Building Connections at KidsQuest Children's Museum

Abstract

Children's learning of history in traditional education settings has often left students with a poor understanding and negative outlook of the past. One way to combat this problem is by building positive experiences with children starting at a young age. Children's museums as places of informal multidisciplinary learning have a demonstrated ability to inspire these positive experiences. As such, they are the ideal environment for children to begin their understanding of ancient history, build a positive outlook towards the topic, and make connections to other disciplines that are interwoven with history. The purpose of this thesis project was to design an interactive exhibit that combined engineering and construction-based activities with historic themes. This project provided four designs for interactive activities situated next to the Cityscapes gallery at KidsQuest Childrens Museum in Bellevue, Washington. These interactives were designed with industry best practices for safety, education, age-appropriate material, and fun in mind. The goal of for these interactive being to help children develop more positive experiences with history, and the connections it has with our modern world. Three of the four designs were ultimately chosen and will open in the exhibit in June 2022. The museum will monitor these activities to better understand visitor engagement. This project should serve as a model for any other children's museums who want to connect history educational materials with their existing exhibits and offerings.