy, the center’s program development coordinator, showed students on a screen following Thursday’s news conference.
Tony Farah, Allegheny Health Network’s chief medical officer, said “Anatomy Adventure” is for children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
“That will be coming to a school near you or your school in the fall of 2015,” Mr. Farah told a group of Northside Catholic School students in attendance. “What you’re going to see as this program is built, you’re going to be learning more about things that your parents may not be aware of.”
Susan Zimecki, the center’s director of marketing and community affairs, said the Allegheny Health Network contributed a “substantial amount” to fund the initiative.
The third component of the initiative is the science center’s BodyStage, a demonstration theater that opened in 2014.
First Published: May 20, 2015, 7:07 p.m.
Updated: May 21, 2015, 2:43 a.m.
