Take apart a toy robot or a jack-in-the-box, and it will look like a big pile of gears, springs and bits of metal and plastic, which don’t make any sense together at first glance. With toys, as with cars, bridges and people, it’s all about the way all those parts end up fitting together.
That’s the basic principle behind “Toys” the new exhibit at the Maine Discovery Museum, which opened over the weekend. The exhibit, developed by the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vt., is displayed on the third floor of the MDM through January.
Tray-ed in
There are a lot of amazing things on the table for the Maine Discovery Museum’s annual benefit auction scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, at Spectacular Event Center in Bangor. In fact, what’s on the table is what’s up for bidding, as this year’s creations to be auctioned off are hand-decorated tables and trays, personalized by more than 60 Maine artists.
As with the mirrors, clocks and chairs of previous years, this year’s theme boasts a wooden, Maine-made blank slate, on which the artists make their mark. The small tables and serving trays this year sport everything from Sally Gilbert’s peacock feathers and rich blue-toned paintings to Marta Robbins’ stone and glasswork, laid out by hand in the shape of a checkerboard.
In addition to the tables, the auction also boasts a beautifully crafted wooden chest made by Tom Hutchinson, and a black-and-white portrait package donated by Patrisha McLean. Gift certificates, specialty items and a vibrant quilt titled “Dreaming of Africa” will be offered in the raffle. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the museum or online at www.mainediscoverymuseum.com.
All items for auction will be displayed at the museum until Nov. 7.
“Kids today play with toys that are mostly digital. They don’t have that basic connection with what makes things work,” said Andrea Stark, executive director for the MDM. “This exhibit places the focus on those basic elements — simple machines and the basic principles of mechanics. Those things will never go away. Kids will always play with an erector set.”
The exhibit takes apart a number of popular toys and games, such as an Etch-a-Sketch, a Hungry Hungry Hippos game and a dancing Elmo doll, and shows just how the various parts of the toys work together to make it “go.” Large, colorful, interactive stations about gears, pulleys, cams, linkages and battery power illustrate the basic concepts behind them. An array of cracks, honks, dings, crunches and whirrs go on in the background, as kids explore.
Trudi Plummer, director of education at the MDM, is excited for the programming opportunities the exhibit will offer.
“We’ll have lots of workshops where kids can dissect different toys, and make their own machines and inventions,” said Plummer. “There is so much room for creativity.”
For the eager young budding mechanical engineer, the exhibit offers a wealth of information on simple concepts. For adults, it offers an inside look at not only the toys their kids play with, but also the toys they played with as children. A station about Mr. Machine, a 1960s red plastic robot, shows how he moves with the help of a windup key and a series of links and gears.
“There’s a cross-generational appeal here. Adults get to see some of the toys they grew up with, so they’re learning right along with their kids,” said Stark. “There’s a huge visual appeal too, because kids get to move different gears and pulleys around, and press buttons and turn wheels. The entire thing is interactive.”
The MDM strives to bring as much new content in as possible, though space and budgetary concerns make it tricky to plan. The “Toys” exhibit was brought to the MDM with the help of the Yawkey Foundation and Time Warner Cable, and it fits in nicely in the museum’s third-floor multipurpose space.
“We’re always looking for possible exhibits, and this one fit the bill perfectly,” Stark said. “It has lots of content, and we’ve never had anything like it at the museum before. Our ‘Safari’ exhibit we had in 2006 was a big hit, and before that we had ‘Solve-It Central,’ about math. We like to keep it exciting for our patrons, and have it complement our permanent exhibits.”
“Toys” will be on display at the Maine Discovery Museum through Jan. 3. The museum is open 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $7.50. For more information, and for a complete schedule of workshops and events at the museum, visit www.mainediscoverymuseum.org.
