By Kendra Stager
The Telus World of Science is known for hosting multiple diverse exhibitions that can appeal to anyone, no matter their interests. This spring, its hosting Mythbusters: the Explosive Exhibition, based on the popular and long-running Discovery Channel television show. With a mix of interactive features, props, artifacts from the show, and educational videos and signage, there’s something for everyone to explore, whether they’re familiar with the show or not.
According to the Telus World of Science’s website, their newest exhibition features “over 60 artifacts salvaged from more than 700 experiments conducted on the series, handpicked by the Mythbusters themselves.” For fans of the show, a lot of these artifacts may look familiar, especially since they come with signs that describe what episode each one is from, and what myth Adam, Jamie, Tori, Grant, and Kari were trying to bust when creating it. One of the items actually hails from the first ever episode of the show—“The Jato Car Mount”—where the Mythbusters mounted three rockets to the top of a car to see if they could make it take off. Did it work? Go check out the exhibit to find out.
The artifacts take up about half of the space of the exhibition, in what is being called the Blueprint Room—due to the addition of blueprints used by the hosts to explore myths on the show—and are placed together to create a maze-style walkway for visitors that leads into the interactive portion—or the Workshop—of the exhibit.
This is where volunteer Josh Dumar notes that the exhibit becomes more fun for all ages.
“Up until this point, it’s mostly adults who are fans of the show that want to look at everything and read all the signs. Now the kids can actually start to play and have a good time,” he says.
Some of the interactive features available to test out include the Killer Card Toss, where visitors see if they can throw a card fast enough to impale it into a target. There’s also Tablecloth Chaos, where visitors test whether they can pull a tablecloth off of a fully set table without disturbing any of the dishes. There are also more kid-friendly activities, such as trying to build a house out of blocks and placing it in a wind tunnel to see if it can withstand the gusts, or testing how fast they can get suited up in a telephone booth, based off of Clark Kent’s abilities in the Superman films.
Alan Nursall, president of the Telus World of Science, says that bringing the Mythbusters exhibit to this location has been very exciting.
“MythBusters the TV show not only made conducting science experiments cool for a whole generation of young scientists, but it made it exciting and larger than life, too! This exhibition has so much great and engaging science for all ages,” he says.
The exhibit is also geared towards students, with the option for teachers to bring their class in for a field trip and have them participate in actual hands-on experiences; however, it’s not just for the young ones. University students with a valid student ID receive entry at a discounted rate from the general public, which they can also use to explore the rest of the building.
If people are looking to check the exhibit out in a more adult-themed environment, it will be open until 9 p.m. on Friday, May 24, for what the Telus World of Science calls its “Late Night Access.”
For anyone looking to visit Mythbusters: the Explosive Exhibition, there’s still lots of time. It runs until Sept. 2 in the Exhibit Hall, and is a great way to spend an hour or two taking scientific exploration to all new levels.