The Artist's Pad exhibit encourages different types of artistic endeavors. A line of easels with paint, paper, and brushes sit in one area. A “clothesline” or two hang above to hang up visitor's masterpieces to dry. Other surfaces and mediums such as shaped chalkboards and dry erase surfaces are scattered throughout. At a large table with chairs, different types of craft projects and supplies such as noodle art, recycled item art, clay, face painting etc. are rotated weekly.

The semi-circular shape of the Discovery Diner table allows visitors to sit along the outer curve on retro diner stools while a museum volunteer sits inside the curve to assist. The volunteer has access to shelves of bins stored under the table with different types of hands-on exploration activities such as:

• taking apart computers, calculators, flashlights, and cell phones, etc., creating things with small motors and batteries,
• building a stringed instrument,
• or experimenting with color mixing.

The Discovery Diner also plays host to special guests with unique activities to share.

Read more about Discovery Diner here!

The Forest Playground is an “outdoors in” exhibit with trunks to climb over and through, trees scattered throughout to hike around, a tree house, slide, teeter totter, and rock climbing wall. Log benches are scattered throughout for parents to enjoy.

The Generation Station Barn and Store are near each other. The barn is home to a large cow model which visitors can “milk" and a henhouse with eggs to collect and then roll on tracks from the Generation Station Store.

On the wall behind the Barn is a 3-D mural of a statehood home with interactive doors and windows to open and view the activities going on inside.

Based on an 1895 photo of the original Eyler's Grocery interior in Stillwater, the Generation Station Store is stocked with canned and boxed foods, vegetables in bins, windowed drawers full of assorted items, remnants of fabric, etc. An old-fashioned scale and a balance are on a table for experimentation. Hand-held woven baskets are stacked near the door for shopping. At check-out, aprons hang ready to wear along with two old-style cash registers on the counter. Electric lanterns hang above. Metal wash tubs and buckets hang along the ceiling. The walls are covered with product shelves and old metal advertising signs.

May 2011 update! The architecture students have completed this project and it has been re-named Physics Fairway! It is way cooler than these initial photos – you can read all about it here.

Golf Ball Racers was formerly the name of this project – brought to us by a member of our advisory council as a great idea for an exhibit.

We’re excited that – as a class project – the exhibit is being designed by students in an architecture class at Oklahoma State University. Professors Jeff Williams and Seung Ra are guiding the students and the WONDERtorium will have a unique and highly innovative exhibit composed of five interactive components.

On this page and in the pop-up, are some images from other children’s museums around the country that have similar golf ball-inspired exhibits.

Imagination Playground blocks are a set of large, foam loose parts that allow children to play at an architectural scale. The set consists of 15 different shapes to encourage open-ended free play and a wide variety of play patterns. Imagination Playground Blocks are available in one color — a vibrant shade of blue — in order to facilitate more imaginative play, without distraction or competition that might arise from multi-colored parts.

Read more about Imagination Playground here!

The Kameoka Kids exhibit will offer Museum visitors the opportunity to experience Japanese family life, customs, ceremonies, art, architecture and seasonal events.  Within this exhibit a mural of cherry blossoms and Japanese gardens will set the stage for an “outdoor” play space.  Mt. Fuji, an exploring and climbing structure including stairs and tunnels, will project from the wall three-dimensionally.  Visitors will remove their shoes (according to custom) to enter the “inside” space – a traditional Japanese home.  Activities inside the home will include dress up, “eating” with chopsticks at a low table with a tatami-looking floor, playing with Japanese toys, and reading books about Japan.

Read more about Kameoka Kids here!

The Little Wonders play area is for little visitors from birth to 3 years and is filled with soft play climbing structures and sensory activities. Visual and tactile walls stimulate and entertain.

Within the My Medical Center exhibit a series of four rooms provide a hospital experience from Check In, the Doctor's Office, Lab & X-Ray, and Surgery & Recovery. A hospital baby nursery is also a part of this experience. In the Doctor's office, patients can be weighed, measured, and tested with an eye chart. In the Lab & X-Ray room, the "X-Ray Technician" dons a protective vest, carries the hand-held switch, and positions the patient for an X-Ray with a realistic-looking X-Ray machine, and then examines images on the X-Ray viewing box. Signs throughout this exhibit illustrate and describe healthy habits and explain "Amazing Facts" about the human body.

Read more about My Medical Center here!

The River Run exhibit gives kids an opportunity to splash and experiment with the wonders of water. A river of water finds its way down and back through a multi-level construction that features a bell fountain, small waterfall, moveable walls to change the path of water, and toys such as boats and sieves. Plastic smocks are available to help visitors stay dry. The exhibit sits on a raised, slightly textured floor with a sloped drain for easy and more sanitary maintenance.

Unit Blocks are standardized wooden toy blocks for children. By playing with manipulative materials such as blocks, children develop social, physical, and logico-mathematical knowledge. It looks like “just” play, but through block play children learn… how to make a building steady, how to balance weight equally, about three-dimensionality, about self in space, how to problem solve, and much, much more.

As a tribute to Dr. Ramona Paul’s lifelong commitment to early childhood education, the Unit Block exhibit will be named in her honor at the Oklahoma WONDERtorium.

Read more about Ramona Paul's Block Party here!