Reusable Resources Adventure Center Aims for Hands-On Childrens Museum
The Reusable Resources Adventure Center opened in 1991 with the goal of providing hands-on education workshops for both parents and teachers in our community. Their events emphasize the role that creative play and STEM construction experiences have in learning and connection.
The Resource Center was once housed in what is now the West Melbourne School of Science, where rooms were filled with recycled materials, waiting for children to turn trash into treasure. Today, it is a mobile unit, traveling up and down the Space Coast, putting on play workshops at local libraries.
At these workshops co-hosted by the Kiwanis Club of Melbourne, parents or guardians and children unleash their creativity — using materials like foam blocks, bottle caps, or cardboard tubes — to discover and learn together. Engaging in this type of play promotes creativity, language development and literacy skills.
“The parents and the children play together, then they talk about their experience, and then they make books together,” said Dr. Walter Drew, director of the Reusable Resources Adventure Center. “It’s all using open-ended, reusable, resources donated by our local businesses.”
Digna Yarborough, a homeschooling mom of a fourth-grader, said reusing materials from the Resource Center helps kids make valuable connections to their curriculum.
“For us, it’s really cool because it opens up a discussion about reducing, reusing, recycling,” Yarborough said. “In our house, recycling is a big thing, and so being able to go and literally reuse cardboard, or bottles, or bottlecaps to make something new and practice that idea is really cool.”
What’s Next?
The Reusable Resources Adventure Center and The Kiwanis Club of Melbourne are leading a community-wide initiative to build the first ever hands-on children’s museum right here in Brevard County. The Space Coast Children’s Museum will be filled with interactive STEM-based (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) experiences designed to spark curiosity and creativity in children of all ages.
“We launch from the shoulders of giants and take future generations with us,” said Dr. Jaya Prakash, vice president of the Kiwanis Club of Melbourne and director of the Space Coast Children’s Museum. “The museum is being designed to have hands-on, joyful, playful activities that make STEM relevant to everyone’s experience.”
The location for the museum is still to be determined. With the help of community partnerships and a dedicated team, Prakash is hopeful the museum will be open in two to three years. The community can help by offering financial support, volunteering, or simply spreading the word!
“Hands-on science for young children looks a lot like play,” Drew said. “Our local tech companies need workers who were inspired as young children to explore, ask questions, and think outside the box.”
Learn More
Reusable Resources Adventure Center: isaeplay.org/play-materials/reusable-resources-adventure-center/
Kiwanis Club of Melbourne /k01301.site.kiwanis.org/lets-play-workshops/
Play Event
Reusable Resources Adventure Center will be at the Melbourne Art Festival, Kids’ World
April 27-28, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
They will have marble runs, big foam blocks, small wood blocks, fabric, paint, ribbon, beads, plus materials in multiple sizes for children to play with.
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