This idea is not new. But the vision is to try to scale it commercially(once the initial project is complete) which most of the government funded parks don't do.
Would like your views on this approach of blending edutainment park with STEAM subjects. Would you encourage/support this type of project? If not, why not? If you were to build this, what would you build? Any other feedback, suggestions, comments and advice?
Also, I am open for collaborating on this project with others. If you want to join me on this journey then do send me an email: ajit.edfintech@gmail.com
I am in the UK, but also open to working with people from outside UK.
The long surviving theme parks are the front end for larger organizations. Universal Studios in Orlando. Sea World as marine mammal research centers. And of course Disney's lands and worlds.
Sea World however illustrates the challenges of changing public tastes...or opinions. What seemed like evergreen content is turning out not to be.
Do you have enough money to survive an event like the pandemic?
The plan is to work in collaboration with large organisations who have interest in the out come of this type of activity.
> Do you have enough money to survive an event like the pandemic?
Event like the pandemic is the best time to start a business that takes some time to setup.
State of the art in edutainment looks like the upcoming Crayola IDEAworks exhibit at Philly's Franklin Institute. The focus isn't on "the science". But creativity, experimentation, problem-solving and design. It's universal. Multicultural. Multi-generation.
And yes, it's a branded experience. With the obligatory gift shop where they expect to sell plenty of crayons, colored pencils and magic markers. I recall being in London when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter just opened and the waitlist for tix was like six months ;)
Yes, this is our experience as well when we built a space park in India. We had to add some element of entertainment. It becomes immediately evident when kids visit the park who among them are interested in the education side and who are interested on the non-educational/entertainment side of the project.
Yes, part of it will have elements of this. But it cannot be limited to just education as lot of kids get bored easily. So it will have some element of gamification and entertainment.
It's basically a game version of the bridge scenes you see on sci-fi shows like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica.
Artemis Bridge Simulator is probably the best known one (though quite long in the tooth at this stage), there are a few others like Starship Horizons or Empty Epsilon.
This community should be a good source of info on the topic: https://bridgesim.net/
They're sometimes used for educational and team-building purposes too - e.g. those "space camps" popular in the US that other users have mentioned here.
This one in particular seems geared towards that use case: https://thoriumsim.com/docs/overview
DisneyQuest, Google Daydream, and Oculus have all been failures -- and DisneyQuest had Disney content and branding and was aimed squarely at kids. Also, you don't see much VR content on Steam and it's a non-starter on Xbox. These don't bode well for wide adoption of any VR product with kids.
Best to talk to established ones if you don't want to lose your shirt reinventing the wheel.
Here's one of the oldest:
https://www.exploratorium.edu/about-us
Here's another one:
Unless you've already done so?
No, I have just started. Ideating and talking to people.
Here's a few lists of some more people to bother :)
(I've haven't checked every single link, so...)
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mwm/sci.html
https://www.museumplanner.org/worlds-top-10-science-centers/
https://wegowithkids.com/worlds-best-science-centers-with-ki...
It is a major hassle though getting people suited up, you would go through gear pretty fast, and if people were taking falls without the direct use of their eyes some might get hurt.
Yes, as with any other entertainment park, there will be safety requirements for this park too, but with different challenges. Those will have to be worked on as we go along with the project.
Most of these kind of places have either a 'draw' or a 'museum' model. Ones which have a draw have something which is not elsewhere, which is what draws people to go there. KSC for example has rocket launches and moonshot facilities which are quite unique. A museum on the other hand can be built anywhere, even though it may contain some unique things. For STEAM it doesn't need uniqueness, just cool stuff would do. An example of that type would be www.mosi.org.
Museums are great, but in our day and age, building one is usually not a way to get rich. They often have some kind of subsidy. I don't know a ton about their finances, but most are operated as non-profits. I'm sure you could talk to someone who runs one and they'd be happy to tell you about their costs.
Having a STEAM draw might be good, but probably won't scale in a franchise fashion. However, linking up with a science institution can lend prestige, which is really important in the education/kids market. If SpaceX were to open a STEAM-themed kindergarten, parents would be fighting to get their kids in. Of course, this can also be done poorly - Florida Tech should have the prestige of being basically 'NASA school', but instead you get the grey MBA-ness of https://www.fit.edu/education-centers/locations/spaceport-ti....
The most important thing to find out if you want to scale, is what is the cost structure for existing places (i.e. how much goes to rent, salaries, exhibits, marketing, etc.). Then figure out what you are doing differently that will beat the pant off that. If you can't figure that out, you can't scale. For comparison, take a look at the cost structure of those tutoring centers (like Sylvan Learning); they do scale, but they are almost certainly not what are envisioning.
That would be super fun :)
