New DuPage Children’s Museum exhibit helps kids explore the power of energy

The Elmo toy talks in slow motion. The lights go out. A phone call drops mid-sentence. A remote control car whines to a stop.

Children use electricity and energy every single day, and they know what happens when the power runs out.

The DuPage Children’s Museum’s new exhibit, AWEsome Electricity, allows them to actually see where that power comes from through play.

The 500-square-foot exhibit opens Monday, June 18, on the first floor of the museum at 301 N. Washington St. in Naperville.

“What is a fun way for children to interact and get the point?” asked Marcia MacRae, the interdisciplinary arts specialist who developed the exhibit. “What can you power that is really fun?”

The answer for the team of people who worked on the project, including experts from Tellabs and Boeing, is an amusement park powered by children.

The exhibit, geared toward kids ages 5 to 10, focuses on the simple concept that electricity is generated and then moved for us to use. And it takes the concept of electricity beyond “Mom! My toy’s batteries need to be charged!”

In one area, children will discover how many solar panels are necessary to power remote-control race cars.

In another, children make circuits creating the path to power various parts of the amusement park. The circuit pieces join together magnetically and have lights and arrows to show positives and negatives. It exemplifies the concepts of source and electrical load without using those technical words.

They’ll also explore the concept of storing energy, much like in their iPods, phones and other battery-operated toys. Children will use a hand crank to create enough bars to charge their device. When turned on, acrobats will twirl around and fly through the air. But when the power they’ve cranked is gone, the acrobats stop.

They’ll also be able to experiment with what materials conduct electricity the best, work with switch panels and pedal a bike to illuminate a string of lights, as well as address the concept of how energy travels from a power plant to our homes.

“The interactives are really going to help children understand what it takes to understand how we get power to our houses. We want them to be able to see that it’s not just something you plug in,” MacRae said. “The concept will be even stronger when we open our future energy exhibit.”

The AWEsome Electricity exhibit is on the east side of the building near the air works exhibit. It’s part of an exhibit expansion in the next year or two that is dedicated to energy that will build upon existing air and water concepts.

Where younger children now use the water play area to discover water, eventually older children also will be able to discover concepts such as how a hydroelectric dam works to generate energy, possibly with an-in house water wheel or through exhibits that show how much pressure is needed to squirt water at a target.

Discussing the global energy shortage causes young eyes to gloss over, said Peter Crabbe, the museum’s director of exhibits. But exhibit creators hope that introducing electricity through fun and play will give children a stronger base of creative problem-solving skills to draw from as these concepts come up later in their educational careers.

“Children can get a very fundamental understanding of these basic concepts,” Crabbe said. “As they get older and add those abstract concepts in the classroom, they’ll be better prepared to help society solve these problems. That’s our hope and dream.”

Admission to the museum is $9.50 for ages 1 to 59 and $8.50 for seniors 60 and older.

The DuPage Children’s Museum summer hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Extended hours take place the third Thursday of every month from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For information, call (630) 637-8000 or visit dupagechildrensmuseum.org.

If you go

If you go

What: AWEsome Electricity exhibit

When: Opens Monday, June 18

Where: DuPage Children’s Museum, 301 N. Washington St., Naperville

Admission: $9.50 for ages 1 to 59; $8.50 ages 60 and older

Info: (630) 637-8000 or dupagechildrensmuseum.org