Today the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum held the official opening of Delta Dental’s Keep Smiling! exhibit. They invited me to attend this morning’s Floss Cutting Ceremony. After the ceremony, I was able to tour the new exhibit.
Keep Smiling will open to the public on Saturday, March 2. The Member Night for Friday, March 1 has been postponed. Stay tuned for the new date.
Keep Smiling! Walkthrough
Don’t miss our video tour of the new exhibit.
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Keep Smiling! Exhibit
The tooth brushing display was a big hit with the kids today. The exhibit features a monitor that will show the children how well they are brushing. As they brush the teeth on the monitor will turn from purple to white.With Interactive screens kids can see how teeth grow in over time and how orthodontics straighten teeth.
I see the dentist’s chair being a big hit for the kids. They always love things they can climb in.
Floss Cutting Ceremony
More than 200 local students attended the opening of Keep Smiling. Students from Ann Arbor Learning Community, Wildwood Elementary School (Wayne-Westland), Christios Child Care and Academy (Detroit), Henderson Academy (Detroit), and Tagged Homeschool (Adrian).
Some of the students were there for the floss cutting. Others came later in the morning. The students had the chance to explore the exhibit and then the rest of the museum.
Visiting the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
Read more about our experiences visiting the Hands-On Museum in previous posts:
Keep Smiling! Press Release
The Press Release below has more details:
Keep Smiling! oral health exhibit in Ann Arbor now open to public
Ann Arbor, Michigan— Teeth, tongues and jaws—oh my!
The new, interactive oral health exhibit, Keep Smiling! opened Thursday at Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum during a special floss cutting event.
More than 200 schoolchildren and their teachers visited the exhibit which was funded with $200,000 by The Delta Dental Foundation. Children in attendance received T-shirts and goodie bags with toothbrushes, brushing and reading charts, sugary drink materials and an oral health storybook courtesy of the Delta Dental Foundation.
Keep Smiling! was built to educate children about oral health, the importance of making healthy choices and is rich in hands-on experiences and visual artistry.
“At the Delta Dental Foundation, we believe that children learn best when they actively experience learning. Keep Smiling! offers children and their families the opportunity to learn about the importance of healthy teeth and mouths through a variety of engaging, educational activities,” said Teri Battaglieri, Executive Director for the Delta Dental Foundation.
Some of the interactive activities include a giant mouth which patrons can walk through and view scaled-up teeth, tongue, jaws and muscles. They can also observe how strong human jaw muscles are compared to familiar animals or even select a beverage from a virtual vending machine which serves up nutritional information for popular drinks.
“The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum is delighted to partner with the Delta Dental Foundation to create a truly unique informal learning exhibit experience for children and their families,” said Mel Drumm, Executive Director of the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.
Keep Smiling! is one of several oral health exhibits for which the Delta Dental Foundation has provided funding in recent years. Others include the Chew On This! exhibit at Impression 5 Science Center in Lansing and the Inside the Grin exhibit at Duke Energy Children’s Museum in Cincinnati.
To visit the exhibit or learn more, visit aahom.org.
About Delta Dental Foundation
The Delta Dental Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization established in 1980, which serves as the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina. The Foundation’s goals are to support education and research for the advancement of dental science and to promote the oral health of the public through education and service activities, particularly for those with special needs. For more information, visit www.deltadentalmi.com.
About the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
Offering more than 250 interactive exhibits, the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum attracts over 295,000+ visitors annually who discover the wonder of science, technology, engineering, art, and math. In addition to exhibits and public programming, the Museum offers award-winning distance learning and outreach programming to schools, libraries, and community centers statewide and around the world. Visit www.aahom.org or call 734.995.5439 for more information.
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