Thinkery Children's Museum

Thinkery is Austin's premier children's museum, housed in a modern 40,000-square-foot facility in the Mueller development on the city's east side. Unlike traditional museums where kids are told not to touch anything, every exhibit at Thinkery is designed for hands-on interaction. The museum focuses on STEM concepts — science, technology, engineering, and math — but delivers them through play rather than lectures.

The standout feature is the outdoor water play area, a multi-level system of channels, pumps, dams, and water tables where kids engineer their own water flow. In Austin's heat, this is both educational and refreshing. Kids spend 30-60 minutes here easily, collaborating with strangers to build dams and redirect water. Bring a full change of clothes — they will be drenched.

Indoor exhibits rotate but staples include the light and shadow room (giant shadow play on illuminated walls), the Spark Shop (real tools and materials for building projects), and various physics-based installations with pulleys, gears, and simple machines. The Innovation Studio offers facilitated maker activities for older kids. The museum strikes a balance between free exploration and guided discovery.

For families with babies and toddlers, the Bloom area is a dedicated space for children under 3. It features soft play structures, sensory walls, a mini reading nook, and age-appropriate manipulatives — all in a calmer, enclosed environment away from the high-energy older-kid zones. This thoughtful design means you can bring a 1-year-old and a 7-year-old to the same museum and both have an appropriate experience.

The museum sits in the Mueller development, a walkable mixed-use neighborhood with restaurants, shops, and Mueller Lake Park directly across the street. Many families combine a Thinkery visit with lunch at one of the nearby restaurants and time at the park's splash pad and playground, making it a full-day outing without moving the car.