By Ana Martinez-Ortiz
A young guest pets a baby dinosaur while exploring the interactive part of the exhibition.
While dinosaurs no longer roam the earth, they’ll soon be roaming the streets of Milwaukee. On Feb.17 through Feb.18, Discover the Dinosaurs: Time Trek will be “stomping” into the Wisconsin Center.
This particular exhibition, hosted by VStar Entertainment Group, began touring the country roughly two months ago in December. Currently, it’s in Memphis soon to be making its way to Milwaukee before hitting Atlanta.
Allyson Best, an Energy Net Manager with VStar, explained that the exhibition is designed to be interactive and engage the whole family.
According to Best, for years, VStar has been producing Discover the Dinosaurs UNLEASHED. This gave audience members a look into the world of dinosaurs, but with this version guests can actually walk through and experience what it was like in Jurassic times.
“Everyone can enjoy it,” Best said.
A family explores the Jurassic era as they walk through Discovering The Dinosaurs: Time Trek.
From kids to parents to grandparents, Time Trek is designed to ensure that every family member can have a good time.
“I really hope they have a lot of fun,” Best said, “and that they have fun together.”
Some of the activities include a Dino Dig, Design-A-Dino and Prehistoric Poop. There’s also a maze, the chance to see a dinosaur skeleton come to life and a roar-o-meter. Performers and scientists will be on deck to answer any questions or hold the baby dinosaur for kids to pet.
Of all the latest additions, Best views the Mission Challenge Zone as one of her favorite areas, because it’s live entertainment and a game area. She explained that kids can learn what skills are needed to become a scientist and then utilize them in a game.
Mission Challenge Zone is considered one of the popular areas. Best also said that while kids love seeing the life-size dinosaurs they love meeting the “baby dinosaurs,” testing out the roar-o-meter and visiting the Prehistoric Poop set. She said kids often return several times throughout their visit to each of those stations.
While the exhibition has an educational aspect, the overall goal is to help families make fun memories.
“It’s about making this event better for families to participate in [it] together,” she said.
Best also added that it may introduce children to new information that’ll encourage them to pursue an interest in something they may not have been familiar with prior to the exhibition.
In addition to the dinosaur aspect of the exhibition, there will be a feature section on sharks.
OCEARCH, a non-profit organization partnered with VStar to bring some actual tracking into the time trek. With OCEARCH’s “real-time migration” Global Shark Tracker, families can study data and watch the movement of various sharks as they swim through the oceans.
There will also be life-size replicas or models of sharks starting from the prehistoric era to present day. OCEARCH hopes to create a greater understanding of sharks among other large sea creatures, Best said.
With Discover the Dinosaurs: Time Trek, VStar hopes to bring a new level of entertainment to their events. As in their previous shows, there will be a performance aspect to go along with the interactive ones.
Additional details regarding show times and tickets is available at https://www.discoverthedinosaurs.com/.