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Kid testers try out new museum exhibits

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They're two and a half feet tall and full of testing power.  Kid experimenters are the Omaha Children's Museum secret to success..

"Kids know how to play better than adults, it's what they know, what they do," says Matt Orand, exhibit designer.

You can tell them by their size extra small lab coats, that still are too big for some of the kids. 

Tuesday, they were splashing and pouring at the new Platte water table, as Orand and other museum staff watched and pondered their play.

"Every kid is a little bit different, on how they experience things, what interested them, what they like to play with," Orand said.

Christina Simmons' watches as her son Dylan,3, tests the table.

"I think whoever came up with this idea, they're geniuses," she says.

"We see what works and what doesn't work. If it isn't durable enough or if we don't have enough of something, we'll go back and refine it," Orand says.

That feedback goes into a year and a half of conception, design, and building the new exhibit. Feedback from the old water play table to this one, based on kids reviews; bigger, height differences, and more interactive elements. When its ready and new group of local little ones get there hands dirty or in this cause wet. The OCM has a soft opening for the exhibit. They'll make little adjustments and that will help as the exhibit opens for good Saturday, May 28th. So anyone who there during the next week for that soft opening could be a tester.

It's all part of the play, and play testing, for the pint sized museum visitors.