From a burning building or a disastrous date to a raging bull or a quicksand pool, the worst can happen at any time.
And the traveling exhibit “The Worst-Case Scenario: An Ultimate Survival Experience” is helping people become better prepared for the worst, with a tongue-in-cheek training regiment, real-world examples and a three-part credo.
“Everyone is going to face some sort of bad situation, whether it be a meeting that’s not going well, or you’re in a plane that doesn’t have a pilot and you need to land it, something’s going to happen. Those different situations actually have a very similar sort of method to prepare yourself,” said Geoffrey Curley, the exhibit’s designer.
The action-packed exhibition is open through Sept. 6 at Science Museum Oklahoma, where visitors of all ages can learn the three keys to coping with any catastrophe: Be prepared. Don’t panic. Have a plan.
They can also learn the keys to picking locks when you don’t have the actual key.
“These are real-life scenarios — though unlikely — and how would you deal with it? And it’s using science, it’s using critical thinking, it’s using logic (and) engineering. From knowing how to defuse a bomb or how to jump off a moving train — my favorite is lock-picking — it’s true worst-case scenarios,” said Science Museum Oklahoma President Sherry Marshall.
Based on the books
“The Worst-Case Scenario: An Ultimate Survival Experience” is adapted from a popular book series that started with the 1999 best-seller “The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook” by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht.
“It’s an amazing book that has dozens of different scenarios, from power outages and how to deal with downed power lines to your computer freezing to being in a social situation that may be a little uncomfortable for you,” said Curley, who also designed “Sherlock Holmes: The Exhibition,” another hands-on traveling attraction on view through Sept. 6 at Science Museum Oklahoma.
“When the first book came out, it was around the whole Y2K thing, and the two authors, Josh and David, they were really interested in getting an understanding of ‘Why are people panicking? How do you get ready for situations that are potentially an emergency?'”
The colorful interactive experience incorporates the same cheeky humor as the books.
“One of the things I love about the books is that … they’re set in such a straightforward way where it’s like, ‘Of course you’re gonna be attacked by an alligator and you’re going to have to deal with it,’ or ‘Of course you’re gonna have to land this plane and this is how you go about that,'” Curley said.
“It’s a serious matter, of course: We’re facing worst-case situations. But we do it in a way that’s really enjoyable with a lot of humor behind it — and we ask people to play along.”
Training for disaster
The exhibit’s Hall of Fame Lobby showcases tools and techniques used by real-life professionals whose jobs can sometimes be just the worst.
“We see some of the experts who, really, they face worst-case conditions all the time, whether it be the police or whether they be the Coast Guard, zoologists, people who really have a good understanding of some of these situations that you and I might feel really uncomfortable, that we might have fear in,” Curley said.
“So, we learn from their experiences, and then we also learn a little bit about ourselves — the biology of fear, what causes us to sort of freeze up when we get into a situation that we’re uncomfortable in.”
But much of the exhibition is designed as a sort of gymnasium where visitors can test their skills and prepare for the worst: They can spin a real-world Wheel of Fortune and learn about how to handle various animal attacks, from a stalking tiger to an enraged swan. To simulate responding to a rollover car accident, they can sit upside down and try to solve puzzles while the blood rushes to their heads.
From jumping from one train car to another to climbing the exterior wall of a building, people can try their hand — their whole body, really — at various survival strategies.
Real-world applications
Due to the rising COVID-19 case numbers, visitors can’t actually jump into the exhibit’s ball pit, but the museum is offering demonstrations where staffers will show how to cope with falling into quicksand or getting caught in an avalanche.
“With the flow dynamics when the snow and the ice is falling, it does lift up and it becomes fluid. So if you were stuck in an avalanche, the best thing you can do to at least make the chance of survival better is to swim through it. And it’s actually the same sort of motion that you use when you’re swimming, to try to keep on top of it so that you’re not buried too low,” Curley said of the latter worst-case scenario.
“The chances of you not being buried are very slim. But you can keep yourself closer to the surface — and the surface is where the air is and other people.”
If people figure out how to get through a “Worst Day Ever” that involves a bear, a swarm of killer bees and a Burmese python, they might just be better equipped to figure out how to work through more probable problems.
The exhibit even includes a germ tunnel, in case people want to get some scientific insights into how illnesses spread — knowledge that just might prove relevant to the current pandemic days.
“We’re kind of coming off one of the worst-case scenarios for the nation. This kind of gives us an opportunity to look at, ‘OK, we’ve faced something pretty bad. What else is out there? Let’s tackle it — let’s be ready,'” Marshall said.
‘The Worst-Case Scenario: An Ultimate Survival Experience’
When: Through Sept. 6.
Where: Science Museum Oklahoma, 2020 Remington Place.
Admission: Free with general admission, which is $18.95 for adults and children 13 and older; $14.95 for seniors 65 and older and children ages 3-12; and free for children younger than 3.
Information: https://www.sciencemuseumok.org/worst-case-scenario.
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