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Will Lamb peered out from between two stalactites and grinned a six-year-old’s grin. 

He had struggled through a dark cave, but now there were other challenges to conquer. Soon, imitating a jellyfish in the swirls of the ocean deep, Lamb balanced on a wobbly platform. 

Meanwhile, all around him, kids were experiencing everything from life on the ocean floor to how a blind person plays ball. “A Night in the Dark,” a new children’s exhibit at the Lawrence Hall of Science, uses hands-on activities to show how different species adapt to darkness. 

“We don’t want people just standing around reading text,” said Steve Mullin, the museum’s operations manager.  

“We want to get you out of the museum and plunge you into the depths of the ocean and the earth.” 

A long line formed in front of a booth where kids could get a feel for blindness. Inside a pitch-black booth, they had to fit an object into the right slot. People in line could watch their frustration through a night-vision camera. 

Lamb’s mother, Alyssa, said she and her son will certainly return. “The activities here can be used for a wide age range,” she said. “I’m trying to figure some of these things out, myself.” 

The exhibit came to Lawrence Hall from the Cincinnati Museum Center and runs until January 15.