Thinktank’s Kids in Museums Take Over Day

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Lynsey

Meet another group of We Made It participants, the Take Over Day team!

Kids in Museums Take Over Day is an annual event which aims to encourage museums to involve kids in their work. We decided to use the day a few weeks ago to host a group of children from a charity called The Feast and involve them in designing one of the new family activities for We Made It.

The activity is called Sense Station, a trolley that will allow visitors to handle replicas of objects on display in the gallery and try out demonstrations and experiments that relate to We Made It. The idea is that if kids are involved in designing the activity, then it will be even better for the families that ultimately come to use it. It’s a lot more work for me but so so worth it!

We, of course, started the day with a behind-the-scenes visit to the We Made It Gallery which, at the time, was very much still a building site! There were, however, a few interactives already in place to try out. The unanimous favourite was this one, a spring interactive which is a lot of fun to play with.

Spring Interactive

Something I always want to do when I visit a museum is open up the cases and find out what the objects feel like! Of course, to protect the objects, this isn’t possible so our next task was to choose replica handling objects that will go on to the trolley. I re-created a selection of the object cases from all over the gallery, using photographs of the objects, and asked the group, ‘if you could reach inside the case and pick out an object which would it be’?

Chosen Objects

In total they chose just over 30 objects and provided the reasons for those choices using post-it notes, as shown above. It is now my task to find as many of these objects as possible! I’ve already started my search by buying this beautiful Agate slice to replicate the ones on display in the Treasure section of the gallery.

Agate Slices. Handling object (top) and objects for exhibit cases (bottom)

The group’s final task was to try out some prototype activities and demonstrations, and provide feedback on them. All are related to exhibits in We Made It and are designed to help our visitors learn more about the key themes of the gallery. The feedback and ideas they suggested have been really helpful in improving these activities to make them work for our visitors. A big thank you to all the participants and The Feast (who have Blogged about their visit as well). I can’t wait to show them the finished product next year!

: Trying out Demos

: Identifying Minerals

: Testing the Light Box

: Kenneth and the Cow!

We Made It Interactives- An Update!

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Lynsey

While I’ve been having lots of fun with walking trails and stuffed animals, development of interactives for the new We Made It gallery has been well underway. I started to look at one particular exhibit, Be a Gemologist, a few months ago, but now many more are taking shape at Paragon Creative our exhibit constructors.

As with all of the galleries at Thinktank, We Made It will be packed with hands-on exhibits to encourage multi-sensory learning, and to have a lot of fun with of course! The work that goes into creating these interactives is complex and involves many stages from designing to prototyping to sourcing material and finally building. Most importantly every interactive must be able to withstand the damage from thousands of hands that will use it once it enters the museum!

Here are a few images and videos from our recent visit to Paragon to see how things are progessing.

: A giant mobile phone ‘book’ to show the internal componants

: Thermal Imaging Camera with figures

: The spreading infra red from a heat pack shown on the camera

: A prototype lamp shade made from different materials for use with the thermal imaging camera.

: This exhibit is in the gadgets section of the gallery and contains objects made of wood in its branches, but are they all usually wooden?

: An object from the tree, is a laptop usually made of wood?

: Our handmade, very realistic, cow!

: Silversmith Interactive Game

: Metal Waste Interactive Game

: A deconstructed Mini ready to become an amazing interactive!

: A mix of objects for the orientation plinth

: Team Photo!

Creating new exhibits

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Lynsey

Over the next few months we will be following the progress of the new exhibits that are being designed for the We Made It gallery. I will be tracking four exhibits in particular, chosen from each of the main areas in the new gallery, ‘Treasure’, ‘Gadgets’, ‘Nuts and Bolts’ and ‘Tins and Things’. Their journey from initial sketches to full working exhibits is a fascinating one and offers a peek into the world of the exhibition team here at Thinktank.
First up is an exhibit from the ‘Treasure’ area of the gallery ‘Be a gemmologist’. This interactive exhibit invites the visitor to test different stones to find out which ones are authentic. To the untrained eye it is hard or even impossible to distinguish between natural and synthetic gems or between rubies, garnets and coloured glass. These three interactives give you a chance to have a go using some of the same equipment that gemmologists at Birmingham’s Assay office use.

Take a look at the photos below to see how the exhibit is developing so far and to learn the science behind them!