Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page D1

21,2015 LIVING Local author new book offers a oyal adventure. 2D iving things might be more like achines than you ever imagined the premise behind a new exhibit, Robot at the North Carolina Arboretum. Need convincing? Consider the chameleon. Its eyes rotate 180 degrees and ove independently of one another. For umans, whose eyes are more limited, ow the chameleon sees is hard to imagine.

But with the help of two cameras and robotic joysticks, Robot allows museum goers to explore the room with new vision. Or think about the way an body works. Is it really so different from a machine? The heart is pump, and the joints are hinges. At Robot a station of springs, levers and pumps asks kids to consider the similarities between life and robots. Whitney Rigsbee, marketing and PR anager at the arboretum, said kids a re used to this connection between life and robotics, much more so in recent ears.

Children are definitely more aware of technology and engineering these ays so this is more how earning in she said. so much STEM focus science, technol- gy, engineering and math really trying to integrate these The slogan makes that connection best: is a master engi- it reads. George Briggs, the executive director of the arboretum, said the link between biology and robotics is one of the easons the arboretum is hosting the raveling exhibit. only are children able to explore engineering and technology but they are also exposed to different concepts about ecosystems, adaptions and he said. ecause the exhibit presents the i nformation in an interactive way, Rigs- ee said kids should retain it better.

Education through engagement is part of the mission, whether installing an exhibit or taking kids outside for a nature walk. Although Robot is targeted toward elementary and middle school students, it offers new insights for adults, too. For example, did you know male platypuses have poison injectors on their back flippers? really highlighting different characteristics you might not know capable Rigsbee said. Robot is definitely smart, but also fun. The exhibit hall eels like an arcade with its music, ights and games.

Some of the stations clearly have coin-operated parallels. he Tongue Gun, for example, teaches isitors about how a chameleon hunts, but it works like a water gun: Use the oystick to aim at the bugs and push the red button to try to catch them. In all, the exhibit features three larger-than-life robot animals, seven hands-on activities, placards and more. COURTESY OF NC ARBORETUM Amechanical fly, its head covered in sensors, eaches kids that machines and animals so ifferent at the NC new exhibit, Robot NC Arboretum hosts interactive exhibit CAROLINA CRAFT DAY This weekend promises a surge of activity at the arboretum. In addition to Robot and the usual attractions, such as trails, gardens and a bonsai collection the site will host 14 artists for Carolina Craft Day from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

ept. 26. Artists will sell their work and demonstrate techniques in fiber, paper, clay, metal and wood at the a Education Center, and live music will take place throughout the day. All events are free with paid parking at the arboretum. articipants include Lauren Adams, Jen Aly, Leah Baker, Anja Bartels, Amy Brandenberg, Kathy Goodson, Richard Hall, Steve Joslyn, Mary Carol oester, Joanthan Marchal, Sue McBean, Linda Miller, Chris Rhoades and Heather Spontak.

IF YOU GO Robot is on the second floor of the NC Baker Exhibit Center, and open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through Jan. 3. Admis- ion is free with paid parking at the arboretum. During the holiday light show, Nov.

20-Jan. 2, the Baker Exhib- i Center will extend its hours. For directions and more information, visit ncarboretum.org. EMILY PATRICK ncle Allen, the last surviving member of the search party hat found Dr. Elisha Mitchell dead at the bottom of a Yancey County waterfall in 1857 met with a reporter in uly 1922 to add to the famous account ade by Wilson.

itchell is credited with having etermined that what is now called ount Mitchell is the tallest mountain ast of the Mississippi. Big Tom, the veteran hunter and guide, told his tale i 1905, and it has been reproduced many times. ncle Jim started off by saying mphatically that Tom got all the redit (see the NC Dept. of Cultural esources site, for instance) and the thers none, although the entire party found om, Jim and brother, Adori- rum, had been together as one search party as groups split up on what turned ut to be a four-day effort in the wilder- ess around Black Mountain. Jim and Adorirum Allen and myself ent to the garden patch just below Peak, scattered out and beg an Wilson said in his account.

Adorirum said: Come here! a There was a discussion about wheth- it might be a paw print or uman, but then Big Tom found another rint with shoe tack marks. pturned laurel leaves, sideways- tepping footprints and logs with moss scraped off them led to the top of a alls, where seven days earlier Mitchell had slipped, fallen into a pool and drowned. His hat was floating. The water into which he fell was 13 eet Uncle Jim said in 1922. ook him out on the 14th of June and was just as pure as he was when he ent Beaver Lake traces its history to deaths, financial ruin COURTESY PHOTO Beaverdam Valley as seen from Elk Mountain, 1 958, with an apple orchard at bottom left.

ROB NEUFELD VISITING OUR PAST.