FISHIES!

At the Steam Museum, we have ventured into the realm of live exhibits. This Summer, we are installing our new and improved water-themed exhibition, Slippery When Wet. It's a fun, interactive exhibit all about the wonderful ways we, and other creatures, use water to live.

While learning a bit about wise water use and ecosystems,  kids (and curious adults too, of course) can try one of the many interactive activities - giant game of snakes and ladders perhaps? Or maybe try pumping water with a Waterloo Pump, or discovering how a toilet works? All sorts of fun things in store. Including a gigantic outhouse.  

A waterloo pump

The reading nook 

Giant outhouse

But, this time around we've got something extra special - two live water ecosystems to observe. The first has little darting silvery fish and live plants, and the second has slow, slimy snails.

Live ecosystems! 

Does this make us a zoo, then? I remember a while back, the ROM hosted it's own WATER exhibition, and the most memorable part was their live collection of fish, crustaceans, and (most fascinating/disturbing of all) a tank full of blood-sucking lampreys. I have to say I'm glad we will NOT be having any lampreys.

I have tentatively named the fish we DO have Inky, Blinky, and Stinky - but it's pretty hard to remember who is who. The snails are all nameless; perhaps we should have a voting area to determine their names, or a visitor suggestion box?

The exhibit officially opens June 21, 2013.