WATERLOO -- The construction is finished and the exhibits are installed, but one more element was required to complete the Phelps Youth Pavilion: Kids.

That final ingredient is being added this week as schools bring busloads of students to explore the pavilion, a long-awaited expansion of the Waterloo Center for the Arts' Junior Art Gallery.

Sixty-three Orange Elementary School fifth-graders descended on the youth pavilion Wednesday. The Orange students were the second of more than 50 groups booked to visit it before the grand opening April 5 and 6.

Sounds from the interactive exhibits mingled with voices of children in the pavilion's three R.J. McElroy Junior Art Galleries on two floors. One of the galleries has a traditional feel. On its walls are wood cut prints and book illustration paintings. Also displayed are colorful animal wood carvings from a region of Mexico.

The interactive exhibits -- and much of the noise that was being made by the children -- are in two other galleries. Some of the exhibits allow children to milk a cow, drive a tractor through virtual landscapes, visit a one-room school house, explore the language and clothing of other cultures, create drawings and paintings, and put on a puppet show. One exhibit even takes students back in time.

A group of five students and a chaperone crowded into a cylindrical-shaped "time machine." After pressing a button, the doors closed and a pair of light bulbs on top began flashing. The floor began shifting back and forth, accompanied by a series of loud noises.

Giggling students were doubled up with laughter once the doors opened and they tumbled out on the other side.

"It was scary," said Jade Moore. "It kept on shaking."

The students donned explorers' vests and plastic hats to crawl through a cave and examine drawings on the walls using a flashlight. They moved on to stamping Egyptian hieroglyphics onto paper and then digging through "dirt" to unearth artifacts from ancient Greek, Indian, Mayan, Roman and African cultures. The replica coins, pottery and art was buried in chopped up bits of rubber.

"I think it's cool, because you never find anything this big in mud," said Lauren Thies.

Upstairs, Edin Tutic admitted to loving the exhibits.

"They're wonderful," he said. "They're all really, really good. They're all fascinating."

He and classmate Dino Abdic were busy mixing and matching various architectural styles by affixing magnetic facades to a wall. They had just finished rearranging magnetic panels on an adjacent house structure.

"It doesn't matter if you mess (up) building a house," said Abdic. "You just know it's going to be fun. … We just used our imagination putting stuff around."

That's what Center for the Arts staff wants these children to do.

"This allows us to test out how kids use it, rather than how adults use it," said Shannon Farlow, the center's development marketing director. The student visits are occurring as finishing touches are being put on the pavilion.

For example, a booth to control lighting on a stage when people can do impromptu performances still needs to be completed. In addition, the staff is watching to see how the exhibits hold up as they are used by hundreds of kids.

"I'd say 98 percent of it is complete and, I'd say, user ready," said Farlow.

The other factor holding back the opening is that associated construction in other parts of the Center for the Arts is still under way. Work needs to be completed on the ArtHouse Cafe, a new restaurant in the center, and the relocated gift shop. In addition, work continues on a new art gallery and on upgrades to the two existing galleries.

Two-thirds of the project's $6.3 million price tag was raised from private individuals and organizations. The remainder included city, state and federal funds.

The money went to construction, exhibits, equipment and the center's endowment.

Students and staff at a number of Waterloo Community Schools' buildings raised about $70,000 to make the Grant Wood Schoolhouse exhibit possible. A variety of interactive lessons are available in the schoolhouse at the press of a button. The face of the woman teaching the lessons is projected onto the head of a mannequin that stands at the front of the class.

The schoolhouse is in the midst of other exhibits inspired by Wood, a famed 20th century Iowa painter. Among those are a round barn with the cow, the tractor which takes riders on a virtual trip through Wood's painted landscapes, and three-dimensional components from one of his paintings that can be arranged and projected on the wall.

Makayla Chamberlin enjoyed singing and dancing on a stage in one of the galleries with friends. She also liked learning words from other languages in an exhibit showcasing other cultures.

"It's really cool," she said. "Like, you can do skits and stuff. You can do dances and you can learn words from (other) places."

Madison Steele liked the privileged position that she and her classmates held.

"I was excited when we got to come and be the first kids here," she said. "Even though they're not done, it still looks good."

Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.