This project will provide a new permanent Pin Screen exhibit for the Fairbanks Children's Museum, located in Fairbanks, AK. The mission of the Fairbanks Children's Museum is to inspire and connect families through discovery and the power of play. It was founded by a group of Fairbanks residents who had experienced first-hand the lack of quality, playful educational activities for young children in Fairbanks, particularly through the long winter months. Equally lacking was a center where all families have access to community resources and parenting support. In 2011, the "Museum Without Walls" program was initiated to provide creative and explorative activities on a monthly basis to Interior families. Over 6000 children and adults have attended to date.
The University of Alaska Museum of the North has offered the Fairbanks Children's Museum a 2000 square foot space from October 2013 through April 2014. This "mini-children's museum" will be an environment of exploration, with exhibits and activities centered around STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), creativity, and social understanding. It will also provide a space for parents and caregivers to learn from one another, as well as to have access to community resource information. The move is allowing the museum to expand and, as a result, the museum is in need of a new base of exhibits.
One type of exhibit that has proven to be very popular with children is a Pin Screen. The Pin Screen exhibit is an interactive multi-sensory exhibit which offers both math and creativity concepts. Tactile artistic activities stimulate brain activity in children, while the immediate action of manipulating the pins within the frame demonstrates cause and effect on a three dimensional basis. The 60,000 pins contained within the screen invite mathematical exploration and demonstrate the concept of pixels in computer science.
In order to construct the Pin Screen exhibit, the museum is in need of $13,300 to purchase component parts from the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. Additional funding is needed for the metal frame that will hold the components, and a large amount of manual assembly time is needed. Our club intends to provide $10,500 to be matched by a $4000 district contribution (DDF) to fund the purchase of needed Pin Screen components and frame materials. In addition, a local welding business has agreed to contribute approximately $2,500 of welding services for the frame construction. Rotary club volunteers will provide the manual labor needed to assemble the final museum display.
The Pin Screen will be called: "The Rotary Pin Screen." It will state that: "The Rotary Pin Screen is a gift to the children of the Interior from the Rotary Club of Fairbanks." It will also have the Rotary wheel etched into it. This could well be a child's first introduction into the existence of Rotary and the good things that Rotary Clubs do in our world.
Frame fabrication and material purchases are scheduled for late August/September and assembly of the display exhibit is scheduled for September, 2013.
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