THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, May 5, 1995                    TAG: 9505050066
SECTION: DAILY BREAK              PAGE: E11  EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY JILL BRUNER, HIGH SCHOOL CORRESPONDENT 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   50 lines

YOU'RE NOT TOO OLD FOR CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

I'VE BEEN TO the new Children's Museum in Downtown Portsmouth, and I have some news: The name is all wrong.

While the name might make one think that it's a place for little brothers and sisters, it's really for people of all ages, including high school students. And because it's open until 9 p.m. Fridays, it has potential for an interesting date destination.

One recent Sunday, I took a test group of friends to the museum. We spent the afternoon checking out all 60 exhibits. They include a cultural-diversity experience, a city-life display with a police motorcycle and stop sign, a rock-climbing wall, balance and height tests, drug-awareness computer games, a construction site, a life raft, a bubble room and a planetarium.

``It's like a big game room,'' said Jennifer Smith, a Churchland High junior, as she walked inside for the first time.

The bubble exhibit particularly fascinated us. Bubbles can be blown through pieces of PVC pipe, forced through large wires in the shape of butterflies and hearts, or pulled up a screen from a pan of soapy liquid.

Robert Jones tried to catch shimmering, iridescent bubbles the size of a baseball that Chris Kelley blew out of a piece of PVC pipe. The bubbles got larger and larger until Chris was blowing them as big as a basketball. In a joint effort, David Tynch helped Chris make a bubble wall 3 feet high. Chris, Robert and David are all Churchland juniors.

After untangling Chris from a net in the ``Construction Site,'' we moved on to the test of balance. The circular platform, 3 feet in diameter, pivots when stepped on. Green and red blinking lights along with a buzzer let you know when you are and aren't balanced.

While trying to keep his balance on the platform, David seemed to be surfing.

Robert's favorite exhibit was ``Recollections.'' This hands-on, kinetic art exhibit is located in a room with a computer-controlled video imaging machine. As Robert wandered about the room and David practiced his jumping jacks, multiples of their silhouettes were frozen on the screen in different colors.

``People can call me a juvenile all they want,'' David said, ``but it is a lot of fun. I've already been three times.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Jill Bruner is a junior at Churchland High School.

by CNB