For 25 years, families with children flock to Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett, WA. A children’s museum, but is unlike any conventional museum where you only visit, view, and then leave. Visitors are encouraged to explore, interact, and experiment with the various exhibits.
Imagine Children’s Museum might not be a school, but it does provide children with the opportunity to enjoy the interactive exhibits and learn beyond the classroom setting through what they call The Power of Play: An early positive and fun experience through play-based learning. Ultimately, they hope to inspire children to seek out and participate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—a.k.a., STEM—education, and activities in schools where they might be further inspired to pursue STEM-related careers in the future.
“It [STEM] will impact your everyday life. It is something that you can be a part of even if you’re not going to be an engineer yourself. You are living in an engineered world, in a technological world.” — Nick Spicher, Director of Education at Imagine Children’s Museum
Fluke’s longstanding partnership with Imagine Children’s Museum dates back to 2003 and in 2008 the partnership birthed the i-Engineers program with the help of a former Fluke engineer.
The i-Engineers program includes a weekly museum event with hands-on projects to help children solve real-world problems using their own hands and minds. This opportunity allows for the exploration of any number of engineering-related activities, including hands-on demonstrations. One i-Engineers event’s guests were a high school robotics team who competed in international competitions. They brought in the robots they put together themselves and then demonstrate them for visitors of the museum to see in hopes to inspire younger kids.
The Imagine Children’s Museum and i-Engineers program see the future in our youth and work to develop events and activities that help nurture young people and support them.
“We have had kids come in to do an i-Engineers project and they continue to be inspired to go home and build something larger. They come back the next month and say, “Hey, take a look at this that I have been working on!” They are so proud of what they’ve built that they want to share it with our staff who has inspired them. It’s always nice to have that longer-term impact.” — Nick Spicher, Director of Education at Imagine Children’s Museum
Imagine Children’s Museum welcomes around 250,000 visitors annually and their facility has felt the weight of this growth over time. To help, Fluke has made a substantial donation toward an expansion of the facility that will allow for a more immersive experience, more growth opportunities for future exhibits, and more space for more families with their children to visit.
Despite challenges brought on by the pandemic, Imagine Children’s Museum has continued to set the pace in children’s hands-on education, especially around STEM.
