Innovation Exhibit Opens at Museum of Discovery
The Museum of Discovery will debut Imaginate – a new exhibit that makes innovation accessible, replicable and fun – Saturday, April 9, at the downtown Little Rock science center.
Imaginate aims to inspire the innovator in you. This multi-activity, interactive exhibition explores the skills and attitudes that can be developed to foster innovation and enhance creativity in anyone.
Imaginate identifies four guiding themes everyone can use as pathways to innovation: Dream Big; Expect the Unexpected; Collaborate or Compete; and Try, Try and Try Again.
Each theme is explored through a number of hands-on activities that appeal to a wide range of interests and ages, encouraging participants to immerse themselves in the methods of innovative and critical thinking.
DREAM BIG highlights how innovation is often a response to intense motivation, a big dream or extreme passion that one must pursue. It features examples of big dreams as inspiration.
Paper Airplanes
Making an ordinary paper airplane can be an engaging experience. Try out different airplane designs. Which one flies further, more accurately? Build, test, observe and retool as many times as you need to perfect your design
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED explores how science is a process of questioning. Keen observation and fresh eyes can often allow people to see beyond the obvious. The exhibits in this section encourage participants to take risks and to experiment.
Materials Playground Have you ever looked at something ordinary and thought of a way to make it extraordinary? Test out various properties of materials in this materials playground and see how nature has directly inspired many inventions.
COLLABORATE OR COMPETE invites participants to interact with others, communicate their ideas and then grow them with the contributions of fellow participants.
Sound Lab Is it just noise or is it ‘music’? In this large room of sound and lights, you can create a musical masterpiece involving rhythm, light, pattern and emotion. Collaboration with others lets you work with each other’s sounds.
Telltale Heart Experiences change when they are shared with others. Place your hands on a sensor bar that reads your heart rate. See how your heartbeat affects the behaviour of the large sculpture before your. Watch what happens as more people join in the experience.
Making Faces Do you have to work directly with someone for it to be called collaboration? In this experience, one face has many different contributors. Take a picture of your own face and choose from a fascinating video collection of other people’s features to create a bizarre new image.
TRY, TRY AND TRY AGAIN encourages participants to create, test, re-test and even start over.
Friction Zone Many good innovations come from an understanding of the properties of the materials being used. By experimenting with the surface properties of a range of materials, you can discover which combinations yield the fastest or slowest run.
Stop-Motion Animation Sometimes innovation requires patience and adaptation. In this experience, you can communicate ideas, stories and emotions by creating stop-motion animation videos. Respond to novel challenges by using unexpected materials and making minor changes along the way.
Imaginate is made possible by the Arkansas Discovery Network, a unique six-museum partnership, for which Museum of Discovery serves as the hub. The exhibit will remain at the Museum of Discovery through October 2. For more information, call 501-396-7050 or visitwww.museumofdiscovery.org.
Museum of Discovery’s mission is to ignite a passion for science, technology and math in a dynamic, interactive environment.
