Science North invites visitors to bring their creative ideas to life at the Imaginate exhibition, developed by the Ontario Science Centre and debuting on Feb. 6.
The world needs innovators now more than ever, but harnessing our own innovative capacity isn't always so simple.
Whether you are engaging in science, art or engineering, innovative thinking can take you on unexpected paths you haven't yet explored. Imaginate aims to inspire the inventor or creator in all of us, making innovation accessible, educational and fun.
This 6,000-square-foot multi-activity, hands-on exhibition introduces the skills and process of innovation, while challenging visitors to think outside the box.
Visitors can find inspiration, feed their creativity and reflect on how imagination impacts their lives and the world around them at Imaginate.
“Imaginate is a fun, highly interactive exhibition that highlights the skills essential for innovation,” said Jennifer Pink, Science North Science Director.
“This special exhibition allows visitors to dream, design and create in an environment that marries creativity with science.”
Imaginate identifies five guiding themes everyone can use as pathways to innovation: Dream Big; Expect the Unexpected; Collaborate or Compete; Try, Try and Try Again; and Look To the World.
Each theme is explored through a number of hands-on activities, twenty activities in total, that appeal to a wide range of interests and ages, encouraging participants to immerse themselves in the methods of innovative and critical thinking.
Dream Big highlights how innovation is often a response to intense motivation, a big dream or extreme passion that one must pursue. It features examples of big dreams as inspiration-such as flying in an airplane-and allows visitors to test their own paper airplane designs to see what flies the farthest.
Expect the Unexpected explores how science is a process of questioning. Keen observation and fresh eyes can often allow people to see beyond the obvious. The exhibits in this section encourage participants to take risks and to experiment.
The Materials Playground provides visitors with a variety of materials-such as glass, metal and even plant material-in unique and novel forms to explore and test.
Collaborate or Compete invites participants to interact with others, communicate their ideas and then grow them with the contributions of fellow participants.
This area features Sound Lab, where visitors can jump and move as they collaborate to make music using giant light-up sound panels.
Try, Try and Try Again encourages participants to create, test, re-test and even start over.
Kids and adults of all ages can see if they can come up with new inventions, like a shoe to walk on the moon. In Racing Irons they can test the speed of surfaces ranging from Teflon to aluminum foam.
Finally, in Look to the World, visitors explore how our common drive for food, shelter and water demonstrate the diversity of innovation. For instance, visitors will see how different materials are used for shelter or water transport in different parts of the world and through human history.
"When we were developing the exhibit, our goal was to shift people's perception away from the idea that innovation is meant for the 'elite,' which can be intimidating," said Mary Jane Conboy, Director of Science Content and Design for the Ontario Science.
"We've layered in some inspiring stories but kept many of the experiences very open-ended, so each visitor will approach the exhibits differently.”
Science North visitors can dream, design and create with Imaginate from Feb. 6 to May 1. Entry to Imaginate is included with the price of general admission.
For more information, please visit sciencenorth.ca/imaginate.
Imaginate is funded in part by the Government of Canada.
