'Blown away': Rose-Hulman students design, build space station exhibit for THCM

May 24—On his seventh birthday Wednesday, Samuel David Shaw III was among the first children to visit a new space station exhibit at the Terre Haute Children's Museum.

He participated in activities called Countdown to Liftoff, Journey through Space and Mission Control. The space station's ceiling looks like a star-studded night sky.

"It's amazing," he said.

Four junior biomedical engineering students at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology have spent this school year designing and constructing the exhibit, which is a prototype.

Children will be able to interact with the space station simulation this summer, and in the fall, museum staff will provide the Rose-Hulman students with feedback about potential improvements and revisions.

Around Thanksgiving, it will become a permanent feature of the museum.

Sensory-friendly aspects of the exhibit have been specially designed to make it educational and fun for children with disabilities, a goal of the project's sponsor, the Arc of the Wabash Valley.

The exhibit was created by Rose-Hulman students Sophia Koop, Kylie Rathbun, Amelia Robinson and Eleni Woods. They put finishing touches on it Wednesday in preparation for summer museum visitors.

"It really is so inspiring, especially to come here today and see kids walking through it and pressing the buttons," Robinson said. "I think it turned out beautifully ... and the kids are going to love it."

Woods said it was a lot of hard work, "so getting to see the final product is very exciting."

One of the challenges was the tight timeline, Woods said. The design phase took several weeks, and the students then had 10 weeks to build it, which included the structure, interactive elements and finishing touches.

The 10-foot-long exhibit, located on the museum's third floor, takes children through three stages of an exploration mission to the international space station:

—Countdown to Liftoff: Learning skills to prepare for starting the mission (calming any nerves and relaxing techniques).

—Journey Through Space: Learning about gravity with activities involving three rockets of various weights going to different planets (1 pound, 6 pounds and 15 pounds).

—Mission Control: Children learn while completing riddle-themed puzzles that, when successfully solved, returns them to Earth.

Each element tells a coherent story of an astronaut getting ready to leave earth, travel the galaxy and safely return home, Robinson said.

It's also meant to provide a sensory-friendly space. "It's a bit quieter, a bit darker, to address light and sound sensitivities that can be really triggering for some people," Robinson said.

The students worked closely with the museum to make sure "we were meeting their needs and the needs of children," she said.

A space theme was selected because of America's current and future space missions being planned by NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin and other organizations — returning humans to the moon and possibly exploring Mars.

Susan Turner, the museum's executive director, said the prototype exhibit "is really cool. We are thrilled to be partnering with Rose-Hulman and the Arc of the Wabash Valley to bring this exhibit to the children and families we serve."

Early in the process, Turner shared with the students the museum's new master facility plan. She told them to "dream a little bit. Think about what we are trying to accomplish as an organization."

The students were really interested in a space theme, which the museum is moving toward on the third floor. They spent a lot of time researching and putting together the space station concept.

"I have been blown away by this design team and how creative and professional they are," Turner said.

Also, the exhibit is helping the museum "serve a population we'd like to be serving, those children differently abled, in wheelchairs and who are on the spectrum," Turner said.

David Ofsansky, executive director of Arc of the Wabash Valley, was pleased with the exhibit. The organization provided $4,000 to fund it.

He saw it for the first time Wednesday. "It's great, and all student-done, too."

Sue Loughlin can be reached at 812-231-4235 or at sue.loughlin@tribstar.com Follow Sue on Twitter @TribStarSue