A World of Changes

Most folks wouldn’t cross the street for a wheezy lecture on geography, but to learn how the subject applies to our everyday lives, participants in a new Fullerton Museum Center exhibit happily move mountains.

A hands-on touring exhibit designed for 8- to 12-year-olds but suitable for all ages, “Earth 2U, Exploring Geography” inspires visitors to make the Himalayas rise, return polar bears to their rightful homes and keep tabs on the Earth’s food supply in the quest for geographical knowledge.

“Earth 2U,” produced by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the National Geographic Society, continues through Nov. 10 at the Museum Center.

“Earth 2U” was created in part as a response to a 1988 Gallup survey that ranked the geographic literacy of young Americans (ages 18 to 24) far behind young people in other industrialized nations. There are two versions of the show touring 40 U.S. cities; a third is on display at National Geographic’s Explorers Hall in Washington, D.C.

The Fullerton version of “Earth 2U” is divided into three areas: Population, Everyday Things and Landscapes/Landshapes. Encouraged by the show’s cartoon mascot, a spindly legged bird named Seymour D. Earth, and lots of puckish illustrations and easy-to-understand text, visitors work their way through a series of interactive stations that transform a typically dry topic into an engaging exploration of the world and their place in it.

Visitors mark their progress by stamping a free souvenir passport at stations throughout the display. It’s one of the more attractive elements of the show; on a recent weekday, children and adults alike eagerly waited their turn to fill their booklets. A middle-age couple from Fukui, Japan, were so absorbed in the task that their tour bus nearly left them.

First stop on the journey is the Population area, dominated by a large, rapidly moving display of numbers that reflects the Earth’s growing population. It’s a sobering stop. Last week, the count was in the high 5 billions; the projected population for 1998 is 6 billion. At a video map of the world, guests can chronicle growth from AD 1 to 2020--watching the numbers rise at various rates as they are affected by global events such as plagues, settlement of new lands and industrialization.

All these people need a lot of stuff. At other displays, guests turn dials, lift doors and push buttons to learn how resources are divided among the nations and to pick up tips on how those resources can be replenished or used more effectively. A computer game teaches about the needs of the animal population, inviting kids to link critters with their natural territories.

And because we don’t produce all the stuff we need in our own backyards, it helps if we trade stuff, right? In the Everyday Things section, we learn the origins of dozens of items and see how such things as American-grown tomatoes and Korean-made televisions have found their way into cultures worldwide. Exhibits here include a mock oven where visitors pull out trays of breads from around the world and a faux kitchen cabinet stocked with sniffable spices. You can also push the chips on a (nonedible) jumbo chocolate chip cookie to learn how chocolate is grown, made and distributed around the world. Be prepared for some heavenly smells at this last stop.

Sixth-grader Raymond Campos is one guy who was happy to ditch his textbook to twist, lift, press and sniff his way to a broader comprehension of the subject. In fact, you might even say his visit to “Earth 2U” was an earth-shaking experience.

We caught up with him in Landscapes/Landshapes, the final section of the show, where he and his classmates from Fullerton’s Cornerstone Academy were winding up a recent tour. While listening to a docent describe how natural forces help shape land forms from the Tibetan Plateau to Nebraska’s Sand Hills, Raymond and pal Aaron Hayman fiddled with a display on plate tectonics, taking turns shifting land masses on a miniature San Andreas fault and ramming continents together to create tiny Himalayas.

When told they’d just caused an earthquake and built a mountain range, the boys responded with wide-eyed grins. “Cool!” they chorused.

As he was leaving the show, Raymond offered an appraisal that would make organizers proud.

“I learned that the Earth’s population is growing super fast,” he said. “There isn’t much food, especially in places like China.”

But, he added, “if we share what we have, and don’t waste it . . . we should be OK.”

* What: “Earth 2U, Exploring Geography.”

* When: Through Nov. 10. Gallery hours: noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Friday-Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. Thursday. Closed Monday and Tuesday.

* Where: Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave., Fullerton.

* Whereabouts: Exit the Riverside (91) Freeway at Harbor Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto Wilshire Avenue. The museum is at Pomona and Wilshire.

* Wherewithal: $2-$3; free for children under 12. All ages free admission every Thursday, 6-8 p.m.

* Where to call: (714) 738-6545.