FollowThere’s only one place you can experience tornado-like winds, create snap-circuits, and learn the physics behind hot air balloons all in the same hour: Science Museum Oklahoma.
When I enter the museum on an icy, post-storm afternoon, I am pleasantly surprised to see quite a few families milling about. I’m instantly nostalgic at the sight of the ‘echo tube,’ which was part of the museum when I first visited with my own school as a child. Even so, the Science Museum, founded by John Elson Kirkpatrick in 1958, has come a long way in half a century.
The 360-square-foot building—currently utilizing about a third of that in exhibits—has remained the only science museum in the state of Oklahoma. Donald Otto, president of the museum, meets me on the second level where I’m observing one of the newest exhibits: a room of bicycles that hang wall to ceiling, some dating back to the early 19th century. Even upon introductions, I can palpably feel Don’s love for science as he points out his favorite bicycles and explains their history.
“I’ve been in this business for forty-five years,” he says with a wry smile. “I retired once and tried to leave it, but that was eleven years ago, so there you go. I still enjoy it every single day.”
Don leads us through the Mind Games exhibit where a family is playing at a giant-sized table and chairs. The kids yell, “Fee-fi-fo-fum!” in a fit of giggles. Don tells me this room is all about optical illusions, playing with perception and how the brain responds to what we see. The exhibit, like all of the others, was created in-house by the museum’s incredibly talented Exhibits team.
I mention how I love the museum’s ability to advance with new technology, exhibits, and progressive science, all while maintaining a few of the classic museum icons. Don claims this is very intentional.
“We’re trying to keep some of the older stuff, so we don’t lose that eclectic feel. That way people can come back and say, ‘I was here when I was a kid,’ and ‘Oh, I remember this’ and ‘I played on that!’” Don says. “That’s what it’s about. It’s about developing family memories.”
Next to one of my own kids’ favorite exhibits, a large, always-running model train layout, is a roped off area under construction. Don tells me this is the museum’s latest not-so-secret secret project: a brand new addition featuring over two hundred interactive activities for families with younger children.
“I can’t say too much,” Don says with a smile, “but it’s going to be a great addition to the museum. We’re working with outside contractors for the first time and the new exhibit itself will be as large as ninety-five percent of stand-alone children’s museums.”
In a word: massive.
With over half the building John E. Kirkpatrick established still unused, Don says one of the best things about the Science Museum is its potential to expand and change. This flexibility is allowing not only new exhibits, but also the expansion of their parking lot and a brand new entrance to the museum, all happening this summer.
“We have four big projects in the works,” Don tells me. “The stuff we’re doing now is great, but the stuff we have for the future is going to blow your socks off.”
Maybe one of the museum’s greatest achievements is the creativity it promotes. As we wander among the exhibits, I watch as little hands experiment with snap-circuits, a toddler paints her face in front of a mirror, and a child takes a piece from one exhibit to the other, testing some unknown hypothesis he’s created. Here, kids have the freedom to be kids, to learn in a fresh way that isn’t tied to a school desk or worksheet.
“You simply don’t have to be in a classroom to learn,” Don says, watching kids tumble across the Gymnastics Hall of Fame exhibit. “We hope there’s not one way to do something—let’s mix things, try something new today. Science education is so vital to this state’s future. We’re the only physical science museum in this state, and we see it as an opportunity to get families involved so that a higher percentage of our kids want to be engineers and scientists.”
A big responsibility, he says, but one in which the benefits far outweigh the costs.
“I find myself looking around,” Don says, taking in the young families in our area. “Some days it’s easy to think, ‘what am I doing here?’ you know, since I retired once. But then I see these kids and I remember. This is why I do it. They are worth it.”
For more information about upcoming spring and summer events, visit sciencemuseumok.com.
Written by Shyla Stokes | Photography by Emily Brashier
