Imagination Station Receives Grant for Science Outreach

Imagination Station is thrilled to receive a $250,000 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, in support of the Toledo Tinkers: Through a Child’s Eyes project. This vital program will provide 1,840 children and their families with personally relevant STEM education.

Toledo Tinkers: Through a Child’s Eyes, is a three-year project designed to address barriers to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and promote a lifelong love of these subjects in our community. Toledo Tinkers supports the development of an outreach curriculum and delivery using a mobile tinkering van. This effort is possible through partnerships with local organizations serving children, like the Boys and Girls Club of Northwest Ohio, Adelante, the Toledo Lucas County Public Library and the University of Toledo, and deepens the science center’s capacity to serve individuals from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Toledo Tinkers focuses on making and tinkering because of its power to engage and excite children around STEM learning. Similar hands-on activities are featured in Imagination Station’s IDEA Lab. These activities allow participants to practice STEM skills through the engineering design process while solving real problems, fostering critical 21st-century skills (ex: problem-solving, persistence) and providing opportunities for children to work with real tools ranging from soldering irons and power drills to sewing machines.