KidsQuest Children's Museum is a hands-on, interactive children's museum that encourages learning through play with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM). Exhibits and programs are geared towards children 0-10 and their families. KidsQuest offers over 650 programs throughout the year including early learning classes, summer camps, drop-off and whole-family science workshops, free art programs and many special events including concerts and holiday programs. [1]
KidsQuest is a non-profit organization located in Bellevue, Washington. Exhibits and classes are intended to encourage cognitive, physical and emotional development through play. [2]
KidsQuest Children's Museum was conceived in 1997 in response to a survey in Eastside Parents magazine identifying a children's museum as the "most needed facility or service" for the communities east of Lake Washington. [3]
The museum opened on December 11, 2005, in the Marketplace at Factoria in Bellevue and was designed to accommodate 60,000 visitors per year. [3] As of 2014, the museum averages over 155,000 visitors per year, and has had over a million visitors since opening.
In January 2017, KidsQuest moved to a new location in Downtown Bellevue, at the former site of the Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art. [4]
Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the fifth-largest city in Washington. It has variously been characterized as a satellite city, a suburb, a boomburb, or an edge city. The population was 151,854 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from the French term belle vue.
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is a science and technology museum in Portland, Oregon, United States. It contains three auditoriums, including a large-screen theatre, planetarium, and exhibition halls with a variety of hands-on permanent exhibits focused on natural sciences, industry, and technology. Transient exhibits span a wider range of disciplines.
Portland Children's Museum was a children's museum located in Portland's Washington Park, adjacent to the Oregon Zoo. Founded in 1946, Portland Children's Museum was the sixth oldest children's museum in the world and the oldest west of the Mississippi. The 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m2) museum received over a quarter of a million visits from children and their families every year. It was a non-profit organization with tax-exempt status and member of the Association of Children's Museums. In March 2021, the museum announced it would permanently close at the end of June, due to the financial loss brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Odle Middle School is a public middle school in the Crossroads neighborhood of Bellevue, Washington, United States. The school is one of seven middle schools in the Bellevue School District and was named posthumously after Frank Odle, who taught in the district for 55 years before retiring in 1968. Odle is located near Stevenson Elementary, formerly a primary feeder elementary school for Odle. Odle is primarily known for its hosting of the ALS program, a gifted program for high-performing children. As of the 2023–24 school year, the school's principal is Joseph Potts and its assistant principals are Keith Altenhof and Danielle Virata.
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Puget Sound Adventist Academy is a Seventh-day Adventist high school that shares a campus with Kirkland Adventist School in Kirkland, Washington, United States. It is a part of the Seventh-day Adventist education system, the world's second largest Christian school system. Its extra-curricular activities focus on outreach and community service, but also include music instruction and performance, and athletic programs.
Explora is a science center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, located near Old Town Albuquerque. Its name is the imperative form of the Spanish language verb explorar, which means to explore.
Children's museums are institutions that provide exhibits and programs to stimulate informal learning experiences for children. In contrast with traditional museums that typically have a hands-off policy regarding exhibits, children's museums feature interactive exhibits that are designed to be manipulated by children. The theory behind such exhibits is that activity can be as educational as instruction, especially in early childhood. Most children's museums are nonprofit organizations, and many are run by volunteers or by very small professional staffs.
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Bellevue Christian School (BCS) is a private, interdenominational Christian school serving grades K-12, located in Clyde Hill, Washington. BCS is a Northwest Association of Independent Schools member and is a part of the Nisqually League, a high school athletic conference located in the greater Seattle area. The school was founded in 1950 by brothers Dr. Albert and Joseph Greene. Since its inception, the student population at Bellevue Christian School has grown from 9 students to over 900 students.
Discovery Gateway, formerly The Children's Museum of Utah (TCMU), is an interactive, hands-on children's museum located in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Comprising over 60,000 square feet (6,000 m2) of exhibit space, Discovery Gateway is located at 444 West 100 South in The Gateway.
Discovery Station, is a hands-on, family-friendly museum in downtown Hagerstown, Maryland, United States that opened to the public in 2005. The museum's focus is to create an environment that stimulates curiosity for discovery, exploration, and further investigation through exhibits and programs that focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) principles. The museum is a member of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), and the NASA Museum Alliance.
Downtown Bellevue is the central business district of Bellevue, Washington, United States. It is bounded by I-405 to the east, NE 12th Street to the north, 100th Ave NE to the west, and Main Street to the south, and covers an area of around 400 acres (160 ha). It is the second largest city center in Washington state, with more than 50,000 employees and 12,000 residents. Geographically centered near the heart of the Puget Sound region, downtown Bellevue is a regional growth center offering over 9 million square feet (840,000 m2) of Class A office space, various major retail and entertainment locations, more than 2,500 hotel rooms and almost 10,000 housing units.
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The Children's Museum of Atlanta is a children's museum located in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1988 as a "Museum Without Walls," the museum opened to the public in 2003. The museum is located Downtown, adjacent to Centennial Olympic Park. The 16,316-square-foot museum, one of four children's museums in Georgia, includes exhibits designed for and geared toward children under the age of nine and hosts field trips from schools and learning centers throughout North Georgia.
Hands On Children's Museum is a children's museum in Olympia, Washington, USA. It was founded in 1987 and received over 150,000 visitors a year at its old location near the Washington State Capitol. After moving to its new, permanent home on Olympia's East Bay, at 414 Jefferson Street on Olympia's East Bay, visitorship grew to over 300,000 in its first year.
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