Can you remember something important from five years ago? How do you remember the smell of your favorite food? Where does your brain store these memories?

You may find some answers to these questions and others about memory this month at the Missouri History Museum. A fun "Memory" traveling exhibit opens on Sunday, Feb. 16, at the museum in Forest Park.

The Sunday opening is free. Hours are 2-4 p.m. The exhibit runs through April 27.

There will be all sorts of hands-on activities. And there's a special mini-exhibit that focuses specifically on memories about St. Louis and Missouri.

In one hands-on activity, a police sketch artist will test how well you can describe how your friend looks. Will your memory produce a recognizable sketch of your friend?

You can test your music memory in a "Name that Tune" contest. Winners get prizes.

You also get a chance to draw or write your personal memories on a large canvas wall. The graffiti-decorated wall will hang during the whole time the exhibit is in St. Louis.

The "Memory" exhibit will help you understand why you know what you know. You'll also see how personal memories shape history.

The Museum said, "Personal memories of people, places and events become shared memories and bind us together as St. Louisans." The same is true of shared memories that bind us together as the United States.

There's also quite a bit of science connected to this study of memory.

Saint Louis University is arranging a special video-conference for St. Louis school kids showing the dissection of a sheep's brain. That will help you understand where memories are stored in the brain.

SLU's Adventures in Medicine and Science program is planning the dissection show. Final details are being worked out now. Be sure to ask your science or history teacher if you and your classmates can watch the show.

Karen Montgomery is handling the broadcast. She can be contacted at (314) 535-4000.

Your brain has all sorts of memories and they're stored in different parts of the brain. There are automatic memories that tell your heat how to pump and lungs how to breath.

But, your memory of tomorrow's school lessons is in other parts of the brain. And your long-term memory of what the world is like is somewhere else.

Sometimes, the same memory can be stored in different places. So, if one part of your brain gets damaged, you'll still be able to remember and function.

The brain's role in memory has been a mystery for all of human history. This exhibit gives you a chance to find out the latest in the science and history of memory.

Many of the theories on memory are very complex. But, the hands-on part of this exhibit can be understood and enjoyed for kids and adults of all ages.

In the main exhibit, there's a "Jukebox Memories" display with music of the last 40 years. There's also a "tactile guessing" game that challenges you to recognize common household objects by feel only.

Then there's the "Hoop Nightmares" game that temporarily alters your body's memory of how to throw a ball and shoot a basket.

In the Missouri mini-exhibit, there are both displays and hands-on activities.

In the music category, there will be items from the St. Louis' musical present and past. You'll see artifacts from Nelly, the currently famous rap artist. There also are items from Gas Light Square, a famous jazz district years ago.

There's sports memorabilia from both the baseball Cardinals and football Rams. There will be a memorial for Jack Buck, the famed Cardinal broadcaster.

You can hear interviews with St. Louisans who took part in historic events. One interview is with a St. Louisan who survived the Pentagon attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

If you want advanced information about these exhibits, you can check two websites.

The San Francisco Emploratorum's website is at www.exploratorium.edu/memory. This is the organization that sponsors the traveling "Memory" exhibit.

You can get a motion picture preview of the sheep brain dissection.

The Missouri History Museum also has a website at www.mohistory.org. Information about the Memory exhibit is in the Upcoming Exhibitions section.