New exhibit at Michigan Science Center will take visitors into the atmosphere and to space

Detroit ― Four-year-old Violet Kay held her arms up Friday morning and flew like a bird.

The Livonia girl and a few adults participated in a simulation at the Michigan Science Center where they pretended to be birds gliding around an island. They matched the motions of the bird in front of them, tilting their arms to the right and to the left.

“She loves the bird simulator, with the flying and the flapping the wings,” said Violet’s mom, Jenna Kay of Livonia. “That was her favorite so far.”

Kay, who is the content creator for online resource LittleGuide Detroit, got a sneak peek of the Science Center’s new “Above and Beyond” exhibit, which opens Tuesday. The 6,000-square-foot exhibit will teach visitors about advances in aviation and aerospace, like the first powered flights and supersonic aircraft. It’s a traveling exhibit and will be in Detroit until September.

“We even allow you in this exhibit, in the five galleries here, to be able to design your own aircraft and fly it,” said Christian Greer, the science center’s president and CEO, at a media preview of the exhibit.

Visitors can choose the aircraft’s body shape, wing shape, tail configuration and color, and then partake in a simulator where they fly the plane.

Another part of the exhibit is the “International Space Elevator,” where families can take an elevator from Earth to a spaceport. They will pass by the International Space Station and through the Van Allen radiation belts.

Greer said the exhibit incorporates STEM ― science, technology, engineering and math ― topics, including planes in flight, which involves physics. The exhibit also teaches kids about the universe, and it addresses living and working on Mars, which involves chemistry and biology.

He said that kids going to the museum on field trips will apply what they are learning about the physical world, like by making a paper airplane.

“It’s more practical, more experiential,” he said, adding that teachers and parents want a “more informal approach to STEM.”

“So that it’s not just so much the rote memory or sitting in a classroom,” he said. “This is their classroom.”

Kay, Violet’s mother, said each of the stations in the exhibit are interactive, which is “more fun for the kids.”

The “Above and Beyond” exhibit debuted at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2015. It was produced by San Antonio-based Evergreen Exhibitions in association with Boeing and in collaboration with NASA and the air and space museum.

The Michigan Science Center is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday and until 8 p.m. the first Friday of each month. The “Above and Beyond” exhibit is included in the cost of admission.