The First of 14 Exhibits in 14 Weeks

A-Mazing Airways is the first exhibit as a part of our "14 Exhibits in 14 Weeks" — a little deeper exploration of what you and your children can expect when you arrive at the Oklahoma WONDERtorium. We will continue this series for 14 weeks beginning the week of March 7th and continuing through June 13th!

You can progress through the series with the Next Week and Previous Week buttons at the bottom of the page. Here we goooo.....

A-Mazing Airways is a giant wall-mounted 6" pneumatic tube system that allows visitors to insert various sizes of balls and scarves to see how fast and where they go. Children learn what flows best – the balls or the scarves – and have fun catching them when they exit the exhibit.

A-Mazing Airways was originally developed as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Project, AirWorks for Kids. Becky Lindsay, the principal investigator, developed the exhibits to make the properties of moving air understandable to young children. Becky was then on staff of the DuPage Children's Museum, in Napierville, Illinois, and included the development of twelve interactive exhibit stations.

This exhibit is so fun that it’s easy to forget that there are scientific principles involved:

• Air Pressure – how does air pressure create force?
• Valves and Switches – what changes when you flip the cutoff valves?
• Mapping and Route Planning – which way to the exit port?
• Bernoulli Effect – why do the foam balls sometimes float in the valve area?
• Aerodynamics – why do the scarves travel faster than the balls?

Take a look at this video produced by the manufacturers of A-Mazing Airways, the Mindsplash Design company. This video is over 5 minutes long so watch it all or just get an idea – the kids are having a blast! This exhibit is available for sponsorship or naming rights, please call Ruth Cavins, Executive Director, at 405.533.3333 for more information.

Please consider making a donation to "Planting Seeds of WONDER"