LIFESTYLE AUTHOR
Jacqueline Knox
THE NEXT GENERATION OF PROBLEM SOLVERS n Austin’s Thinkery is an innovative museum inspiring kids to learn through hands-on experiences.
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hinkery, originally Austin Children’s Museum, is an answer to parents’ pleas about “educational fun.” This play-based interactive museum located in Austin’s Mueller neighborhood will keep your kids entertained for hours while also teaching them valuable and useful concepts. Who knows? The museum might even teach you something too. Austin Children’s Museum was founded in 1983 by Austin parents and educators to create a space to provide innovative educational opportunities to children in Austin. In 2013, the museum rebranded as Thinkery. “We want to get kids interested in learning through non-classroom opportunities by exploring the world around them, exploring how
FEBRUARY 2022
and why things work, and sparking curiosity in them that they’ll hopefully take into their later teens and adulthood,” explains Jeff Dellinger, the director of marketing and communications at Thinkery. “It’s really just that sense of curiosity and wonder that we hope inspires people all throughout their lives.” Thinkery focuses on providing an opportunity for children to learn, play and experiment with concepts relating to STEAM, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math. It does this through interactive exhibits, such as “Fresh! Farmers Market,” which teaches kids about healthy meal choices and local food sources, and “Spark Shop,” which encourages kids to build and tinker to make something together. The “Spark Shop” exhibit
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includes rocket launchers, which are a hit for both kids and adults. “The first time I ever got to go to Thinkery with my nephews, (the ‘Spark Shop’) was one they really took to,” Dellinger says. “It’s a great micro-example of the larger point of the museum. Kids love it because it’s loud and things are flying around. It’s also really active since they get to press buttons and make things fly, but they’re learning concepts like rocketry and geometry.” Dellinger also points out that the science behind it lies in the fact that the kids don’t even know they are learning. While the kids think they are just playing with rockets, they are also getting exposed to concepts that they will need to
