Children and their parents can explore the inner workings of the body inside Eddie, purportedly the world’s largest child.
ON A "FAMOUSLY HOT" AFTERNOON in Columbia, cars and buses crowd the parking lot of the EdVenture children’s museum and the glass entrance way is filled with families and groups of giddy children. Emerging from the family car, a child grabs her father’s hand, screams “Eddie!” at the top of her lungs, and makes a mad dash for the door.
Inside the museum’s central atrium, other families are already exploring the signature attraction — a 40-foot-high plastic boy holding a giant dragonfly. Billed as “the world’s largest child,” Eddie contains multiple interactive displays on how the human body works, exhibits designed to entertain children ages 12 and under while also teaching them a little about anatomy.
The sound of Eddie’s heartbeat pulsates throughout the atrium as a young, bright-eyed tour guide leads visitors up a winding staircase, stopping even with Eddie’s shoulders, to narrate the exhibits. Several minutes later, the father and daughter emerge laughing from the winding slide of Eddie’s stomach and eagerly climb the stairs again to explore the playground that is Eddie’s brain. The roar of childhood excitement is so contagious that even the staff walk around as if they were first-time visitors.
From the playful architecture of the building to the intricately designed exhibits, EdVenture is no mere playground. With 92,000 square feet of display space, it’s the largest children’s museum in the Southeast and attracts more than 200,000 families a year, says Susan Bonk, director of education and exhibits.
In addition to Eddie, the museum is stocked with more than 350 interactive displays divided into seven permanent exhibits. There’s more gross- but-fun activity in Body Works, where kids get to play doctor, dentist or nutritionist. One of the largest wings of the museum is World of Work, where guests can try their hand at different careers including farmer, firefighter, store manager and builder. And in The Great Outdoors, future engineers can learn about hydro power and aquatic ecosystems by creating lakes and dams on an interactive water table.
“When you take an educational experience and make it hands on, that experience has a lasting impact,” Bonk says. “EdVenture provides an environment designed to allow children the opportunity to discover new ways of learning.”
One seasonal exhibit sure to captivate the kids this summer is Run! Jump! Fly! which teaches the importance of exercise through the action adventure moves of popular characters from books and movies. And then there is the jaw-dropping beauty of Blooming Butterflies.
The outdoor butterfly exhibit, which runs through Oct. 8, is a 2,500-square-foot enclosed habitat where more than 20 different species fly free. For an additional $3 on top of museum admission, visitors can enter the enclosure and even watch the transformation of chrysalises into adult butterflies in the Bloom Room.
“It is always inspiring to watch a child’s face light up when they see a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis and spread its wings for the first time,” Bonk says.