Long Island Children's Museum adds permanent water exhibit

The sound of the ocean crashing on the shore will greet visitors as they enter a giant wave tunnel leading to the new "Saltwater Stories" opening Oct. 11 at the Long Island Children’s Museum in Uniondale, the first permanent exhibit in more than a decade.

Rolling lights simulate the movement of water as visitors walk through a blue wave into the second-floor gallery. "It’s meant to evoke the grandeur and sensory nature of the ocean itself," says Margo Malter, director of museum exhibits. "The exhibit is all about Long Islanders’ relation to the water."

Families can then shop for beanbag fish at a mock fish market, climb into an authentic Native American mishoon dugout canoe built for the museum by members of Long Island’s Shinnecock Nation, "cook" clam chowder on the stove of a mock historic bay house, and more. Murals evoke a feeling of being at the seashore and "Salty Solutions" stations offer families suggestions on how they can protect the ocean environment. The full title of the exhibit is "Saltwater Stories: We Need the Sea & the Sea Needs Me."

While the museum often has rotating new exhibits that remain for several months before moving to another children’s museum, this exhibit will stay here indefinitely. The last permanent galleries at the museum, called "Sound Showers" and "Feasts for Beasts," opened in 2013 and 2012, respectively.

"Saltwater Stories" will be included with museum admission. Special events are planned throughout the holiday weekend to celebrate the opening. Newsday got an exclusive sneak peek of the gallery along with Brownie Girl Scout Troop 960 of Rockville Centre before opening day.

Here’s what we experienced.

THE WAVE

"Frequently, a family’s first impression of water is at the beach. We wanted them to have the experience of going through the waves. When people come off the elevator or up the stairs, they’ll see this. This creates that sort of ‘wow’ factor," says Maureen Mangan, museum director of communications, gesturing to the 9-foot-high wave tunnel.

"It’s one of the neatest pieces I think we’ve ever built," says Bryan McAdams, president of Heartland Scenic Studio in Omaha, Neb., which engineered and built the sculpture and much of the exhibit.

The new exhibit replaces the museum’s Pattern Studio that talked about how patterns are incorporated in people’s everyday lives.

THE FISH MARKET

"Fish for sale! Fish for sale!" shouts Brownie Hannah Basini, 7, who stands behind an interactive touch screen cash register.

"I’m ready to pay," says fellow scout Sienna Malone, 7, as she weighs her lobster and codfish in a play scale. "Here’s your money."

A mock store modeled after Two Cousins Fish Market in Freeport allows children to role play as fishmongers, storekeepers and customers. Beanbag fish species are all native to Long Island waters, Malter says — winter flounder, black sea bass, and more.

Kids can don rubber gloves to their elbows to reach into a lobster tank with plastic lobsters. Pick up the phone and hear callers say things such as, "This is the Lady E coming into Montauk now with a big haul of tilefish. Have the ice ready!"

Tony Terzulli, who managed Two Cousins for years, consulted on the fish market, says his daughter, Aimee Terzulli, who is vice president for program and visitor experience at the museum. "It feels so familiar to me. In my childhood it was so exciting when my mom would drop me off there," Aimee says. She says it’s perhaps her favorite part of the exhibit — and, she jokes, she’s happy it doesn’t have the actual fish market smell.

THE BAY HOUSE

"Once upon a time there were as many as 300 bay houses. Now there are about 30," Mangan says. Bay houses are historic structures along Long Island’s South Shore that families used for recreation, duck hunting and fishing; they were passed down through generations, she says.

"They were originally built for economic reasons, to harvest grasses of the salt marsh," Malter says. The grasses were used for livestock feed, to make mattresses and as insulation for ice, she says.

A "magic window" lets families see outdoor, time-lapse footage of the tide coming in and out, and they can push buttons to switch the view to day or night, and to change the weather from sunny to so cold and stormy they will want to grab some clams and celery and "cook" clam chowder on the stove.

"I’ve got this and it’s cooked already," says Sienna, as she takes fake fish out of the fake oven and places it on dinner plates the girls have set on the bay house kitchen table.

BOAT PLAY

Kids can climb onto a fishing boat, push the throttle and hear the roar of the engine. "I’m driving the boat back to the lodge," says Brownie Ella Gabriels, 7. "There’s a giant storm coming. I saw it at the window."

Ella presses a walkie-talkie style button on the boat’s console that lets her talk to the girls in the bay house, who hear her voice through a speaker on the bay house wall. "How’s it going at home, Guiliana?" she asks Guiliana Migallo, 7, who is in the bay house helping to make the dinner.

Visitors can also climb onto a mishoon, a Native American dugout canoe commissioned by the museum from Long Island’s Shinnecock Nation in Southampton. The mishoon was officially presented to the museum with a ceremony in July. A video accompanying the exhibit shows how the mishoon was handmade by tribe members.

Orange life jackets, yellow waders and nets let children play dress-up in nautical gear. They can also dress as sharks or play with fish puppets. "It’s definitely getting the girls’ attention, pretend play," says troop co-leader Marissa Gabriels, 39, a pediatrician.

PHOTO OPS, BRAIN CHALLENGES AND MORE

Pass through hanging blades of "kelp" to experience life underneath the ocean in an area called Lifting the Ocean’s Lid. "We think that area will have a very strong appeal to early childhood visitors," Mangan says.

A touch screen game lets students swipe trash out of the ocean, and a microscope lets children magnify sea creatures. Brownie Hannah Mullen is enthralled by both — she stands before the touch screen, which is taller than she is, and swipes plastic bags and other debris to the sides of the screen while letting the fish continue on with the current. And she sits in front of the microscope, placing a starfish underneath and zeroing in on its body. "I’m seeing there’s lots of dots," she says, examining its skin.

She calls the new gallery "pretty cool. Some exhibits just have things you can learn about, they don’t really have play things," she says. This one does both.

Children — and parents — can take photos with the "Record-Breaking Catch" — a striped bass taller than they are hanging from a hook. Plenty of other spots let families capture the day as well, as the exhibit is meant to be realistic looking. "A lot of the structures have aged-looking wood, as if they were exposed to the elements for years," McAdams says.

Different challenges are spaced throughout the exhibit, including, for instance, this one: Children spin two wheels and are posed with a question of "How would you design a trap/hook/net to catch fish without accidentally catching turtles/dolphin/baby fish?"

"This is a really good, open-ended thinking activity for kids," Malter says.

Even Billy Joel has a place — visitors can watch and listen to his 1989 music video "The Downeaster ‘Alexa,’ ” in which he sings as if he is trying to make a living as a Long Island fisherman.

"There are so many gems I think people are going to enjoy," Terzulli says. "The roots of this are really just people feeling pride about where we live."