Engineers On A Roll
Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Engineers on a Roll was developed as a new component in an existing Preschool Gallery. The museum’s intent was to create an “engineering” experience for children 2-4 years of age.
The exhibit is organized around an ever-flowing “river” of plastic balls. Balls are lifted from floor level to ceiling height by a conveyor. From the top of the conveyor, they are directed to several tracks and feed exhibits from overhead as well as run into a stainless steel river bed that passes through a structure of platforms and stairs which provide young visitors with access to the river. Balls enter a number of exhibits from above, pass through points where children modify their trajectory, and re-enter the “river” to complete the cycle. A number of free-standing exhibits, using the same balls, allow for repetitive experiments where children have complete control. Buckets are provided for free play, and it is commonplace for children to load up the buckets and move balls from one place to another.
Visitors are greeted by Meg, a virtual guide, using Pepper’s ghost technology. Each of four main content areas include a large, full height display case. Touch screen monitors provide artifact information making in-case labels unnecessary. “Magic books” deliver video content from the pages of a large trompe l’oeil book. The “Gathering Space” is a centrally located mini-theater featuring programming delivered with Pepper’s ghost technology where Meg appears life-size.
The exhibit was developed, designed, and fabricated by a team including AAHOM staff supplemented by Larry Hutchinson. Mr. Hutchinson provided spatial planning for the decks, the river elements, and the exhibit locations.This included insuring that the exhibits could be properly fed by the “river,” and that the balls would reenter the stream properly. He also provided the documentation that worked as a reference for the team as they developed details of the individual components.
