Math is really fun with Figure It Out! This exhibit gallery consists of nine engaging activity centers where kids are encouraged to flip, fold, and figure out patterns and relationships while exploring shapes and symmetry, sequences, shadows, and transformations.
In Tiling Shapes, discover the relationship between angles and polygons by covering a surface with wooden tiles shaped like hexagons, squares, triangles and parallelograms.
In Shapes in the Shadows, have a friend place a mystery object in the box and see if you can identify it just by looking at its shadow.
When can a circle fit through a triangle-shaped hole if they are both the same size? In Puzzling Shapes find the one piece of a puzzle that will pass through cut-out holes shaped like a circle, square and triangle.
See how origami solves engineering problems and enabled a huge telescope to be launched into space! Marvel at how many complicated shapes can be created from a single sheet of uncut paper at the origami zoo. Then create your own simple origami models to bring home!
Hone grocery shopping skills in Measure Up by estimating which juice and shampoo containers hold the most. Play with rice and hollow Platonic shapes (that’s cubes, spheres, cones and cylinders) to discover which shapes have the greatest volume.
Exercise skills in measurement, algebra and geometry, and discover the links to art, music, science, and society.
Discovery Center gratefully acknowledges the following contributors to Figure it Out!:
"Public Museum Capital Grants Program" – Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois State Museum with additional local support from W.W. Grainger, J.L. Clark, Viking Chemical, and UTC Aerospace Systems.