Changes are coming to the second floor of Great Lakes Science Center as work begins on a new permanent early childhood exhibit designed especially for kids ages 8 and younger.
Slated to open on September 30, 2025, the immersive 2,000-square-foot Handle With Care early childhood exhibit is designed to support early experiences with empathy and engineering for the Science Center’s youngest guests.
The new exhibit will replace the museum’s existing early childhood exhibit, the Polymer Funhouse, which was most recently updated in 2020, and opened with the museum in 1996. Polymer Funhouse will close to the public on August 18 as part of the renovations across the second floor of the museum.
“This exhibit was designed with expertise on opportunities for young learners to experience engineering principles, as well as studies on the importance of developing empathy skills for our youngest learners,” said Science Center President & CEO Kirsten Ellenbogen. “The result is a space where young children and their caregivers will explore a playful learning space that emphasizes the importance of helping others, and the opportunities to do that with science, technology, engineering, and math.”
The new gallery will incorporate STEM learning and fundamental engineering principles while fostering empathy and creativity through imaginative play. As guests enter Handle With Care, they will have the opportunity to create a personalized care package for a loved one. After assembling their care package, guests can head over to the warehouse and distribution area where they can explore a three-tiered climbing structure, sit in the driver’s seat of a scale model forklift, and manipulate their package through a 10-foot-tall pulley and conveyor belt system. Finally, guests can deliver their care package to an imaginative play neighborhood complete with houses, apartments and a package delivery truck. The Science Center’s littlest visitors will particularly enjoy the small park area that is designed for infants.
“We expect the exhibit to reinforce empathetic responses in children, as they pack gifts to send to others,” said William Katzman, vice president for exhibits. “In addition, large and small motor skills and a gut-level operational understanding of motion and mechanics are part of the exhibit. Essentially by turning a crank and seeing a belt move, children begin connecting these phenomena.”
The focus on helping children develop empathy skills makes Handle With Care special, said Chris Martin, the Science Center’s senior exhibits developer.
“Unlike many exhibits, which focus on a child’s individual experience, Handle With Care has an outward facing component. We’re asking our young guests to think about loved ones, to focus on others.”
Handle With Care is one of the projects made possible by the Science Center’s ongoing Force For Tomorrow campaign, which aims to raise $25 million for revitalizing exhibits, expanding transformative programs and growing the museum’s endowment. Leading the effort on Handle With Care is a gift from the Ron and Lydia Harrington Family Foundation with additional support from The Reinberger Foundation, PNC Foundation, Carol A. Barnak, Nancy Andrews Family Foundation, The Joan. P Wenk Charitable Fund, Zest Pediatrics, Stocker Foundation and Medical Mutual.
Work on the second floor will also include improvements to the current Science Phenomena Gallery.
“The entire second floor will be refreshed and reimagined with the instillation of the new exhibit,” Ellenbogen said.
The area where Polymer Funhouse is now located will become the Science Center’s new water technology exhibit, which is slated to open in 2027.
About Great Lakes Science Center
Great Lakes Science Center is one of the top 10 museums in the nation as celebrated by the 2025 USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice travel award for Best Science Museum. The Science Center hosted Total Eclipse Fest in 2024, one of the largest free eclipse events in the country and is home to the NASA Glenn Visitor Center. The Science Center makes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) come alive for more than 300,000 visitors a year through hundreds of hands-on exhibits, temporary exhibits, the Cleveland Clinic DOME Theater, historic Steamship William G. Mather, daily science demonstrations, seasonal camps and more. The Science Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit institution, earned a 2023 Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, a leading provider of insight and data about the non-profit world. The Science Center is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Visit GreatScience.com for more information.