The National Children’s Museum in the Washington DC area encourages children to learn through play. Its exhibitions are full of interactivities for children ranging from 0-12 years old, with a focus on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math). I grew up going to many different children’s museums throughout my life, which I have fond memories of; however, as I have gotten older, I have begun to explore them with my nephew, who is a year and a half old. I have realized that most children’s museums are for children to play with independently while their parents watch them from the sidelines. While visiting the National Children’s Museum, I saw adults getting involved in the activities just as much as their children were, allowing them to engage together. When children and their guardians can engage and collaborate within a museum’s exhibits, they can form a stronger connection within a space meant to engage its visitors to learn. Just because adults are not children anymore does not mean that adults cannot learn through play with their children.
The museum’s exhibitions are all located on the museum’s ground floor. Little Dreamers and Little Movers are the museum’s two exhibits for children 0-3 years-old only. These exhibits have an entrance that deters older children from entering and ensures that young children do not get hit by older children running around to the other interactivities. However, the rest of the interactives in the exhibits can be used by children of all ages, though they do have recommended ages for each exhibit, except the climb interactive with the giant slide for children 5+.
Most of the exhibits are intuitive to kids. However, there are many instances where young visitors may need assistance from their guardians to understand what they are supposed to do. The engineering games +play exhibit has an interactive activity called Bernoulli’s hoops. The interactive allows kids to experience the gravity-defying magic of Bernoulli’s principle at work by putting a ball in a shoot and aiming it for a basketball hoop. The young visitor can control the direction and speed, which helps teach them the best pressure and speed to get the ball into the basketball hoop. This interactive may be intuitive for some children but not for all. I saw many adults assisting their kids by explaining to them how the interactive works and at what pressure and speed the kid needs to set the shoot so that they can get the ball in the basketball hoop.
The flight zone is another interactivity that’s very similar in that young visitors, and their guardians can make paper airplanes and put them through the shoot to see who goes farther. I saw many guardians excited to see interactives that interested them just as much as their children, as most of the interactives in children’s museums are not for adults to have fun with too. By engaging in play with their children, the adults can have deep conversations about physics, speed, motion, and anything else that goes into these two interactives. This engagement provides a deeper learning experience and sense of understanding for the children and allows adults to learn and have fun with their children. As I have stated in other articles in this series, it is important for children to feel they can participate with their guardians in engaging conversations where they are at the same level.
Most of the time, when adults bring young visitors to a museum, they look for opportunities to engage everyone. Even though the National Children’s Museum is for kids, it does not mean that this cannot still happen. Guardians bring their children to this museum because it allows young visitors to learn through engaging in play, but that does not mean that they cannot learn as well. Adults were once children and even though they are more intellectual humans, humans enjoy learning through the act of play that is fun. Almost all of the interactives were intuitive to adults, but many of them also had to learn how they exactly worked or ask other visitors around them, both adults and children, to learn how everything worked. The National Children’s Museum is not your average museum, but that does not mean that adults can also have fun!
-Lindsay Guarnieri
Junior Girl, Curatorial
Girl Museum