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Interactive museum opens downtown

The YouZeum is a result of collaborative effort in Columbia.

By Gwen Daniels
May 6, 2008

Nine-year-old Gracie Pasley and her mother, Penny, learn about fevers in a replica emergency room on Thursday during the grand opening of the YouZeum. The YouZeum is an interactive nutrition and health museum located in downtown Columbia.

Photo/Andrew Feiler

Nine-year-old Gracie Pasley and her mother, Penny, learn about fevers in a replica emergency room on Thursday during the grand opening of the YouZeum. The YouZeum is an interactive nutrition and health museum located in downtown Columbia.

At a new Columbia museum patrons can fight a raging fire, battle a swarm of bees and broadcast the daily news on air.

The YouZeum, an interactive science center, opened Thursday in downtown Columbia.

Over the weekend several special events, including a paper-doll ribbon cutting ceremony and a visit by YouZee, the museum’s mascot, marked the museum’s grand opening.

Knorr Marketing Communications spokeswoman Katie Harris said the museum’s “one-of-a-kind” exhibits allow visitors to explore well-being and personal health.

At one exhibit, visitors cycle through a scenic virtual trail on stationary exercise bikes. Another exhibit lets visitors dodge a swarm of bees with a Dance Dance Revolution-style game called the Virtual Obstacle Course.

The Body Fair exhibit allows guests to test the strength of their grip, the height of their jump and the speed of their reactions.

The interactive exhibits make the YouZeum fun, said Columbia resident Jennifer Hartwick, who has already visited the museum twice with her children. Her two daughters said they especially enjoyed the YouNewz room, where they could see themselves on a nearby television.

“My favorite is what I’m doing right now,” 8-year-old Riley Hartwick said in the YouNewz room, while her 2-year-old brother Cole said he wanted to go fight fire.

Ali Hussam, director of research and educational support at MU’s School of Medicine, worked with a team of faculty and students to design the computer interactive exhibits.

Hussam said the team developed storyboards and prototypes and tested each model in the school’s usability lab to enhance the exhibit designs. He said the team especially liked working on Cycle Challenge, the Virtual Obstacle Course and All Systems Go, a three-dimensional movie explaining how the body functions.

“We’re technical people, so we liked the ones that were the most challenging,” Hussam said. “We liked the sophisticated ones, the ones that basically killed us to get them to work.”

Harris said area doctors provided vision for some of the exhibits. One exhibit, Brainasium, which tests visitors’ memories with interactive computer games, is based on the tests a local neurologist tries with his patients.

Harris said the community worked together to make the YouZeum a success.

She said private businesses and individuals sponsored the exhibits. Local artists donated their artwork and photography to make the museum bright and inviting. Executive board members even helped to paint the displays.

The YouZeum officially opened Friday after several postponements of the opening date, which had previously been set as far back as 2006. Delays were caused by complications in funding and construction.

The Boone County Medical Alliance first envisioned an interactive science center in 1991, and in 2003, the building now housing the YouZeum was donated by the U.S. Department of Education.

Harris said the hi-tech, hands-on exhibits have made the YouZeum “worth the wait.”