Children’s museum features MOA ‘Your Eye Health’ exhibit
February 18, 2010
A young visitor to the Minnesota Optometric Association’s ‘Your Eye Health’ exhibit is about to learn what vision is like with cataracts.
The Minnesota Optometric Association’s (MOA) interactive “Your Eye Health” exhibit, developed in conjunction with the prestigious Science Museum of Minnesota, is now being featured at the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota (CMSM) in Mankato, Minn. Thanks to a 2009 Healthy Eyes Healthy People® grant, the four-panel exhibit will be on display at the CMSM’s transitional location, in Mankato’s Madison East Shopping Center, through May 2010.
The “Your Eye Health” display was part of a Nov. 19 gala and public opening ceremony for the CMSM’s temporary facility. The event drew a crowd of more than 1,000 parents and kids; raising more than $4,000 for a permanent CMSM facility. The MOA display was featured in local media coverage.
“The exhibit fascinates both children and adults,” said Teresa F. Theobald, O.D., MOA’s Healthy Eyes Healthy People® consultant.
“The ‘Your Eye Health’ display was created because science can often be taught best through experiential learning,” said Dr. Theobald. “How do major eye conditions like glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and cataracts affect eye health and vision? The answers are in experiencing what vision might be like and visuals showing how these eye disorders affect eye health.”
The interactive display was introduced at the Minnesota State Fair in 2008 as part of the MOA’s booth in the KARE 11 television HealthFair 11 Building. Thousands of people visit the booth every year during the fair’s 12-day run.
The CMSM exhibit now effectively expands the audiences for the “Your Eye Health” display beyond fair season, Dr. Theobald notes.
“The display supports MOA’s outreach goals in a truly cost-effective manner,” Dr. Theobald said.
The ‘Your Eye Health’ exhibit is among 57 innovative eye and vision care outreach projects in 35 states that are being supported this year through grants from the AOA Healthy Eyes Healthy People® (HEHP) program.
The AOA HEHP Committee hopes to expand the program to all 50 states in the coming months.
For more information, visit www.aoa.org/hehp.xml.
We are interested in doing an echibit on the eye. can you tell me what the cost of this was? and do you have another sites I might want to look into?
thanks, Margaret Trafton, Exhibits Director Explorium of Lexington