Kidzeum awarded nearly $150,000 grant for new STEAM center

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The Kidzeum of Health and Science in Springfield has been awarded nearly $150,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop plans for a new STEAM center.

The Kidzeum renovated street-level spaces next to its entrance in recent years thanks to a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Now, the Kidzeum is looking at the space above those new rooms to create its new STEAM center.

"We have 5000ft² that sits above those spaces, and that's very exciting," said Leah Wilson, executive director of the Kidzeum. "It's the old Cliff Hotel, and it's about 18 rooms."

Wilson said the former hotel rooms have been sitting empty since the building was closed in the 1960s. You can see boarded-up windows into the hotel from the Kidzeum space.

The museum now plans to update the second and third floors to create a STEAM education center, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

Before the Kidzeum applied for the grant, they had researchers visit the space and determine where there was potential for growth.

"We walked through what we already have and what we were dreaming of and together wrote a grant to the National Science Foundation," Wilson said. "And we were shocked, actually, that we got it. Because they're very competitive grants."

Wilson explained that the grant will support the planning of the STEAM Center. As part of the process, they are asking for the community to provide input into the future of the space.

"They're really decision-makers in the process," Wilson said. "And we are learning a lot of things about what they love about our community already, the assets that they identify, but also what's missing."

The museum plans to have an initial plan completed by next year. To learn more about the STEAM center and the planning process, you can visit the Kidzeum website.