Exhibit designed to make learning STEM fun

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On Friday, visitors at the National Museum of the United States Air Force were invited to get a preview of the museum’s newest attraction, MathAlive: The exhibit opens to the public today and will be at the museum until Oct. 2.

Bonnie Bean of Cambridge and her 7-year-old son heard the announcement about MathAlive! while walking around the museum, and decided to take a look for themselves.

“It’s fantastic,” said Bean. “There are a lot of good exhibits that are more than just videos. There are still videos, but they explain about what they’re doing and why.”

Raytheon, a major defense contractor with employees all over the world, created MathAlive to try to get young people interested in math, technology, science and engineering. Showing children these subjects can be fun while providing an education for them, Jack McAuley, Program Director for Raytheon’s Training Systems Acquisition III program.

“I think the primary goal is to make our young folks aware that the science, technology, engineering and math are fun and interesting, that they’re something to pursue,” said McAuley.

MathAlive works to achieve this goal by showing principles from these fields in activities kids enjoy. One of the most popular exhibits is Boardercross, a snowboard experience where kids stand on a pivoting snowboard and twist their bodies to create the right angles to avoid obstacles as they race other players.

More than 40 exhibits that come together to create MathAlive have been set up in the National Air Force Museum. This is the largest space the exhibit has been in so far during it’s tour of major military locations in the country this year, said Jennifer Griffith, Raytheon’s community relations manager.

Each exhibit falls under one of six themes: Outdoor Action: adventure sports; Build Your World: environment; Future Style: style and design; Kickin’ It: entertainment; Game Plan, video games and other games; and Robotics and Space: robots