In the Spelling Fever game, players are given a clue (actual example: a vegetable popularly mashed) and must jump on the letters to spell the answer.


A puzzling new exhibit will open at the Museum of Discovery this weekend! Mindbender Mansion, which opens March 7, is full of puzzles, brainteasers and interactive challenges that build problem-solving skills and exercise young minds.

Throughout the exhibit, Mr. E (the wacky curator of the Mindbender Society) will explain how visitors can gather hidden clues and secret passwords by solving certain puzzles in the mansion. Kids can work on brainteasers on their own, and take part in group challenges, including:

  • Feeding Frenzy: Beat the clock by filling T.V. dinner trays with five kinds of food on a fast-moving conveyer belt.
  • Spelling Fever: Hopscotch meets Scrabble as you race to spell correct words by hopping on letter squares that light up.
  • Amazing Maze: In this version of the classic steel ball labyrinth game, visitors must work together to tilt a table in different directions by guiding a ball into six holes.

The traveling exhibit will remain at the Museum of Discovery through Sept. 7, and then will spend six months at five additional Arkansas Discovery Network museums in Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, Smackover, Jonesboro and Bentonville.

Museum of Discovery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., and 1-5 p.m. Sun. Admission is $10, children ages 1-12 $8, children under 1 free. For info: (501) 396-7050, MuseumOfDiscovery.org.