Kids teeter on the edge at Lied museum exhibit

Friday, April 6, 2001 | 3:48 a.m.

There is an edge to a traveling exhibit that is on display at the Lied Discovery Children's Museum.

Called "Living on the Edge," it explores the transitional zones of nature -- the places where land, oceans and sky meet -- and reveals to young people why the edges are so important to life.

The most obvious edges are the coasts of the continents.

"Two-thirds of the Earth's population lives on coastal regions," Johnna Owen, exhibit assistant, explained.

That particular edge is constantly being altered as the ocean tides erode the shores and force people to adapt to an ever-changing environment.

Clusters of lights that are dispersed on a map of the world emphasize the density of people on land at the edge of the ocean and the relatively sparse populations of the continents' interiors.

"There is even a water-to-water edge," Owen said. "The gulf stream is where warm water meets cold -- it is where animals like to migrate, which provides feed for sharks."

The exhibit, which will be at the museum through April 29, is a collaborative effort of the University of Rhode Island's Office of Marine Programs, and the Museum of Science, Boston.

When the exhibition ends, an estimated 15,000 visitors will have stepped up to the edge -- most of them schoolchildren between ages 6 and 12.

"The older kids and adults seem to enjoy it more," Owen said.

Children too young for the interactive displays, video footage, computer activities and other parts of the exhibition (and who have no understanding of such geographic terms as bayous and tidal basins) nevertheless enjoy splashing their hands in a pool of water that demonstrates currents.

They also get a kick out of playing with a fan that is inside a glass box that can be used to create sand dunes.

A favorite exhibit of young and old seems to be a tank of live saltwater sea plants and animals.

"Little kids like the special effects -- the fish, waves, blowing sand, diverting water," Owen said.

But there is plenty to do besides watch fish and splash in a puddle of water.

Visitors can use a computer to create a coastal landscape; activate a 10-foot long wave tank to change a fair-weather beach profile into a stormy one; and learn how scientists use the Gulf Stream as a way to study edges in the ocean environment, using technology to make invisible edges visible.

"Children learn about adapting," Owen said. "When something very radical (in nature) happens, we have to learn how to adapt."

The interactive programs teach young ones the importance of decision making.

"If an animal doesn't make the right choice, it may become dinner for prey or be caught and used for lab research," she said.

And if humans don't make the right choices when they must adapt, she noted, they may become victims as well.

One example of a bad choice is building a home on the edge of the ocean.

"Tides take sand out and deposit it on sand barges, and then the next day the tides return some of the sand to the shore," Owen said. "But it always takes out more than it leaves."

Besides the obvious edges of land, sea and air, there is the edge of night and day, and edges of temperature, where hot and cold meet.

Owen notes that the exhibit illustrates how life clusters around edges, the transition zones that are as important as the habitats, communities and ecosystems that the edges separate.

Museum spokeswoman Emily Newberry said "Living on the Edge" is one of three or four traveling exhibitions brought to the facility each year.

"We're booked (up with exhibits) for the next seven or eight years," she said. "We try to change out the exhibits about every three months."

Exhibits have tackled subjects from the Muppets to sound sculptures.

"The Muppet exhibit two years ago was one of the most popular with the kids," Newberry said.

The current exhibit will be followed May 11 by another called "The Good Earth: Folk Art and Artifacts from the Chinese Countryside," which will consist of 25 paintings and 15 artifacts (including children's toys and articles of clothing) representing daily life in rural China.

The National Geographic Society and the Smithsonian Institute will present an exhibit Sept. 22-Nov. 18 called "Earth 2 U, Exploring Geography."

The exhibit will explore geography through hands-on activities for children.