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At both the Staten Island Children's Museum and the Austin Children's Museum I developed exhibits based around those "giant" games. (the idea came from the children's museum in Chicago)  At both venues we had giant (AKA lawn) chess, and then each included a slightly different mix of commercially available "giant" games as well as custom built and table top games.  At Staten island we discussed the origins of the games in graphics.  At Austin we discussed the ideas of games as tools for learning social skills along with cognitive ones.

Both were highly successful and both were produced for extremely reasonable budgets. The giant games may at first seem expensive but you couldn't build them yourself for much less. There are some I would recommend, some I would caution or qualify using and there are some I would skip in the museum environment.  We bought stuff from several sources including Flaghouse and S&S Sports.  At Staten we built a small bowling alley as well as a soccer kick space.  In Austin we built a magnetic Soduko, a version of concentration and, my favorite, an over-sized Mancalla.  

The best part about both these exhibits was the way each fostered real social interaction between kids and kids and, better yet, between kids and adults. 

Having done both of those I have built up a list of ideas and concepts for yet more games or ways to approach the topic. You should contact me off list if you are interested in hearing more.
--
Erich Rose
Exhibit, Environmental and Industrial Design
807 The Living End
Austin, TX 78746
512-626-9930; [log in to unmask]

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