While actual carnivals may not be up and running this summer, the Ecotarium in Worcester has one of their own, and are using it to educate visitors.
"This exhibit is really about Newton’s laws of physics and the laws of motion and how you can learn about those through an amusement park experience,” says Ecotarium President and CEO Lucy Hale.
It is just one of the hands-on exhibits in the indoor science museum.
outside the Ecotarium sits on more than 40 acres, and includes displays, activities and about a dozen different wildlife habitats.
Hale says they're taking all safety precautions to make sure they are not only meeting state COVID-19 safety guidelines, but exceeding them.
Hale says,"The hands on nature of our exhibits we've just really increased the frequency of the cleaning of everything and try to reduce the touch experiences where we can without taking away from the overall experience."
To limit people gathering, they've placed q-r codes around the museum for a virtual tour guide experience.
"When you walk around you'll see QR codes and you can pull it up on your phone and you can still have that educator experience but in a way that you don't have 20 people gathering in a space,” says Hale.
When it comes to wearing masks, they are required. even for their resident dinosaurs.
“Keeping with the state regulations, we masked Siegfried, were not sure if dinosaurs can catch covid 19 we know that some other animals can. He is very special, very precious and we thought it would be in the best interest. We also like to show best practices, we want kids to see it's ok to wear a mask, if Siegfrieds is wearing one, you can too,” adds Hale.
The Ecotarium will be open to the public on the weekends. They also offer virtual programming on its website.