Minnesota Children's Museum

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Discover the Art of How People Make Things at Minnesota Children’s Museum

Exhibit Inspired by Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood television series opens February 18

Every object in our world has a story of how it is made. How People Make Things, a new exhibit opening at Minnesota Children’s Museum on Saturday, February 18, tells that story by linking familiar childhood objects to a process of manufacturing that combines people, ideas and technology. The exhibit, sponsored locally by the Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association, runs through June 3, 2012.

How People Make Things, inspired by the factory tour segments from the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood television series, offers hands-on activities using real factory tools and machines to create objects with four manufacturing processes - molding, cutting, deforming and assembly. Many common manufactured products help tell the story of how people, ideas and technology transform raw materials into finished products.

Visitors can use a die cutter to make a box and a horse, operate a 3-axis mill to carve a block of wax, assemble parts of a real golf cart and race a robotic arm to see who assembles a replica of the signature trolley from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood faster.

Step into the Main Office, where you can don coveralls, lab coats, aprons, safety glasses, and hard hats to become a factory technician, worker or supervisor. You can also mold pourable News Release wax, explore vacuum forming and injection molding and match products to the mold from which they were made. Or play the “People in Your Neighborhood" matching game, developed with The Saturday Light Brigade radio program, where audio clues and stories help you match the person to the object they make.

The factory tour videos from the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood television series featured in the exhibit depict the making of crayons, carousel horses, balls, stop lights, quarters, shoes, toy cars and toy wagons.

Everyday products featured in How People Make Things include 10,000 Crayola crayons in 90 colors, 10,000 plastic pellets, 300 ice cream cups, stop lights, cooking pans, sneakers, baseball bats, baseball mitts and matchbox cars.

How People Make Things was created by Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in collaboration with Family Communications, Inc. (FCI), the producer of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE). The exhibit was made possible with support from the National Science Foundation and The Grable Foundation.

About Minnesota Children’s Museum

Minnesota Children’s Museum is a non-profit community organization committed to sparking children’s learning through play. Infants ages six months through children age 10 discover their world through hands-on exhibits in five permanent galleries and two changing gallery spaces. The Museum welcomes more than 400,000 adults and children each year; approximately 30% of those visitors enter the Museum through the Access program, which provides free and reducedprice admission to families and schools facing financial barriers. Each year, The Museum also equips approximately 1,500 early childhood educators with tools and knowledge through professional development workshops.

The Museum is also a leading developer of traveling children’s museum exhibits; more than 10 million people across the United States and Canada have interacted with the Museum’s wellknown exhibits including The Adventures With Clifford The Big Red Dog™ and Curious George™: Let’s Get Curious!.

About Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is a non-profit community organization that has provided innovative museum experiences that inspire joy, creativity and curiosity since 1983. We provide the highest quality exhibits and programs for learning and play, including permanent exhibit areas the Studio, Waterplay, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the Theater, the Garage/Workshop, the Attic and the Nursery. The Museum partners with organizations and people who work with or on behalf of children to share office space and resources, and foster collaborations. Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is located at 10 Children’s Way in Allegheny Square on Pittsburgh’s historic North Side. For more information, visit www.pittsburghkids.org or call 412-322-5058.