My mentee Aryn and I decided to “go” to the Cosi science museum together for our explore columbus assignment. Since the pandemic is still going on and we wanted to be as safe as possible, we did this activity online, rather than going to the actual museum. Although it would have been a much more enriching experience to go in person, the way that the exhibits were set up on the website were still lots of fun.
The website was set up so that you could “walk” into different exhibits. Once you were in the exhibits, you could drag your mouse across the screen to explore them. We both did it on our separate devices while we facetimes, so we just communicated where we were going, and chatted about the exhibits when we both arrived.
We first dropped in to the gadgets exhibit. I got to show her around that part of Cosi, and tell her about my trips there as a child, as well as my more recent trips as a high school student. The gadgets exhibit online looked exactly as I had remembered it. It was set up with different checkpoints, and various facts about scientific phenomena at each checkpoint. There were even fun little science experiments that we could do! We both wished that we had the materials to do the experiments, as that would’ve been a fun add-on to our mentor-mentee date. I think that we both enjoyed the gadgets exhibit the most, out of the ones that we visited! Aryn definitely didn’t expect Cosi to look the way that it did, so it was fun to see her reaction, and how excited she was about this first exhibit.
After gadgets, we explored the Dinosaur exhibit. Even though we were just looking at it through a screen, it was still incredible to see the life-like replications of the dinosaurs. We even saw a dinosaur femur that came from a 70-ton dinosaur! It was easily taller than us, which is insane considering it’s just a small piece of the dinosaur’s leg. As we “walked” around this exhibit, we learned more about other dinosaurs, too. The really cool thing about Cosi (for children, young adults and parents alike), is that it makes learning feel effortless and fun. Being at the museum again definitely made me nostalgic for all of the hours that I spent at Cosi as a child, and it made Aryn really want to visit the museum!
Unfortunately, the exhibit that I was the most excited about sharing with Aryn wasn’t available to walk through on the website (they just had a few major exhibits up for free). I wanted to show her the progress exhibit, since that has always been my favorite one. In this exhibit, you get to walk through various periods of time in America. Each time period is set up with amazing, intricate details, each depicting what the towns at the time would look like. It quite literally feels like you’re traveling back in time! From the interactive parts (like the 60s diner, fully equipped with timely music playing and a play kitchen), to the mood lighting, it’s a really cool experience. Since we weren’t able to see this one, I just described it to her.
Aryn was really excited to explore this little piece of Columbus, and she commented that she would like to actually go to the museum in the future, once it’s safe to do so again. We both agreed that we would definitely have to get together next year to hang out and explore the city, since we weren’t able to this past year. If all goes according to plan, we’ll actually be able to go to Cosi together next semester! And if anything, this virtual experience prepared us for what to expect :).
I’m definitely disappointed that Aryn and I didn’t get to do either of our Explore Columbus activities with each other, in person this year. When I was a first year, I absolutely loved going out on the town with my mentor and my co-mentee, and it really helped me acclimate to the city of Columbus. In addition, it gave me the opportunity to ask my mentor questions about college life, and her experiences as a first-year student. While the second piece was doable for Aryn and I, I wish that I was able to show her our amazing city and campus in detail. She’s not from the Ohio area, so I think that it would’ve been beneficial (and fun) to do this together!