|
She’s a fairy tale princess and he’s a fearless race car driver. Together with their musical sidekicks, Crash the Drummer and Space on Bass, Princess Kate and Racer Steve make up one of the hottest kid rock bands around. The New York City-based quartet is revved up to get young ones and their parents grooving to a combination of folk, pop, blues and rock music, as well as laughing at their zany antics and animated skits, when they zoom into the Durham Performing Arts Center Feb. 6 for shows at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Married couple Katie and Steve Borne started writing music during their volunteer visits to children in several New York City hospitals. Live performances followed, as did hit CDs. Their high-energy extravaganza features tunes from Princess Katie and Racer Steve’s critically acclaimed albums, Songs for the Coolest Kids, Fast & Feisty and their new CD, Tiny Cool, with hip lyrics that deal with emotions, bullying, making friends, cultural acceptance and having fun being a kid. Katie, Steve, Crash and Space encourage kids to rock out to “music with a message that hasn’t lost its cool.”
“We’re really working toward entertaining kids on every level, not only through the music, but also by making them laugh,” Steve says. “Behind everything we create, there’s an element of humor, and we’re so happy to see that the kids get it and laugh along with us.”
Tickets for the shows range from $10 to $15 and can be purchased by calling the Durham Performing Art Center’s box office at 919-680-2787 or online at www.dpacnc.com. Tickets are also available through all Ticketmaster outlets. The Durham Performing Arts Center is located at 123 Vivian St., Durham. For more information, visit www.princessracer.com.
— Janice Lewine
Benjamin Franklin coined the famous saying, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Kids have a fun opportunity to learn this important truth at Moneypalooza, a colorful new learning gallery at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh that aims to teach the value of money and promote healthy money habits to kids ages 4 to 10.
Moneypalooza was formed in partnership with the N.C. Bankers Association to address the important and timely issue of financial literacy. Research shows that good financial habits are best learned in early childhood, and through Moneypalooza’s age-appropriate and hands-on activities, kids learn how to earn, save and spend money wisely.
“Learning about money and saving it can be lots of fun. It’s like a party in your piggy bank,” says Pam Hartley, vice president of exhibits at the museum.
Visitors can help Ellie run a lemonade stand, walk Aunt Polly’s dog and feed her cats, and bake pizzas with Mr. Vito to earn money on payday. At Banker Ben and Betty’s action-packed bank, kids stack, deposit, withdraw and disburse funds, and even take out a loan, while other activities show them that little bits of savings add up.
In other smart-money games, kids learn budgeting skills by examining a family’s wants and needs, count and sort oversized coins to determine how many equal a dollar, and learn about charity by donating a portion of their earnings to help those less fortunate. For those inclined to climb, Moneypalooza boasts a two-story bank structure to explore.
Admission to Marbles Kids Museum is $5 for ages 1 and up. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The museum is located at 201 E. Hargett St., Raleigh. For more information, call 919-834-4040 or visit www.marbleskidsmuseum.org.
— Janice Lewine
Move over T. Rex and chill out Velociraptor. Some of your lesser-known cousins have arrived in Durham, and they’re an impressive group, even if they’re not as famous.
The Dinosaur Trail has returned to the Museum of Life and Science, more than 10 years after Hurricane Fran wiped out its predecessor. Funded with bond money and private donations, the new trail is the only outdoor dino exhibit in the state and features 25 life-sized models from the late Cretaceous period, between 100 million and 65 million years ago.
And if some of the critters featured aren’t as well-known as those that regularly crop up on TV and in movies, they are all species that would have been found in North America. A gentle-looking Parasaurolophus rests near the trail’s beginning, the only model that visitors can touch and walk around. Farther along the path, an Albertosaurus looms large and appears much less gentle than the Maiasaura guarding her eggs nearby. A plaque next to each dinosaur provides information, such as what the dinosaur ate and how it moved. The paved path curves through largely shady areas between the different models, while the sounds of birds, crickets and rustling leaves contribute to the natural setting.
A group of paleontologists, paleoartists and exhibit fabricators created the sculptures using steel skeletons, Styrofoam, plastic and paint that was sealed. “There were quite a lot of people who were instrumental in creating the dinosaurs,” says Taneka Bennett, the museum’s director of marketing. “They’ve been built to withstand the elements. Even hurricanes, I’ve been told.”
Even the landscaping was planned to be authentic, using plants representative of the Cretaceous period, such as fan palms and dawn redwoods. “Everything from the environment to the dinosaurs is lifelike,” Bennett says.
After walking among the dinosaurs, visitors can use shovels and sieves to hunt for their own bits of scientific history in the Fossil Dig Site. Fossil dirt from Aurora, N.C., was brought in for the 1,000-square-foot site. The area contains fossilized marine life such as coral, shells and sharks’ teeth estimated to be 23 million to 5 million years old. Guests can keep anything they dig up.
The Dinosaur Trail is part of 13 acres of outdoor exhibits at the museum, which also has 65,000 square feet of indoor exhibit space. The Museum of Life and Science is located at 433 Murray Ave., Durham. Visiting the trail is included in the paid museum admission. To learn more, visit www.lifeandscience.org or call 919-220-5429.
— Aleta Payne
A new permanent exhibit at Durham’s Museum of Life and Science combines life and science to teach visitors about health. With 2,600 square feet of space, Investigate Health offers a sneak peak into the world of research about what impacts wellness and the power humans have to affect their own health.
The exhibit, which officially opened Feb. 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., features six interactive activity centers to illustrate the science behind health issues, with the Investigate Health Lab as its centerpiece. Museum staffers will help with dozens of experiments in the Lab using microscopes and other scientific equipment. It is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., with a new lab activity each day to look into questions such as the sugar content of Oreos versus granola bars and what happens to the heart during exercise.
Other Investigate Health learning stations include:
- Allergies – Use a microscope to study live dust mites, which are a common cause of allergies.
- Hand washing – Prove that hand washing removes germs and figure out which spots tend to be missed.
- Stress – Look at the link between mental stress and the body and practice relaxation techniques.
- Sunscreen – See how sunscreen protects skin from ultraviolet light.
- Crash test demonstrations – View video of crash tests in slow motion to study the importance of properly using seat belts and booster seats. Demonstrations of crash-test simulations are Tuesday through Saturday at 10:15 a.m., 12:45 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.
The Museum of Life and Science is at 433 Murray Ave., Durham. For more information about the exhibit or museum, go to www.lifeandscience.org or call 919-220-5429.
— Aleta Payne
|
