Imagination Station

On Saturday only, Purdue employees and their families are eligible for discounted admission.

The “MakerPAD” event is presented in collaboration with Purdue Engineering’s C Design Lab and will feature many of the lab’s projects designed by Purdue students. MakerPAD, research that is designed to make personalized fabrication technology easily accessible and available to makers and students, is one of the lab’s ongoing research efforts and is funded by the National Science Foundation. The C Design Lab is partnering for Saturday’s event with Purdue’s Multi-scale Mechanics and Materials by Design Lab led by Pablo D. Zavattieri, a professor in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering.

“MakerPad is a platform of design tools and maker activities that enables complex design functions to be made accessible to everyone,” says lab director Karthik Ramani, Purdue’s Donald W. Feddersen Professor of Mechanical Engineering. “We have designed a series of mini hands-on workshops to enable children to learn by doing hands-on activities and to develop a curiosity to ask questions about how things work, building bridges between their hands and minds.”

Imagination Station, which opened nearly 20 years ago, is a community science center for children and their families located in Downtown Lafayette. It is dedicated to igniting imaginations through science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) and raising awareness about STEAM career pathways. The science center collaborates frequently with Purdue to bring current research to the public via hands-on activities.

“Imagination Station and Purdue partnerships have an incredible impact on the community,” says Philip Cardella, executive director of Imagination Station. “Imagination Station partners with individual students, student organizations, staff and faculty outreach programs, and research centers and programs such as MakerPAD from the Design Labs and others such as INSPIRE and EPICS. By bringing Purdue to Imagination Station, we are able to work together on informal learning programs that are attractive to STEM education and act as an intermediary between Purdue and the community.”

This year, through exhibits, demonstrations and activities at Imagination Station, Purdue has impacted nearly 15,000 people in the Greater Lafayette Area, according to Cardella. A partnership with Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences in the College of Science drew around 500 people in March. The annual Hands on Transportation event, which is held in collaboration with half a dozen groups at Purdue, is projected to attract an estimated 2,000 guests in August, Cardella reports.

The event is free for Imagination Station members, $5 for guests 2 and up, and $2.50 for Purdue staff and faculty who show their PUID. On Saturday only, family memberships will be 20 percent off for Purdue staff and faculty who show their PUID. Imagination Station members get free general admission to Imagination Station every day, as well as free admission to more than 350 other science centers, zoos and museums through the ASTC Passport Program, which can be found at astc.org/passport.