New Merced children’s museum featuring interactive exhibits opens
UC Merced Professor Mayya Tokman’s three-year project of building a children’s museum in Merced was born out of a love for her son and a passion for education.
And after years of perseverance and dedication — not to mention dealing with the impacts of a global pandemic — Tokman’s vision is finally coming into fruition.
Tokman and her staff finally got a chance to show off their labor of love with the grand opening of the Kids Discovery Station in September.
The museum at 350 West Yosemite Ave. is open to the public The museum is open six days a week from Tuesday through Sunday.
“I’m extremely excited about this,” said Tokman, who is the executive director and board president of Kids Discovery Station. “I really hope that this is going to be for the good of the community. I hope the children enjoy it, I hope families enjoy it.”
The non-profit children’s museum features interactive exhibits for kids ages 0-12.
The exhibits
The museum features three areas titled “Innovation Island,” “Home Valley” and “Little Explorer Planet”.
The Home Valley section also features a health center where kids can explore a variety of healthcare-related professions. Kids can also learn more about the Central Valley and the agricultural crops that are grown and produced here.
The Little Explorer Planet is targeted for younger kids. All activities are open-ended and designed for children who are not yet ready for more organized activities. In the same area there is a little general store and cantina where younger kids can pretend they are cooking and serving meals for their family.
The play area also includes a climbing, crawling, and sliding structure for kids 2-5 years old that will help develop their motor skills.
Innovation Island features exhibits for all things digital. There’s a green screen exhibit that will allow guests to travel to far away countries or even the moon. Kids can learn about coding, websites and smart devices.
“I was incredibly excited to see this project,” said KDS Operations Manager Karrie Moua. “It just has such a great mission, just to be able to provide a safe, fun environment for kids to enjoy and playfully learn and discover. I think that’s what Merced is really missing for the kids of the county and city.”
How it started
The project is the brainchild of Tokman, 49, who is one of the founding faculty in applied mathematics and faculty director of the CalTeach program at UC Merced.
She spearheaded the project with fellow UC Merced professor Angelo Kyrilov and former Merced County Supervisor Lee Lor.
It started with a few pilot exhibits that were started through the UC Merced CalTeach program and held at the Multicultural Art Center, the Merced County Library and the Merced County Fair.
“We wanted to test the waters to see where it could go and we were shocked, because we did not advertise except for word of mouth and social media and in two weeks we got almost 1,000 visits at the Merced Multicultural Art Center exhibit. So that told us something. We had another exhibit at the library for two weeks and had 1,700 visits.”
The Merced County of Office of Education offered the building to Kids Discovery Station rent free for three years. Tokman and her team secured donations from local businesses like Webcor, Golden Valley Health Centers, First 5 Merced County, Hilmar Cheese Company and Community Foundation Merced County to name a few.
The museum was scheduled to open in 2020 but the opening was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kids Discovery Station is in the process of trying to secure more donations to build outdoor exhibits.
Tokman says they want to build an institution that survives and can be self sustained. Not only are they soliciting donations from businesses and from the public, but annual memberships can be purchased.
A place for kids
“It started from the fact that I have a son who I’m raising in Merced,” Tokman said. “When it’s about 110 degrees outside, how many times can I dip him into the pool? And sometimes I’m not in the mood to drive him an hour and a half to two hours to go somewhere. Where do you take children?
“All my life I’m been very engaged in education,” she added. “It’s a passion.”
The museum hosted many class field trips for Merced City School District summer programs. It was a hit with the students.
“Some students don’t really learn in a classroom,” Moua said. “They can’t have fun, they have to be still and here they can play, they can run around, they can scream. We encourage that, for them to explore their excitement.”
Mousa says there so many options at the museum for kids to explore different hobbies and interests.
“I know when we had our field trips, they were really sleepy in the early mornings but we shook that out of them and it was really easy,” Moua said. “They really enjoyed it and it was really easy to get them to love this place.”
Admission is $7 per adult and child over age 1. For information about memberships and operating hours visit the organization’s website.
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 11:53 AM.
