For the Lathrop family, The Children's Museum isn't just a place—it's a launchpad for a lifetime of learning and discovery. Stephen and Alma Lathrop witnessed firsthand how early museum experiences—particularly in our Corteva Agriscience ScienceWorks exhibit—ignited a passion in their son, Ray, that would eventually lead him to a career in engineering. 

Kim Ferguson, a Leadership Gifts Officer at the museum, recently sat down with Alma and Ray to reminisce about those formative visits and the lasting impact they had.

Alma recalls seeking out experiences for Ray that would supplement his schooling, and The Children's Museum quickly became a key destination. Alma and Ray attended different live presentations, including one about a woman crossing the Antarctic and another about an Apollo mission. These captivated young Ray.


They also spent time exploring our exhibits.  “To this day,” Ray explained, "I remember a couple of the different exhibits very clearly.”  One such exhibit contained an interactive experience with different-sized gears.  

"You turn this crank and it makes something go really fast,” Ray explained. “And you feel that it's hard to get it up to speed. And then they have another one where you turn this crank and it's really easy. But the output gear is going really slow.” This simple, hands-on interaction had a profound effect. "I don't know how many times in my professional career I've thought about this idea: to make something go fast, it takes more effort. If you make it go slow it's easy but it goes slow.” He even connected this back to understanding how his bicycle gears worked. 

Other memorable interactive experiences included a seesaw that helped explain weight and leverage, an exercise bike hooked up to a generator, demonstrating the effort required to power a light bulb, and talk tubes that allowed children to talk with each other from different parts of the exhibit. Ray emphasized the importance of the interactive nature of Corteva Agriscience ScienceWorks: "It was one of the most interactive exhibits... this was the area inside of the museum where you could really touch, feel, move, and you understood why.”

Ray says that these tangible experiences were crucial. "In school, you'd read about these things—but you don't really actually get to feel them.” He continued, "If you can make people experience it... it's real. It's something that is actually tangible.” Reflecting again on the gear ratio experience, he mentioned that interactive was something he thought back to while working on his dissertation on the conservation of energy in bending systems at Vanderbilt University. 

Both Alma and Ray believe in the importance of hands-on learning for sparking curiosity. “A toddler understands hands-on,” she said. “It’s touching. It's feeling. It's dropping your glass of milk to see that it falls on the ground and doesn't go up." Ray added that allowing children to take things apart to see how they work is invaluable. 

For the Lathrop family, supporting The Children's Museum is a way to ensure these kinds of formative experiences continue to be available for new generations.  

Ray describes the museum as a place that offers a unique opportunity "to see how things actually operate.” He believes that for many children—especially those who may not have regular exposure to STEM-related opportunities—the museum provides a vital space where children not only learn science, they can experience it. 

Ray's story is a wonderful testament to the power of a single visit, a hands-on exhibit, and a spark of curiosity to shape a child's future. The Lathrop family’s journey underscores why The Children's Museum and other cultural institutions are so vital in nurturing the inventors, scientists, and engineers of tomorrow.