Tinkertoys®: Build Your Imagination™

Let your child experience all the fun that you had when you were a child! TINKERTOY®: Build Your Imagination™ is a new educational exhibit coming to Creative Discovery Museum that combines the open-ended and inventive play qualities of the timeless TINKERTOY® construction set with GE’s innovative technologies that enrich our lives and our global community. Children will be fascinated as giant TINKERTOY® building pieces create a fantastic framework for all of the exhibit’s activities, and real TINKERTOY® construction sets take center stage in an awe-inspiring collection of TINKERTOY® pieces featured in a creative play area. A special welcome gallery and nine unique activity stations invite children and families to explore contemporary topics like renewable energy and clean water technology, to experiment with ideas and create their own inventions, and to work as collaborators in the exhibit’s hands-on environment—all while playing together. Each activity promotes important developmental skills and the importance of play. Visitors to the exhibit will enjoy a variety of activities that promote imagination and collaboration:

The Welcome Gallery - The Welcome Gallery celebrates the 95th anniversary of TINKERTOY through a retrospective of the toy’s history, and highlights GE technologies that improve communities around the globe every day.

Invent – Children are encouraged to think about where ideas come from, and to explore the emerging field of biomimicry – nature’s influence on design. Visitors can match real inventions with their natural inspiration and create a design of their own.

Collaborate – Dual-sided panels allow visitors to work independently or with a partner to create TINKERTOY designs.

Energize – Children can explore GE’s commitment to renewable energy as they use a kid-powered fan to test their own wind-powered TINKERTOY creations.

Change – A Rube Goldberg-like contraption illustrates the power of creative thinking and how simple mechanisms work. The activity lets children select and position words to build silly – but thought-provoking! – sentences that serve as the springboard for innovation.

Process/Connect – TINKERTOY-inspired equipment lets children explore the concept of filtration, while a companion activity invites them to build ball tracks that illustrate how GE technologies help address the challenge of providing clean water. Finding the correct path through a graphic maze answers children’s curiosity about “Where does the water go?”

Develop – Visitors will enjoy filling a life-size human form with TINKERTOY hubs, providing a great photo opportunity and revealing the elements of a healthy lifestyle – and emptying the piece is fun, too! A special rotating TINKERTOY hub array inspires children to consider the impact of their personal choices, highlighting one of our most important responsibilities: taking care of ourselves so that we can do anything!

Create – This open play area reserved for children age 3 and older features a spectacular assortment of TINKERTOY pieces – the perfect place to build their imagination. Pictures of remarkable TINKERTOY creations and special tips provide guidance and inspiration.

The Tinker Tank – A walk-in size replica of a TINKERTOY canister is the starting point for the exhibit’s challenging scavenger hunt, a must for those with an eye for detail and a nose for knowledge! The Tinker Tank contains a variety of educational materials that attest to the impact of unconventional ideas on some of the world’s greatest – and strangest – inventions, and serve as a reminder that “If at first you don’t succeed…”

The TINKERTOY®: Build Your Imagination™ exhibit was developed by the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum in collaboration with PLAYSKOOL® and GE. TINKERTOY is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. and is used with permission. © 2010 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved. Sponsored locally by Little Debbie Snack Cakes.