Acton Discovery Museum Archives

Water Exhibit

Acton Discovery Museum - Water Exhibit

Adults and children alike pour, whirl, float, and get hands wet as they control, move, divert, and explore the properties of water. There’s nothing like the immersive, sensory experience of water to excite and engage!

Vortex Movie

Young scientists touch and experiment these whirling water vortices that are open at the bottom. What happens when you place balls inside?

Morph Movie

A laminar stream that jets up 12″ is the testing ground for visitors to create water bells, discs, and other interesting shapes and patterns.

Splash

Another view into the Water Gallery showing the “Laminar Lifter” and the “Pour & Explore” exhibits.

Paul Morph

Paul Orselli experimenting with the Morphable Stream exhibit.

Long View

A partial view into the Water Gallery.

Sound Exhibit

Acton Discovery Museum - Sound Exhibit

Young scientists and their families can explore and experience the amazing properties of sound by creating, seeing, hearing and feeling waves and physical vibrations!

Sound Gallery – Washer Falls

Visitors create jingling, tinkling sounds when they drop metal washers down a variety of threaded rods. (Photo courtesy Kristin Angel)

Bass

Kids and adults explore sound and vibrations in a real-life way by playing with a full-sized bass.

Math Exhibit

Acton Discovery Museum - Math Exhibit

This gallery of fun, hands-on activities uses real world, visual interpretations of mathematical concepts to show that math is all around us!

Math Dance

Visitors dance along with Mickela Mallozi, the Emmy® Award-winning host of the PBS show Bare Feet, which explores traditional cultures around the world through dance. Children and adults can move to the music along with Mickela to recreate mathematical patterns and shapes through dance in this one-of-a-kind exhibit.

Light Table

Young explorers discover symmetry, angles, and space filling by using colorful Magna-Tile geometric shapes on a glowing light table. These magnetic 2D translucent pieces can create 3D structures that glow.

Geoboards Install

Here’s an installation shot (with the 42 Design/Fab crew) of the Geoboards where museum visitors create triangles, squares, curves, patterns, intricate shapes, and even letters when they stretch colored rubber bands on a giant pegboard that wraps around the wall.

Galton

Visitors can experiment with this clever device to find that a similar “bell curve” distribution is generated every time the balls are released, with the majority of the balls in the center of the curve, tapering off to fewer and fewer at each side.

Light and Color Exhibit

Acton Discovery Museum - Light and Color Exhibit

Scientists of all ages can immerse themselves in this vividly engaging exhibit gallery on the properties of light and color. A series of hands-on exhibits in a specially-designed darkened space use LEDs and new materials to create dramatic, high contrast, and aesthetically beautiful light and color.

Light and Color Gallery

A view into the Light & Color gallery. (Photo courtesy MitchellGreenPhotography.com)

Light Lens

Both children and adults delight in manipulating rays of light with mirrors and lenses to focus, reflect, and mix them to create various effects.

Pendulux

Museum visitors swing a light pendulum suspended over a rotating platter of phosphorescent material to produce a beautiful array of “Spirograph” patterns. Experimenters can change the swing of the pendulum or the speed of the rotating platter and see what happens! (Photo courtesy Kristin Angel)

Da Vinci Workshop

Acton Discovery Museum - Da Vinci Workshop

Visitors to the Da Vinci Workshop gallery use tools, tinker, design, build, and invent like the artist, scientist, engineer, and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci. Using recycled materials, off-the-shelf supplies, and tools and technology ranging from scissors and saws to electronic circuits and conductive thread, young scientists design and build diverse creations inspired by the creative thinking and engineering of Da Vinci.

Ornithopter Install

Here’s a view of the crew from DCM Fabrication installing the Ornithopter component.

Ornithopter Crank

Children and adults turn the crank to activate the gears that flap the wings of a model flying machine, inspired by the giant Ornithopter that da Vinci designed to test human-powered flight.

Air Flow

Young scientists can experiment with aerodynamic principles and engineering concepts at the vertical airstream. Visitors use a variety of materials to design and test prototypes that fly and hover. (Photo courtesy MitchellGreenPhotography.com)

Leo

A life size image of Leonardo himself (created by artist Kim Wagner based on da Vinci’s self portrait) welcomes everyone to the Workshop!

Interior Tables

Inspired by da Vinci, visitors use their imaginations and engineering skills to invent new creations and art using recycled materials.

Gear Wall

Young engineers set things into motion with this magnetic wall. Families can create a gear train and watch special gears turn and spin in different directions.