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Natalie Sanford

For people who say, “I’ll never use math when I grow up”, the Design Zone at the Science Museum shows the interesting ways that math is essential in the world.

Director of Public Programs and Special Exhibits, Joe Imholte said visitors will discover how important math is in the world of design.

“Visitors will solve real-world challenges and discover that math isn’t just a subject in schools. Math is one of the most powerful creative tools available to design and invent almost everything in the world of art, music, entertainment, and sports,” Imholte said.

The Design Zone exhibit was created by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in cooperation with the members of the Museum Exhibit Collaborative. The exhibit has been traveling to museums such as the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington and the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Florida since November of 2010.

Kim Ramsden, Director of Communications and Public Relations at the Science Museum of Minnesota said the exhibit will show museum goers that math is key in everyday life.

“The exhibit was developed as an idea to make math fun by directly connecting mathematical concepts to real-life experiences like hip-hop, art, skate parks, and more,” Ramsden said.

The whole exhibit is interactive and has an engaging design showing how creativity, art and math are all connected.

Visitors get to create their own 2-D and 3-D art and explore math behind visual creativity by seeing their designs emerge as a simulated video game, putting together music tracks at a DJ recording studio and building custom digital roller coasters.

“I think that math is such a critical part of design. Design is everywhere we look and in everything we do, and math is behind it all. Behind every dance mix, there’s a beat. Behind every thrill ride, there’s velocity. Behind every half-pipe, there’s a vertical ramp,” Imholte said.

Senior Winter Morgan said that she thinks the exhibit seems like it would be interesting for students who are fascinated with math and science.

“The exhibit sounds fun” Morgan said. “I think people interested in engineering would find it very enjoyable.”

The Design Zone exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota hopes to inspire students to be engineers and video game designers, but most importantly understand that math isn’t so boring after all.

The Design Zone Exhibit opens January 4th 2014 and runs until April 2015. Museum admission is $13 per person or $6 for students who attend the exhibit after 5 p.m. on Fridays.