Children's Underground at the Yakima Valley Musuem

The Children's Underground provides hands-on activities that complement the core museum exhibitions. This interactive center features child-sized replicas of period costumes and buildings, which allow children to experience history through constructive play. Children can also explore the natural history of the Yakima Valley through live animal displays and educational exhibits on the area’s environment. The Children's Underground is the stepping-off point for all student tours of the museum, which allows the museum to combine instruction with experiential learning.

During the spring growing season, warm daytime temperatures and clear cool nights can create an inversion. This weather phenomena causes the ground to lose heat very quickly, resulting in a rapid drop in temperature at tree level. The warmer air rises and sits above the layer of cool air. This condition is ideal for creating frost in the orchard. Since the cold air is heavier than the warm air, little mixing occurs. Flower buds frozen on a cold night means no fruit at harvest time. While burners and wind machines are effective in preventing frosts, the costs of fuel and maintenance are a concern.

With our touch-screen computer game, you are challenged to test your skills managing an orchard faced with the common problems of frost, insects and rain.

It's not easy being a pest in the orchard is it? Orchard Managers use the techniques shown in this exhibit to reduce the amount of fruit lost to insects and other pests. Managers measure each threat and use several methods to control the pests. Their goal is to do it in a way that keeps the environment and the fruit healthy. The technique is called IPM or Integrated Pest Management. IPM depends on knowing how pests affect the orchard as well as current research on their control.

This machine sorts apples by weight. The cups are programmed to drop the fruit according to weight at specific places along the line. Sorting can also be done by color and size. At an actual packing plant, the sorted fruit goes to the boxing area. Some machines box the fruit in huge bins that serve as store displays. Fruit is out of the refrigerated area for only a short time. One more way to keep the fresh taste alive!