Interactive Family Learning in Support of Early Brain Development

AlegreMENTE/Happy Brain: Celebrating Early Connections is a new bilingual 1,500 square foot traveling exhibition about early brain development.
OMSI 2020
  • Project Description

    The Interactive Family Learning in Support of Early Brain Development project will develop a 1,000 to 1,500-square-foot traveling exhibition, accompanying website, and complementary programming to promote public understanding of neuroscience research and its relevance to healthy brain development in young children up to age 5. The exhibition will focus on current research on the developing brain and will reach a national audience of adult caregivers of young children and their families, with a special emphasis on Latino families. The project will foster better public understanding of early brain development, and enhanced awareness and confidence in caregivers to use play to enrich their children’s experiences and support healthy brain development.

  • Abstract

    The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), in collaboration with neuroscientists at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), museum professionals, and community partners, proposes to create a 1,000 to 1,500-square-foot traveling exhibition, accompanying website, and complementary programming to promote public understanding of neuroscience research and its relevance to healthy brain development in early childhood. The exhibition and programs will focus on current research on the developing brain, up to age 5, and will reach a national audience of adult caregivers of young children and their families, with a special emphasis on Latino families. The project will be developed bi-culturally and bilingually (English/Spanish) in order to better engage underrepresented Latino audiences. The exhibition and programs will be designed and tested with family audiences.

    The exhibition project, Interactive Family Learning in Support of Early Brain Development, has four goals that primarily target adult caregivers of children up to age 5:

    1. Foster engagement with and interest in neurodevelopment during early childhood
    2. Enhance awareness of how neuroscience research leads to knowledge about healthy development in early childhood
    3. Inform and empower adult caregivers to enrich their children’s early learning experiences
    4. Reach diverse family audiences, especially Latino caregivers and their families

    A collaborative, multidisciplinary team of neuroscience researchers, experts in early childhood education, museum educators, and OMSI personnel with expertise in informal science education and bilingual exhibit development will work together to ensure that current science is accurately interpreted and effectively presented to reach the target audiences. The project will foster better public understanding of early brain development and awareness and confidence in caregivers in using play to enrich their children’s experiences and support healthy brain development. Visitors will explore neuroscience and early childhood development through a variety of forms—multi-sensory, hands-on interactive exhibits, graphic panels, real objects, facilitated experiences, and an accompanying website.

    Following the five-year development process, the exhibition will begin an eight-year national tour, during which it will reach more than one million people.


Project Photos

  • Design Sprint 2
    Design Sprint 2 experimented with messages and activities about early brain development for caregivers and young children.
  • Reflecting on Emotion
    Reflecting on emotion activities engage families in exploring faces and feelings together.
  • Dance Floor
    Caregivers and children engage in brain-building dance activities.
  • Dance Floor exhibit prototype
    Adults and children try out the redesigned interactive dance floor during formative testing.
  • fig01
    AlegreMENTE at the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose