Minnesota Children's Museum

The Minnesota Children’s Museum will plan and prototype a new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) gallery as the centerpiece of its expansion and renovation. The gallery will reflect current research on the role of play in developing 21st century skills. Play is thought to foster inquiry and problem solving among early learners by helping children learn and practice scientific skills such as observation, classification, measurement, collection, and hypothesizing. The museum will prototype and test elements relating to building, sorting, counting, and using interactive technology to explore STEM concepts within its current gallery spaces and will use evaluation results to inform the overall project. The project will expand the museum’s understanding of designing playful learning experiences for children and families and support the museum’s efforts to promote open-ended, child-directed playful learning.