The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago (MSI) is launching its ninth annual Summer Brain Games program with new ways to provide access to science learning. Summer Brain Games invites kids and their families to discover and explore STEM (science, technology, engineering and medicine) through Chicago’s neighborhoods with hands-on activities in English and Spanish and free tickets to visit the Museum. Plus, new this year, MSI has created free, take-home science kits for families to pick up at select Chicago Public Library branches. 

Summer Brain Games 

This year’s Summer Brain Games activities allow kids and their families to use common household items to understand the city using STEM concepts, including: 

• Engineering with Skyscrapers: Be an architect and engineer your own skyscraper! Some planning and experimentation will get you on your way to constructing buildings that can withstand all sorts of conditions. 

• Understanding Scale with Mapmaking: Choose your space, survey, plan and scale your own map, and discover how cartographers, geographers and city planners decide where to build. 

Summer Brain Games is a free program for families. Those who register online at msichicago.org/summerbrain will receive a free family four-pack of Museum Entry tickets (one voucher per household).

Science Kits at Chicago Public Libraries 

The Summer Brain Games Science Kits are available in 23 library locations with three activities inside. Each kit contains instructions and materials to complete each activity – no purchase necessary. Inside each kit, the activities include: 

• Who Did You Eat: Explore biology with owl pellet dissection, and use gloves and dissecting tools to separate the bones of the animals in the pellet from the fur and feathers. 

• Garden in a Glove: Grow your own plants and watch your seeds sprout in about one week from planting. 

• Buzz Buzz: Make sound vibration with a bee hummer and discover how sound energy is produced by the vibrations of a rubber band and an index card. 

For more information, visit msichicago.org or call (773) 684-1414.