STEAM PARK at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum

Toyota engineers collaborate on interactive exhibit designed to spark interest in engineering and science.  This two-story gallery with the inner workings of engineering concepts and more awaits exploration this August at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum’s debut of STEAM PARK.

STEAM PARK is a gallery consisting of 23 individual exhibits created in collaboration with Toyota engineers in Ann Arbor. The exhibits are designed for hands-on engagement that reveal through clear plexiglass the mechanical marvels normally hidden from sight. Exhibits explore simple machines, structures, aerodynamics, mechanical movement and more. 

STEAM PARK offers the increasingly rare tactile experience of interactive mechanical exhibits, which come with names that could come right out of a Jules Verne story, such as Window Maze Ball Machine, Airfoil, Propeller Chair and a first-in-the-world digital Roulette Curve. There is even a floor-to-ceiling, multi-interactive 17th-century clock for those who see mere cogs in the machine as priceless learning opportunities.

In addition to opening STEAM PARK, the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum is working to refresh the popular preschool gallery. Toyota’s funding will support its renovation, which will be called STEAM PLAY, and the creation of new preschool exhibits.

STEAM PARK exhibits include:

• Time Switch Cuckoo Clock: A unique art piece, this exhibit invites exploration and interaction with a range of mechanical and electric technologies that span over 500 years from the first mechanical clocks of the late Middle Ages to the current electronic technologies we depend upon today.
• Roulette Curves: The world’s first-of-its-kind digital logarithmic spiral drawing tool machine. Visitors create beautiful repeating patterns by picking from an array of colored line widths.
• Propeller Chair: Visitors work to hoist themselves in a chair up to the ceiling and slowly propel down to experience the slow decent with gravity.

STEAM PARK is included with regular admission to the museum. Admission is $16 per person, free for members and $3 each (for up to 6 people) for those holding EBT cards. Special discount membership packages will be available on opening weekend, and for a special discounted weekend in September. Normal Museum hours are Tuesday through Thursday, and Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.