Discovery Lab's New Exhibit Designed To Inspire Visitors Of All Ages

A new exhibit opened last month inside Tulsa's Discovery Lab.

Imaginate is a traveling exhibit designed and produced by the Ontario Science Centre. It allows visitors of all ages to be part artist, part engineer, and part scientist through hands-on activities.

"The great thing about Imaginate is it plays into one of our core values of how you create stuff, how do you build stuff, how do you use your imagination and creativity to solve problems," said Chip Lindsey, Director of Education at Discovery Lab.

The exhibit is divided into five themes: Dream Big, Expect the Unexpected, Collaborate or Compete, Try, Try, and Try Again, and Look to the World. Lindsey said a favorite has been the station that teaches about friction.

"They just fall in love with sliding blocks of wood down inclined planes," he continued saying, "Some go fast, some go slow, some are heavy, some are light, but you can experiment and do it again, and again, and again."

There are also areas to design and test your own paper airplane, create a story through the motion of an art piece, and compose music with rhythm, light, and emotion.

"It is using common everyday materials; paper, hot glue, pipe cleaners, the usual array but gives you really unusual ways to experiment with them and also to be inspired," said Lindsey.

Inspiration that leads to innovation and serves as a reminder that there is a kid inside us all.

"We as humans are born being incredibly creative and imaginative and as time passes and we grow older we tend to buckle down on the wild crazy ideas and become more focused," said Lindsey. "This exhibit plays in really well with some basic human needs to be creative, but also some basic human skills that sometimes we lose track of."

Imaginate will be at Discovery Lab through the end of November and is included with admission. For more information about the museum or to sign up for one of its weekly summer camps visit https://www.discoverylab.org/