Revamping Underutilized Exhibit Spaces at Thinkery: Austin’s Children's Museum

Thinkery is Austin’s STEAM-based educational children’s museum that encourages learning through creative play with various temporary and permanent exhibit halls and makers spaces dedicated to physics, art, nutrition, health, light, sound, and more. My goal as a capstone student through my professional experience project was to revamp a permanent exhibit piece through experimentation, training, and designing new signage. I conducted a small series of experiments to answer specific questions and hypotheses about the types of materials that would work best with the table and the strengths and weaknesses of the older technology already part of the permanent exhibit. I then incorporated these successful materials into a training day with floor staff. They would be encouraged to include the new materials in their daily facilitated activities as fits into their regular job requirements. Signage explaining the infrared and computer programming techniques to the guests in an age-appropriate manner was also drafted to accompany the table.