Join MOHAI as we tinker, experiment, and create our way through history.
Learn about stories of innovations throughout our local history, build skills for innovation, and let your imagination soar with activities for the young and young at heart.
At the museum, sit down at the Idea Lab any time for a self-guided, hands-on activity inspired by MOHAI exhibits and programs. Explore the same ideas at home with videos and downloadable instructions for a craft or experiment designed by MOHAI Educators.
Activities change regularly!
Idea Lab: Bikes
Learn about the history of one of Seattle’s most iconic trails and about forces that move bikes. Then, explore balance, friction, gravity, and more by building whimsical rollers.
Currently on view at MOHAI
Idea Lab: Glass Art
The Puget Sound region is known as a hub for glass art, in large part because of its significant role in the studio glass movement. Learn about the history of glass as an artistic medium and the different methods and tools artists use to shape and manipulate glass.
Idea Lab: Transit
Explore how people have used transit to navigate Seattle’s distinctive geography. At home, build a working model of a historic Seattle cable car.
Idea Lab: Airplanes
Learn about early innovations in aviation history and the four forces of flight. How are different kinds of aircraft designed to move through air?
Idea Lab: Clothing
Learn about Seattle’s fashion history and explore how the materials, construction, and aesthetics meet functional and expressive needs. At home, practice iterative design by building cardboard costumes that bring characters to life.
Idea Lab: Board Games
Learn about the inspiration behind iconic Seattle board games, then create your own fun by building a prototype of a board game you design yourself.
Idea Lab: Music and Dance
Learn how collaborations between Cornish College of the Arts students and faculty across artistic disciplines led to exciting innovations in music and dance. Then, build a work of art that moves.
Idea Lab: Storytelling
Explore the literary history of the Puget Sound region and take a closer look at two different innovations in reading technology. Then, learn how to make three types of books from a single sheet of paper.
Idea Lab: City Planning
Explore historic plans for Seattle’s future and ask questions about the design of cities, neighborhoods, and homes. Download a neighborhood bingo to explore the impacts of urban planning in your community.