Looking forward to receiving one of those gorgeous, heart-shaped boxes full of creamy milk chocolates — and crunchy crickets? If you answered yes (or even a vehement no!), you’ll certainly salivate over the fascinating family exhibits opening this month. These museum installations explore the history, science, and pure fun of two very different — and very kid-pleasing — subjects: chocolate and bugs. So make a day of it this month as you interact with insects, melt over chocolate, and perhaps try your luck at a cricket-spitting contest. Yum!

Explore the origins of chocolate

Begin your day trip at the Pink Palace Museum’s tasty new exhibit, Chocolate: The Exhibition. Here you’ll learn how your favorite confection is transformed from rainforest pod to bakery product. You and your sweeties will also discover that chocolate does, in fact, grow on trees — the cacao tree (pronounced kuh-kow). The tree’s squash-like pods were discovered by the Mayans, who turned them into the world’s first form of chocolate (bless them!). It was the Europeans who eventually added sugar.

As you roam the exhibit, examine to ancient Maya and Aztec chocolate-making artifacts, a porcelain drinking-chocolate set from Europe, and an array of tins and advertisements used in the marketing and packaging of chocolate as it became a popular worldwide indulgence. Next, discover where cacao trees grow today and learn how modern cacao farmers tend and harvest what will soon become our Hershey bar. You can even test your chocolate trivia. Finally, the entire exhibit is also in Spanish. So, whether your native tongue is English or Spanish, you’ll melt over this mouthwatering lesson in history.

For a little Memphis-specific chocolate history, sponsor and local candy company, Dinstuhl’s, will also have an exhibit featuring company history and candy-manufacturing memorabilia. And while (sadly) there’s no eating chocolate here, museum-goers will receive a Dinstuhl’s coupon you can use at one of its stores.

Bugs, Bugs, Everywhere!

After devouring all there is to know about chocolate, check out the never-before-seen insect exhibit Harry’s Big Adventure: My Bug World! It opens February 13 and runs through June 13th at the Children’s Museum of Memphis. This interactive treasure-trove of activities and learning features Harry, the Chinese praying mantis, who takes your family through a literal bug’s life. With more than 100 live specimens, including ladybugs, cockroaches, termites, and bees, your kids will be in awe at the specially constructed habitats and sensory environments housing each unique variety of insect.

And this exhibit isn’t just for viewing. Kids can actually interact with bugs at the “Under the Bug Top” module, where tarantulas, millipedes, and beetles are available at the bug-petting zoo. During the weekends, kids will get a taste of the crawling creatures as a specially imported bug chef cooks up mealworms and other insect cuisine. Or, your bug-lovers can try their luck at a baked cricket-spitting contest (the world record is more than 30 feet).

For a less hands-on approach, take a walk through the “Meadow Habitat” for the chance to watch digitally-projected butterflies dance on your child’s shadow. See live caterpillars and butterflies as well. In the “Water Habitat,” kids feel as though they are underwater divers watching live water beetles and crawfish swimming in their special surroundings. In the “Forest Habitat,” lights are dimmed, the sounds are wet, and logs are tunnels for exploration. Also watch millipedes, bess beetles and leafcutter ants hard at work.

Memphis-headquartered Terminix, the exhibit sponsor, also created a “House Habitat” rife with home invaders such as bedbugs under the mattress, fleas in the doghouse, and termites in the woodwork. There’s even something for your smallest mites at “Hug a Bug,” where little ones can ride, hug, or play with giant plush bugs — great for photos ops, too.

While you’re there, check out the other Pink Palace exhibits: Bagels & Barbecue: The Jewish Experience in Tennessee, which explores local Jewish culture, traditions and influences, February 6th- April 11th. I am a Man, photos of civil rights leaders and events, February 13th-October 24th. At CMOM let your kids go wild at Run! Jump! Fly! Adventure in Action, a physically focused exhibit featuring a Yoga Station, Flycycle Sky, and Climbing Canyon, now through May 16th.

Museum Admissions

Pink Palace Museum: Adults/$8.75. Children 3-12/$6.25. Free under 3 • Free Tuesdays, 1-5 p.m., memphismuseums.org.
Children’s Museum of Memphis: all ages, $10 • $1 off coupons available online at cmom.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Activities, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.