A Day at the Museum

By 6th grader Kory

Walking into the MIT Museum for the first time, I didn’t know what to expect of such a small space at such a major university. Our exploration started on the top floor, where we saw videos of roboticists talking about their design process and showing off everything that their robots could do. Many of the robots in the videos were also on display, including one that had a domed head and sticks for legs. It seemed as if it couldn’t walk, but it used sensors to balance itself and even do a flip!

In addition to the robots, we saw kinetic sculptures by Arthur Ganson. These movable sculptures twisted and turned in all sorts of directions. One was a floating chair that turned, hit a cat, and then flipped back. It was my favorite because the gear train was so fascinating to watch. Aside from the robots and sculptures, there were realistic holograms and other technologies, like a camera that made your face look flat and a machine that detected radiation from rocks.

On the last floor of the museum, there was a version of Tetris where the buttons aren't really buttons because you don't push them, you just touch them. The final exhibit was a miniature MIT Campus that showed how it would look with rises in the water level as a result of climate change.

The MIT Museum might have been small, but it packed an amazing experience inside its doors!