Have you ever wondered where the exhibits at the Scott Family Amazeum come from? Some, like Thomas and Friends™: Explore the Rails,1 currently in the museum’s Traveling Exhibits Gallery are built by other museums and loaned to the Amazeum. Some the Amazeum purchases for permanent display; others start as ideas from the diversely creative people in the Amazeum’s Creative Studio. YoungFamily_Walk this Way

Next time you visit, make the trip up the stairs to the container above Lift, Load and Haul to find the latest experience from the Creative Studio. Listen closely as you walk through the container and discover something that integrates science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) and takes playful learning to the next level. While there is no official name for this new experience, it inspires guests to the museum to step a little livelier, perhaps even dance.

Inspired by musical stairways, Jason Quail, Experimental Projects Developer at the Amazeum, wanted to apply an “Amazeum-twist” to the stairways he experienced in other museums. “We added in the ability to change sounds,” Quail says. “It gives you the ability to discover something new so that you keep coming back.” The level of interactivity increased with the addition of a control panel of buttons that when pressed separately or in combination changes the tone of the sounds. 

Quail collaborated with Maker in Residence Eugene Sargent and together, they built all the circuitry from electronic components harvested from an electric piano. Sargent designed a circuit board to make it easier to reproduce over 20 different keys.MomChild_Walk this Way

They discovered the piano did not actually have one button per key and would have to figure out a code for all 88 keys. They also had to find a sensor that would cover a long distance. “Most infrared sensors only handle a few feet, but if we wanted to put it anywhere in the museum, we’d need at least six or seven feet,” he says.

The team started building prototypes and quickly realized that it would be more interactive and make the sounds a mystery. Guests can select one or two buttons at a time to create over 100 unique sounds, anything from xylophone or a DJ mix, which seems to be the fan-favorite.

After building a working prototype, the Amazeum Exhibit team joined them to design, build, and make the experience interactive, educational, and functional for guests of all ages.  “It’s also got to be durable,” Quail adds. “I wanted it somewhere besides a stairwell because you can’t dance in a stairwell, but you can dance in a hallway.” 

Next time you visit, make the trip up the stairs to the container above Lift, Load and Haul to find the latest experience from the Creative Studio. Listen closely as you walk through the container and discover something that integrates science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) and takes playful learning to the next level. This new experience inspires guests to the museum to step a little livelier, perhaps even dance.

1© 2020 Gullane (Thomas) Limited. Thomas & Friends™: Explore the Rails! was created by Minnesota Children’s Museum and presented by Fisher-Price.

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