Worcester EcoTarium 'Measurement Rules' Exhibit Opens Ahead Of Vacation Week

WORCESTER, MA — Can you measure the length of school vacation week without using days, hours, minutes or seconds?

A new exhibit at the Worcester EcoTarium museum — open just in time for the vacation week around Presidents' Day — aims to help visitors measure things in unique ways.

The exhibit "Measurement Rules" will be open through May, and features measuring equipment that will allow visitors to weight themselves in chickens, for example. Here are some more oddball ways the exhibit will help visitors measure things, according to an EcoTarium news release:

LENGTH

• Height Wall: How tall are you in apples or pennies?
• Treadmill Odometer: Get walking and add to the total yards we'll calculate visitors walked on our treadmill in the exhibit.
• Ball Gauges: Tinker with instruments such as calipers, height gauges and go/no-go gauges. Explore all the possible ways to measure an ordinary wooden ball. Toss the balls down the chutes to test your findings.
• Giant Tape Measure: Extend a giant tape measure to measure the equally giant fish on our wall mural.
• Foot Ruler: Fit your foot into the gauge to make your foot a unit of measurement, then measure yourself in your "feet" and other people's "feet."

TIME

• Five Mississippi: How good is your internal clock? Count to five-Mississippi and see how close you come to five actual seconds.
• Ball Stopwatch: Build your own ball ramp and make it faster or slower with modifications.

VOLUME

• See Your Volume: Step before the screen and see yourself built from cubic-inch blocks.
• Bead Table: Little ones can explore volume at an open-ended bead play table.

WEIGHT

• Chicken Scale: Find out how many chickens you weigh.
• Balance Scale: Finesse the right balance between objects and standard weights on a large balance scale.

The EcoTarium, 222 Harrington Way, is open daily except Mondays. Find details about "Measurement Rules" and other exhibits and attractions on the museum website.