The Giant Heart Experience

$14 per student; $3 per chaperone. Includes admission to all exhibits except Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination and Real Pirates. Available Tuesday and Thursday.

Includes:

Grades 6–8

Grades 9–12

The Giant Heart Experience

The Giant Heart

The Giant Heart Presented By

Every schoolchild loves running through the Institute’s Giant Heart—but there is so much more to the exhibit than pretending you’re a corpuscle navigating the chambers of the Heart. There are crawl through arteries where students can see plaque and an exercising skeleton so that they can see how joints work. There is even a video of open-heart surgery in an authentic OR. Students will be able to literally see how much blood is in their bodies, trace its flow throughout, check their blood pressure and even see an ultrasound image of their arm or hand. Museum interpreters offer dissection demonstrations daily.

Tuttleman IMAX Theater

Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France
Wired to Win presents a new portrait of the brain—an organ built to learn, changing its cell structure with each thought and experience. It continually adapts itself to our needs and gives us the ability to determine in large part who we are and who we become.

Wired to Win applies this view of the brain to the grueling 21-day Tour de France, following the world’s top professional cyclists through the Alps to experience the fight-or-flight situations.

Live Shows and Workshops

Live Shows–25 minutes; Workshops–45 minutes.

Why We Get Sick Show Grades 6–8*
Ever wonder why your nose runs when you get sick? This live interactive show explores the mechanisms that make up your immune system and gives you a new respect for mucus, fevers and our digestive reflexes. Minimum 30 students; maximum 60.

Body Breakdown Show Grades 9–12*
What happens when you die? Explore major body systems as they shut down, and learn how each affects the corpse. For example, how do doctors determine when the body is “brain-dead,” and how do they recognize the physical breakdown of systems? This interactive show explores the body on both a systemic and cellular level. Minimum 30 students; maximum 60.

Heart Dissection Workshop Grades 9–12*
Hands-on learning is fundamental in this interactive workshop. Working with a partner under the direction of a trained museum instructor, students will dissect a sheep’s heart relating its internal and external structure to that of a human heart. Minimum 30 students; maximum 60.

Eye Dissection Workshop Grades 6–8*
The eye is a very complex organ. Students will dissect a real cow eye to explore its form and function in relation to the human eye. Minimum 30 students; maximum 60.

* Available with Giant Heart Experience only.