Unleash Your Inner Child at Gateway Science Museum’s New Toy Exhibit

If you’ve ever wondered how an Etch A Sketch® works or wanted to dismantle a robotic toy to learn how it moves, you’ll love Toys: The Inside Story. Bringing elements of play, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and nostalgia together, this new exhibit at Chico State’s Gateway Science Museum includes 12 hands-on stations illustrating the mechanisms commonly found inside many iconic toys.

Visitors can create toy-like combinations using gears, pulleys, linkages, cams, and circuits. For example, Jack Gets Out of His Box gives visitors a close-up view of the cam combination that frees our hero “Jack.” Gears at Play illustrates the effects of gear ratios as visitors figure out how to spin ballerinas and a carousel. And the Jeepers Peepers challenge at the pulley table may take a little experimentation to solve.

Many of the exhibits are free-form and open-ended, appealing to kids of all ages. “The Toys exhibit has two levels: fun and exploration,” says Adrienne McGraw, Gateway’s director. “Playing with the toys is just the beginning. All the activities let us get inside to really see how things work. I am a sucker for anything involving gears and so many toys start with these simple machines.”

The exhibition was developed by the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vermont, with funding from a National Science Foundation grant awarded to seven museums across the country that comprise Traveling Exhibits at Museums of Science (TEAMS), including the Gateway Science Museum.

The exhibit will run through January 11, 2025. Gateway is located at 625 Esplanade in Chico, on the leafy eastern edge of the Chico State campus.

About Gateway Science Museum

Gateway Science Museum hosts engaging hands-on traveling exhibitions, features programming about our region, and offers STEM education to people of all ages. With exhibit galleries, a hands-on Discovery Room, and the Gateway Gardens, we provide a quality science education for everyone. With three seasons of temporary exhibits each year, the museum is renewed often, welcoming repeat visitors back again and again. The museum is open on Thursdays – Saturdays from 11 AM to 4 PM. Chicostate.edu/gateway.