Nick Spicher works with the “Balancing Act” project in this screenshot from the project’s instruction video. “Balancing Act” involves balancing weights to create a kinetic sculpture.
EVERETT — Learning hasn’t stopped at the Imagine Children’s Museum even though it is not taking visitors.
It’s still producing activities, one of them being STEAM bags to teach science, engineering, art and mathematics in the most fun way possible: As hands-on projects.
They’re being distributed in part through area food banks, to foster children through the Hand in Hand program and to patients at Seattle Children’s Everett hospital.
By the end of this year, more than 3,000 bags should be distributed.
It’s created a new challenge, as the museum’s cadre of funmakers are conjuring up ways to create lessons that work as take-home activities.
Nick Spicher is the museum’s Education Manager and Program Innovations Manager. One is called “Balancing Act,” which uses pipe cleaner sticks and stuff such as washers to teach weight balancing. The final product is a kinetic sculpture.
Other kits have involved watercoloring, astronomy and clay. Art wizard Lori Brush, the art studio manager, is co-developing the activities.
Maybe the kookiest one is dissecting owl pellets. The pellets are like cat hairballs. Vomit, actually. “We find out what (the owl) had for lunch,” Spicher said. A science supplier sells these to the museum.
The bags are meant for families to play with children. “We want the bags to be a valuable addition for open-ended play,” he said.
Often, the bags come together with an instruction video.
“I’ve gotten pretty confident with being on camera,” Spicher laughed.
The registration coordinators and child life specialists at Seattle Childrens’ clinic in Everett are handing them out to patients. The clinic received 75 science and art activity kits, said Rainee Selby, the North Clinic Community Outreach Coordinator.
“These specific patients may be having a tough time during their visit, so it’s nice for them to have something special to go home with,” Selby said.
A slew of bags also was handed out at this month’s Holiday on the Bay events at the Port of Everett.
The museum at Hoyt Avenue and Wall Street ceased taking public visitors right at the start of the pandemic, some 278 days ago and counting.
It is still hosting a catalog of classes online, ranging from art projects to STEM camps to dinosaurs.
Organizations purchase the bags to help keep the momentum — and the museum — going. The money helps go toward supplies.
If your organization wants to buy activity bags, call the museum at 425-258-1006 and leave a message.
