Whoosh! As part of the upgraded Wind & Air exhibit at Akron Children’s Museum, kids can place colorful scarves in several interlacing clear plastic tubes— and watch as they’re sucked in. Then they can use eye coordination to predict which tubes will shoot the scarves back out. During a recent visit, a child attendee named Anthony exclaimed, I like to put those things in those things.They shoot out!
“We want them to play and have a great time, but we also want to make sure that there’s some educational component,” executive director Traci Buckner says of the museum, which opened in 2016. “Ask them, If we put several scarves in, will they fly as fast? If we just put one in, what will happen? Comparing and contrasting, teaching them about airflow.”
The revamped exhibit is part of a $650,000renovation, completed in 2023, which added 3,000 square feet to the museum that’s located inside the newly renovated Lock 3. Now, it covers 10,000 square feet and boasts about 45,000 annual visitors. The museum also upgraded its maker space and racing exhibit — where kids build their own cars and race them on a hilly track —which is getting a race timer.
“They can see how fast their car has gone,” Buckner says. “We try to teach the engineering process so that they can tweak and adjust their design to have a different result.
New exhibits include a room with 300 video-projected interactive games and a rocket area where kids can build and launch their own paper versions. There’s also a quiet, low-lit sensory room with a giant bean bag, weighted lap pads, fidget toys, noise-canceling head-phones, voice-activated lights and more. Featuring recording studio panels, the new sound studio has computers, instrument mats and microphones for children to create their own compilations, songs and stories.
“They might press the percussion button and then they might press some sort of string,” says Buckner. “They’re making music that is not a song that already existed.”
At the end of 2024, the museum updated its mini doctor’s office, which includes a waiting area, a scale, an exam table, doctors’ coats and medical instruments kids can use on baby doll and stuffed animal patients.
“To see the kids with their flip chart and their laptop — they could potentially become physicians or nurses one day. It’s exciting that it starts this young,” says Buckner, adding that the museum’s pillars are STEM, arts and culture, civic engagement and health and wellness.
She pictures the museum continuing to expand, rolling out more updates— such as a new water table and new energy exhibit.
To get the most out of a visit, Buckner advises parents to let children make their own discoveries.
“Allow children to free play and explore on their own,” she says. “Let them be the guide of their own learning through play.”
Inside Lock 3, 216 S. Main St., Akron,330-396-6103, akronkids.org
#Early #Discovery #Akron #Childrens #Museum #Unveils #Exciting #Upgrades #STEM #Play
Leave a Reply