Step to the head of the class if you said the National Eye Institute's traveling exhibit. And the results have greatly exceeded expectations. The exhibit highlights research leading to sight-saving treatments for blinding eye diseases, and provides health information resulting directly from that research.
Simulations illustrate how vision is affected by eye diseases, supplemented by take-home brochures.
One measure of its success is the fact that the NEI originally planned to tour the exhibit for 2 years. NEI serves as coordinator and facilitator, loaning the exhibit at no cost and providing promotional and educational materials. They cosponsored the exhibit at the California Museum of Science and Industry with the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California. Stops on its 8-year tour include Birmingham, Ala., Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Durham, N.C., Ft. D.C. It was the exhibit's interactive features that initially caught the attention of the McAllen International Museum, a small but vibrant cultural institution in McAllen, Tex.