This year we’re continuing our weekly look at unique festivals, events, and attractions that are within an easy driving distance of the Mansfield area. We call these “Summer Road Trips.” Of course, we regularly feature the many extraordinary places to visit right here in Richland County and encourage our readers to get out and experience what is on offer in our own backyard. If your family is in the mood for some sticky fun, here’s something to do which is an easy drive from greater Mansfield.

What’s two levels tall and 1,300 square feet in size? That’s the size of a playground made out of packing tape which is sure to delight and, of course, stick. It’s a unique exhibition – TapeScape and Sticky Science — at the Great Lakes Science Center on the short of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, and it’s our weekly choice for a proposed Summer Road Trip.

Everyone is familiar with the unmistakable shrrrrrrrriiiippp sound that tape makes as it’s coming off the roll, but there’s more to this everyday material than you ever imagined! Using the humble product known as packing tape, the Science Center and designer/artist Eric Lennartson built the  two-level playground for all ages entirely out of packing tape wrapped around a metal frame – a TapeScape!

Lennartson harnessed the tensile strength of tape – or its ability to stretch under stress – to design unique, multisensory installations strong enough for kids and adults to climb on and explore. This special temporary exhibition is included with general admission, and does require guests to wear socks.

Surrounding the TapeScape structure itself will be multiple hands-on exhibits exploring “Sticky Science” from adhesives to polymers and even examples of adhesion in nature. The exploration of tape includes opportunities to examine tape artifacts from local manufacturer ShurTech, including clothes made for their annual Duck Tape Fashion Show, and see colorful sticky note murals.

A “TotScape” area will provide our youngest guests a play-place of their own, complete with their own tape structure, bristle blocks building area and a “felt to flannel” wall that will show that adhesion isn’t always “sticky.”

The exhibition will end on September 3. Tickets are available online here. Click here for more details.

Photo: Creative Commons License

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