Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention facts for kids
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Established | May 19, 2018 |
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Location | 811 S Main St, Gainesville, FL 32601 |
The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention is a cool museum in Gainesville, Florida. Its main goal is to "transform communities by inspiring and equipping future inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries." The museum is named after Robert Cade. He was the main inventor of Gatorade. The museum shows his idea of mixing science and art to create things with a purpose.
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Museum History and Opening
In 2004, Dr. Cade and his family started the Cade Museum Foundation. Their plan was to build a museum in Gainesville. The foundation worked for 13 years to raise money. They collected $9.2 million for the museum.
The building was designed by GWWO Architects from Baltimore. Construction started in April 2016 and finished in November 2017. The museum officially opened its doors in May 2018. Its opening was part of a plan to make downtown Gainesville a lively place again. In its first year, about 55,000 people visited the museum.
Exploring the Museum Building
The museum is located right at a corner in Depot Park. It is a large building, about 26,000 square feet in size.
The inside of the museum has many windows. These windows let in lots of natural light. The building's design is shaped like a spiral, just like a nautilus shell. This special shape shows off cool math ideas. These ideas include the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio.
Exciting Exhibits to Discover
The museum has many exhibits about inventions and technology. Many of these ideas came from the University of Florida. One part of the museum is all about Dr. Cade. You can see his actual lab from the University of Florida there. You can also learn how Gatorade was developed. There are even water-cooled football shoulder pads on display!
The museum also has a very old Gutenberg printing press. It is more than 160 years old. You can also find special labs for creativity and making things. These are called fabrication labs.
On the second floor, you can see plaques about famous inventors. These include Nikola Tesla and the person who invented the zipper.
Fun Activities and Workshops
The Cade Museum offers activities for people of all ages. They also have exciting summer camps.
You can join STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) workshops. In these workshops, you might even meet real, living inventors! Every Saturday, an inventor visits the museum. They come from different fields like business, science, or medicine. A special federal grant helps pay for half of the STEAM program for four years.