Family tour: First Thursday at the Burke

Every month, museums across the city open their doors on First Thursday, and parents and tots can enter for free. And every month, I'll bring you the best aspects of a new museum. This month, the spotlight is on the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, located at the University of Washington.

Melissa Todd, in the Burke's education division, provided some cool background information. Head to the Burke this Thursday and impress your kids with your tour guide-ready patter; and maybe you and your partner can take turns ducking out and visiting the Burke's brand-new photo exhibit The Last Polar Bear.

Main Floor

Start on the main floor, just inside the lobby. You'll see a large case of gems and rocks, including the world's third largest topaz. See if the kids can find it.

Then head into Life and Times of Washington State. See the marine reptile hanging from the ceiling? It's an Elasmosaur, found by a 12-year-old girl on Vancouver Island. There's even a book about it, called Heather's Amazing Discovery, available on the Courtenay & District Museum and Palaentology Center. This reptile is just a replica - the real thing is in the Vancouver Island museum.

Most of the dinosaur fossils in the Burke are a mix of real bones and casts. Todd suggests looking closely at the Triceratops skull -- can you guess which segments are real and which are Styrofoam?

Another game: Which dino would be dangerous to you today? Meat-eating dinos have sharp and curved teeth for tearing flesh, while the plant-eaters have flat teeth for chewing.

In the Ring of Fire, climb inside the cave. It's a cast of a real cave in Eastern Washington, where a rhino got caught in hot lava. Run your hands along the cave's top -- you'll feel deep holes where the rhino's legs once were. It's true, rhinos once roamed in Eastern Washington.

Right next to the cave lies a real whale skeleton. It took three years to assemble this mammoth mammal, carefully removing bone fragments from rock and putting it together a piece at a time.

In the education room, kids can assemble a puzzle of their own, play with plastic dinosaurs, or feel a fossil. Todd says the museum just received new puzzles and books on insects, dinosaurs and plants.

Ever spotted a sloth at the airport? Wait, don't answer that. But the Burke's real sloth skeleton was found when digging up the runway for Sea-Tac airport. According to Todd, both sloths and saber-tooth cats once pussyfooted around in Seattle.

In the biodiversity space, see if you can spot the owl hiding in the old growth.

Downstairs, in Pacific Voices:

An exhibit co-curated by over 100 people, Pacific Voices explores storytelling, teaching and celebration. 

Throughout the exhibit, look down - there are drawers under many display with hands-on activities, such as a button blanket, masks to try on, and a cedar bark basket.

In the NW Coast artist case, check out the tiny bentwood boxes and bowls. They were made with just a cedar wood plank and hot water. But they were water-tight, great when commuting in canoes.  NW Native Americans even created disposable diapers from trees - the cedar-bark dipes were highly absorbent and soft. Take that, Pampers.

In the storytelling area, see the new mask exhibit, featuring Native American masks from Canada. Right next to the masks, you'll see a human-sized mask and costume with exaggerated facial features from Java.

Ask your kids to spot the food in the Chinese New Year and Korean wedding ceremony displays. It's made from plastic -- but certainly looks real.

And finally, take a long look at the totem poles. In Washington State, totem poles were used as houseposts inside the longhouses, not as freestanding poles (as on Vancouver Island). Young toddlers and preschoolers can look for the ovoid (egg) shapes and U's that create the eyes, eyebrows and ears.

Go visit, and tell us what you find at the Burke Museum.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

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