Building Buddies at The Flint Hills Discovery Center

GRAB YOUR HARD HAT AND PUT ON YOUR SAFETY VEST!

Plan, renovate, decorate, paint, tile, build, and more at the Flint Hills Discovery Center’s new temporary exhibition, Building Buddies, opening on Saturday, September 20. The Building Buddies exhibition portrays a small community where everyone is busy working on their homes. Different characters, “buddies”, invite young children to play, explore, collaborate, create, and learn while improving the neighborhood.

Grab a helmet and a safety vest to wear throughout the exhibition before you:

“Building Buddies is more than just play—it’s hands-on problem-solving, teamwork, and creativity in action”, says Sally Dreher, Curator of Education. “Every paint stroke and block stack introduces kids to the core ideas of STEAM, helping them see how science, technology, engineering, art, and math are all around them. It’s a fun and powerful way to spark curiosity and confidence in the next generation of creators”.

Building Buddies provides an immersive discovery environment that encourages the development of science and process skills at an early age and provides development skills and learning opportunities including large and fine motor skills, imagination and pretend play, logical thinking, and social interaction.

Building Buddies is on display through January 4, 2026. Regular admission rates apply.

Building Buddies was developed by Loodo Exhibits, and touring in partnership with Sciencenter.

Thank you to our sponsors McCownGordon Construction; Tim and Angie Schultz; The Flint Hills Discovery Center Foundation; Visit Manhattan; Hamm Foundation; Economy Electric; Bayer Construction and Larson Construction, Inc.; Thermal Comfort Air; BBN Architects, Inc.; and Orazem & Scalora Engineering, P.A.

Learn more at www.flinthillsdiscovery.org/buildingbuddies