V.I. Children's Museum's "Mango Market" Exhibit

The exhibit was created through a partnership with Alpine Securities USVI, which sponsored the project that boasts manufactured mango trees with balls that substitute for real mangos, ripe for the picking by little hands. Children can take the 300 or more exhibit mangos and use them for sociodramatic play of a variety of agriculture-related activities. Kids can plant the mangos in a large planter bed, churn a crank that operates a pulley system that lifts the mangos to the ceiling, subsequently sending them down an overhead rail leading to an exhibit tree where children can then pick them. This is one of two ways children can launch balls overhead to the exhibit’s trees, the other is by a vacuum tube. The exhibit also comes complete with an island café where children can rinse their mangos, a flatbed truck that at the pull of a lever will release the pretend mangos into a market stand, and a checkout station complete with a functional scale and cash register.