Exhibition Displaying Manufacturing Process Coming to G.WIZ Science Museum May 31, 2008

“How People Make Things,” inspired by the Mister Rogers Factory Tours

Every object in our world has a story of how it is made. How People Make Things, a new exhibit opening at G.WIZ – The Science Museum on Saturday, May 31, 2008, tells that story by linking familiar childhood objects to a process of manufacturing that combines people, ideas and technology.

This exhibit, inspired by the factory tour segments from the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood television series, offers hands-on activities using real factory tools and machines to create objects with four manufacturing processes – molding, cutting, deforming and assembly. Many common manufactured products help tell the story of how people, ideas and technology transform raw materials into finished products. 

Visitors can use a die cutter to make a box and a horse, operate a 3-axis mill to carve a block of wax, assemble parts of a real golf cart and race a robotic arm to see who assembles a replica of the signature trolley from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood faster.

Step into the Main Office, where you can don coveralls, lab coats, aprons, safety glasses, and hard hats to become a factory technician, worker or supervisor.  You can also mold pourable wax, explore vacuum forming and injection molding and match products to the mold from which they were made.  Or play the “People in Your Neighborhood" matching game, developed with The Saturday Light Brigade radio program, where audio clues and stories help you match the person to the object they make.

“This exhibit will bring people closer to how products are actually manufactured.  Today, people are somewhat removed from this process, and I think they’re very curious about it,” says Doug Perry, G.WIZ Director of Exhibits.  “When you see the injection molding machine in action, making your very own spoon in just a minute or two, or the die cutter making you a horse, this process has become real and tangible…and you get to keep the spoon and the horse by which to remember the experience.” 

“Through his factory tours, Fred Rogers took complex issues and made them simple and direct so children could understand them and relate them to their own lives.  He made manufacturing fascinating and inspirational, and G.WIZ continues that tradition with How People Make Things.”  The museum plans to partner with local companies who will display products that are made in the tri-county area, and we will also be doing a local factory tour with Mr. McFeely, the friendly "Speedy Delivery" man on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

The factory tour videos from the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood television series featured in the exhibit depict the making of crayons, carousel horses, balls, stop lights, quarters, shoes, toy cars and toy wagons. Everyday products featured in How People Make Things include 10,000 Crayola crayons in 90 colors, 10,000 plastic pellets, 300 ice cream cups, stop lights, cooking pans, sneakers, baseball bats, baseball mitts and matchbox cars.

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