8/27/2008 - "All Systems Go"
Austin Children’s Museum Goes Places With All Systems Go Exhibit
Austin, Texas (August 27, 2008) — By bus, train, bicycle, car or foot, the new feature exhibit at the Austin Children’s Museum is all about people going places and how they get there. Opening September 27, 2008, All Systems Go is a playful, hands-on experience that teaches children and families about different transportation methods, energy and transit safety. All Systems Go highlights the people and things that make transportation so important in our city.
“In an ever-growing city like Austin, public transportation plays a key role in keeping our community connected,” said Mike Nellis, Executive Director at Austin Children’s Museum. “We want to get our kids excited about transportation options they can find in their own city.” ACM’s Education and Exhibits teams designed and produced the over 20 interactive experiences that make up the All Systems Go exhibit. “We created engaging experiences that give families a chance to see science and technology, engineering and math at work within the context of their everyday lives,” said Becky Jones, Director of Education at ACM.
Within All Systems Go, families can ride or operate the kid-sized Metro Rail train, repair a life-sized bus complete with giant foam tires in the Maintenance & Operations Center, communicate throughout the exhibit at Control Center and learn the science basics of making things go in the Energy Lab. Visitors can scan their “ticket” at stations in the exhibit to hear audio messages about transit safety, how the transit system works and real stories from bus passengers.
Daily gallery programs are being planned to expand opportunities to learn about transportation, energy and safety. All Systems Go will be featured at ACM through May 30, 2009. Additional exhibit components, including an energy bike, will be added at a later date during the run of the exhibit.
All Systems Go Exhibit Components
Metro Rail: Get behind the throttle or sit back and ride this kid-sized version of the new commuter rail train. Sell tickets, announce stops, communicate with Control Center and watch videos that give you a real train operator’s point of view.
Control Center: Coordinate smooth system operations by communicating with the Kid Metro bus and Metro Rail train operators and Maintenance & Operations Center via the phone system. Learn about transportation options around our city by playing the “Get There On Time” game.
Kid Metro Bus: Track the stops on your scheduled route and use the new handset to communicate with your friends at Control Center to get the bus safely to its destination on time.
Maintenance & Operations Center: Get an inside look at how buses work. Unscrew the lug nuts and replace the giant foam tires on this diesel-hybrid bus.
Energy Lab: Explore friction with vehicles and ramps made of different textures. Experiment with magnets and discover how they save energy when used in electric braking. Trace the path of energy starting from the sun to the energy you use to get where you want to go.
Kid-Powered Car Track: Power your Plasma Car by turning the wheels to safely navigate the winding boulevard by following the street signs.
Train Table: Young children can push buses and trains through a tabletop mini-Austin including familiar landmarks like Lady Bird Lake.
All Systems Go was developed by Austin Children's Museum with support from Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Additional support provided by Dell. This project was funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT ACM
The mission of the Austin Children's Museum is to create innovative learning experiences for children and families that equip and inspire the next generation of creative problem solvers. Located at the Dell Discovery Center downtown at the corner of 2nd Street and Colorado, the Austin Children's Museum is one of the city's popular cultural attractions with 210,000 visitors annually. Founded in 1983 as a non-profit organization, the Austin Children's Museum delivers its mission through a variety of exhibits, programs and outreach activities. For more information, please visit www.austinkids.org.
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Museum staff available for interviews.