Griffin Discovery Room
A hands-on activity center for children
Monticello visitors—especially those ages 6 to 12—can literally get in touch with American history in the Griffin Discovery Room through hands-on activities.
This educational environment provides a variety of ways for young people to connect with Thomas Jefferson, the members of the larger Monticello community, and learn what life was like for children in the early 1800s.
The space features reproduction elements from both the Monticello house, such as Jefferson's alcove bed and Houdon's bust of Jefferson, and the plantation, including the nail-making shop and a slave dwelling.
Children and their family members can write on a polygraph machine based on the one Jefferson owned, try on replicas of 18th-century clothes, learn how to weave, touch a mastodon's jawbone, create secret codes on a wheel cipher based on Jefferson's design, play games popular in Jefferson's era, and engage in other self-directed activities.
Located on the lower level of the Smith Education Center, the Griffin Discovery Room is open daily.
Discussion
In our Griffin Discovery Room, a hands-on-museum, esp for kids, but frankly adults love it too, there are computers for budding architects to use. One of the programs offers choices of building materials, styles of windows, domes, columns, pediments, balustrades, etc to design a house. All with witty comments by a cartooned Jefferson. It is so fun and you can e-mail your designed house to a friend. Guess what? You can do this from your own home on our website, but do come visit the Griffin Discovery Room! There is so much more for you to explore.
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A great way to get the kids interested and capture the attention of adults too.