A nearly 14-foot Volvo truck is one of the biggest exhibits at the Greensboro Children’s Museum. A set of stairs allows children to climb into the bright red, shiny chrome big rig.

A mural depicting the North Carolina Blue Ridge Parkway sets the scene. CEO of the Greensboro Children’s Museum Marian King said the exhibit is full of interactive features.

“It’s a sleeper cab. Over here is where they have storage cabinets for clothes and other items since they are living on the road. They have a refrigerator and a bunk right here so they can see how they sleep with blankets and pillows,” said King.

“There are lots of different Volvo t-shirts and shirts, so they can dress up like a truck driver. I think it's a lot larger than people anticipate because they don’t realize they can walk around,” King added.

Seven year-old Kaleea and her friend Nicole love to play with the truck’s gears and levers.

“What I like about this truck is that it seems pretty real and it even has a TV right there,” said Kaleea.

“I like the exhibit because it’s fun to play with and it has this bed in the back and all of the levers in the front and you can take turns driving,” said Nicole.

Volvo Trucks is part of the Volvo Group, which employs more than 2,000 people at its North American headquarters in Greensboro.  The company donated the rig to the museum to teach kids about the role these vehicles play in our society.

It also emphasizes Volvo’s focus on safety and the environment. King said the exhibit helps reinforce Stem education concepts, or science, technology, engineering and math.

 “Part of the exhibit also is a safety exhibit. Over on the other side of the truck where we mounted the passenger seat that we took out, we added a bright orange seat belt,” said King.

King added, “Volvo was the inventor of the three point seat belt and safety is very important to the company, so we wanted to show the seat belt and a safety demonstration so children can sit in it and click in and out of the seat belt,”