Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails!

All aboard! The world’s most beloved #1 blue engine will roll into The Magic House for exciting fun and adventure. Thomas & Friends™: Explore the Rails!, an interactive exhibit created by Minnesota Children’s Museum and inspired by the popular children’s series now on Nick Jr, will steam into The Magic House on September 21 for a three-month stay though January 5. Featuring the favorite engines and destinations from Thomas & Friends™, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) –focused exhibit seeks to engage children, ages 2 through 7, and families in foundational skills that foster STEM literacy through playful learning experiences. The exhibit incorporates foundational STEM practices that encourage thinking mathematically, making comparisons, experimenting to solve problems using a variety of methods and tools, thinking creatively and reflecting on actions and results. Visitors to the exhibit will be delighted as they find themselves surrounded by the Island of Sodor’s iconic locations: Knapford Station, Sodor Steamworks and much more. In the exhibit, children help Thomas and his friends solve a variety of challenges, from a simple sorting and shape identification activity to more complex engineering obstacles, such as completing a train track using track pieces with different levels of elevation. As children encounter new challenges and test their abilities, the smiling faces of Thomas, Percy, Victor and others are there to offer encouragement and remind children how “really useful” they all are.