Build It - DuPage Children's Museum

Wild Wonders  | Saturday, April 27

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Build It

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Doing Real Work with Real Tools Builds Lots of Things...

Self-confidence is one. The ability to problem-solve is another. And there’s a lot more:  Imagination… Creativity… Concentration… Eye-hand coordination… Small and large muscle skills… Tactile discrimination…

As construction experiences become more complex, they elicit all the valuable thinking skills needed for setting goals, making plans, and creating sequences of necessary steps.

Skill Development

Build It Strengthens Almost Every Area of Development – Take a Look:

  • As visitors create a pipe structure, they discover math concepts such as rotation, size, diameter, matching, intersection, and change of direction.
  • Further insight into size is fostered as visitors compare the length, width, and thickness of pieces of wood or other construction materials.
  • Physics principles such as force, speed, and leverage are experienced as visitors saw, pound and pull out nails.
  • Cause and effect relationships are an integral part of the building process. What size nail will go through a thick piece of wood and attach it to another? Does symmetry always affect balance?

At Every Age and Every Stage, There's Always Something New to Learn

Younger Children:
Play with real wood and real tools in the Moser Construction House. At first, a child may wish only to explore the wood, the tools, or the benches. Next, he or she may experiment using the hammer, screwdriver, or saw, with no end-product in mind. Finally, given time and experience, real building begins!

Older Children:
Create a structure and discover math concepts such as rotation, size, diameter, matching intersection, and change of direction with your child. Suggest a challenge by asking, I wonder how you can connect these two pieces together?