Applied Interpretation

ToyMaker 3000

One of the tenets that I have expressed through my research has been that children are the conduits of interpretive messages. Many studies that we have conducted have found that the information / experiences gained by sons and daughters are transferred to the parents / guardians of these young people. Long term analysis of campfire programs and visitor center presentations have found that whatever the child reacted to ….in particularly in a positive way…the adult’s memory of such a reaction tends to be as strong or stronger than their own individual recollections.

However, I believe there is another child related conduit which is the one that is inside all of us. Certainly it may come out more when we are around children which is certainly my case with a five year old son and an eight year old daughter! And so this child came rearing its head in a big way on an overnight night trip to Chicago this last weekend. One of several stops we planned was a visit to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry – more than 400,000 square feet of incredible exhibits. But after the first hour and a half of threading through literally thousands of people with two very cute but somewhat tired children we were wondering if the $50.00 admission was worth it. Now, of course, since this is an interpretive blog I can’t say that it isn’t, but I’m not the greatest fan of huge museums that can resemble crowded shopping malls …especially on high volume days.

But then we found it…an exhibit that went straight to my heart…the ToyMaker 3000. An actual assembly line “factory” located in the museum that builds your own toy. Now you see, despite my age…let’s just say I remember Ozzie and Harriet…I love toys. In particular, Hot Wheels, but I’ll settle for a top if we can see it made in front of our eyes which is exactly what this exhibit does. The ToyMaker 3000 consists of eight interactive stations, 12 moving robots, and a 2,000-square-foot automated assembly line that can assemble 300 toy tops per hour! Our top…assembly line module number 61…took about ten minutes to build. And during that time I made a variety of sound effects to “enhance” the experience for my kids. And opposed to many other exhibits that I had no trouble shuffling them by to get past the crowds they got the idea pretty quick that their dad was totally into it.

Witnessing a line of robots making “our” own toy…I’ve played with it as much as my kids…struck the inner child that I know will help me remember the visit to this museum for years to come. And a funny thing happened as I made a fool of myself as the top was being built…my childish behavior became a conduit for my kids. After we were back home from our trip to the big city both Maddie and Jacob said they won’t forget how excited I was to watch the Toymaker 3000 – and their father who expressed his inner child!