Water’s Extreme Journey, a new exhibit opening in September at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, features a maze and interactive activities highlighting the challenges of keeping our water clean. Visitors experience the watershed as a water drop, exploring firsthand the science behind the water cycle.
The exhibit will be open to the public from September 3 through December 31, 2022. Seymour Center members are invited for a first look at the new exhibit on Friday, September 2. More information is available online at seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/visit/exhibits.
The Water’s Extreme Journey maze transforms visitors into a raindrop and sends them on a journey through mountains, streams, and even their own backyards, where every day decisions impact their chance of staying clean and reaching a healthy ocean.
While investigating winding pathways, visitors are challenged to navigate through pollutants originating from agriculture, development, litter, and our homes. Will the farm they pass by be organic? Did someone pour leftover paint down the drain? This fully interactive maze experience engages visitors through play, scientific inquiry, art and action, illuminating human impacts great and small while teaching how to contribute to healthy, safe water in their community and beyond.
“It’s a super fun maze, very family friendly, where you’re a drop of water and your goal is to get to the ocean clean,” said Seymour Center Executive Director Jonathan Hicken.
Created by the marine life artist Wyland and Seattle-based Minotaur Mazes, Water’s Extreme Journey blends art, science, and action. The Seymour Center has added supplementary panels to the exhibit to highlight water issues particularly relevant to the Central Coast. Hicken said the additions were developed in consultation with UCSC faculty and representatives from Central Coast communities and nonprofits.
“It was really interesting to get all these people together, including water experts and community leaders, and talk about what are the most important things to teach people about water on the Central Coast,” Hicken said. “The panels we added are focused on issues of water supply, water quality, and drought and the impacts of climate change.”
The Seymour Marine Discovery Center is a community-supported marine science education center operated by UC Santa Cruz and dedicated to educating people about the role scientific research plays in the understanding and conservation of the world’s oceans.
