La Nube set to open Aug. 10: Sneak peek inside Downtown's latest museum

When La Nube, the El Paso children's museum and science center, opens Saturday, Aug. 10, kids will probably want to stay for hours in that cloud, with its playful look and exciting STEAM-focused exhibits.

The museum is designed to give visitors the idea of being in the skies, from the twinkling sphere lights that change colors and light blue hues on walls to cloud-inspired wall accents. It also features exposed structural areas to pique students' interests as future architects and engineers.

Organizers expect the museum to be a major attraction for visitors from the Borderland and other parts of the country. It will also be a destination for innovative ideas that attract professionals in the children's museum design field.

Stephanie Otero, vice president of operations at El Paso Community Foundation and interim director of La Nube, said La Nube will be unique and a source of inspiration in many ways. The museum will provide something for young children (even toddlers) in each area and also be inclusive and welcoming to different segments of the community in thought-out ways.

Otero gave the El Paso Times a behind-the-scenes tour of La Nube, which is 95% completed. The main feature, the four-story climber, is about 70% completed. The city is working on Main Street near the museum to make sure it's pedestrian-friendly in preparation for hundreds of children and families coming to the museum.

Here is what you need to know about La Nube.

How is La Nube cutting edge?

"There is nothing that was bought off the shop," Otero said. "Every inch of this museum was designed for El Paso, unique to El Paso. But that also means the designers nor the fabricators had built this before."

The museum will have many tapping stations where visitors can use radio-frequency identification (RF-ID) bands to record their data and photos from the zones. There are multiple technology band stations within each zone. The concept is similar to what is used in Disneyland for the Fast Pass, but it is being utilized in a different way.

"We are giving guests the opportunity to save their experience and revisit it later," she said. It will be a tool for providing engagement for future visits.

The museum's Climber will be the largest climber for its designer, Kubikmaltibie, and the largest project the company has worked on. The water zone will make the museum the first STEAM center that will have its own water recycling plant to show its efforts for water conservation. The system is patterned after the El Paso Water's desalination plant.

How is La Nube inclusive?

La Nube is designed for all ages, from kids and teens to adults, and has a special zone for toddlers. Parents can enjoy any of the zones with their kids. The building is ADA-compliant.

"One of our pillars is inclusion and access. And I always say that our goal is to be a beacon of inclusion and access and that is hard work," Otero said.

Otero said La Nube will have multiple consistent ways of being an inclusive museum. Signage will be in both English and Spanish and alternate, which is first to show an equal appreciation of bilingualism and promote dual language. Translations will also be cultural as opposed to literal to ensure they are culturally and scientifically accurate.

The 50-foot climber, also known as the Anything's Possible Climber, will feature a wheelchair challenge course on the top level so the kids can feel like they are at the top of the cloud. Visitors in wheelchairs will be able to enjoy the course, and wheelchairs will be available for able-bodied visitors to learn what it is like to use a wheelchair.

Parents also will have the option of climbing the feature or using the stairs.

The museum will have about 200 sensory backpacks available for check-out for children on the autism spectrum and those with sensory sensitivity. The backpacks will include noise-canceling headphones, sunglasses that dim the light, a weighted vest and a necklace they can chew on and keep.

"Basically, it's a toolkit for the family to take with them in case one of the children gets overwhelmed, they have that," Otero said.

The museum also will have some cocoons outside the music zone, allowing children who need to take a break to be enveloped in the cocoon and shut out the noise. They will still be able to see out, but they will have that break from sensory overload and be able to regroup.

There will be a base bed in the sound and music zone where kids who can't hear can relax and feel the sound waves through their bodies.

Instead of having turn-down days once a month, the museum will have turn-down moments throughout the week and provide those times on a weekly schedule.

Museum officials are also considering developing a topographical map or app that will help children with sight loss or who are blind choose experiences they want to visit.

As part of a private-public partnership between the city of El Paso and the El Paso Community Foundation, La Nube will also have an access program to ensure that everyone in the community can access the museum.

La Nube will have a general capacity of close to 1,500 visitors. The staff will use soft opening activities to understand the comfort level for optimum guest experience.

The museum will have nine themed zones on four floors.

"I think people are going to be genuinely excited and surprised when they come in here," Otero said.

What are the STEAM zones at La Nube?

La Nube, shaped like a cloud, will be 70,000 square feet and four stories. It will have nine zones, two terraces, a cafe and a gift shop. Visitors will be able to enter the gift shop and cafe without buying a ticket for the museum.

There will not be a set pathway. Children and their families will be able to start anywhere they like. Groups will have a separate entrance to make it easier for them to enter.

Anything's Possible Climber

Many science museums focus on science, technology and engineering but not so much math. By third grade, many children are expressing hate for math.

"We asked the designers how can the kids play with math that is fun and are they are going to get excited? What more fun can you get with math than to physically engage with these three-dimensional, geometric shapes?" Otero said. There will be Eye-Spy games and scavenger hunts to find the shapes.

The 50-foot climber, in the southwest corner, will be the museum's most defining feature and will be comprised of shapes like spheres, cubes, cylinders and a dodecahedron at the top.

The climber was designed by Gyroscope Inc. of Oakland, California and funded through a $5 million donation from the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation.

Big Sky

"In this zone, we really want kids to learn the science behind predicting the weather and how weather affects our cities, how we can harness the weather, how they used to navigate by the stars. Research vessels that go out to sea to take readings so they can predict hurricanes, typhoons — this is all about weather, renewable energy, and sustainable living," Otero said.

The zone will have a blue screen for kids to role play weather forecasting, a star chart where kids can create constellations from different cultures, with stretchable bands and pegs on a giant wall.

Another cool feature will be a sustainable city table, where kids can be architects and engineers, build city buildings with white Legos and then test how they would fare in a weather change such as an earthquake.

The early childhood area in this zone will be a ship-type play area where kids can become sea captains with cool costumes and a green screen that makes it look like they're going out to sea.

Desert Bloom

Desert Bloom, on the third floor, will be the dedicated zone for the youngest visitors, children under three, to roll, crawl and walk around safely. There is a desert and cactus mural created by Christin Apodaca and a tactile trail to encourage children to walk or climb and work on those gross motor skills.

There will be cocoons for parents and their babies to hear stories and music. The zone will include exposing babies to the Ling six sounds experience, the basic sounds that help children develop speech, whether in English or Spanish.

It will be the only shoes-off and age-restricted zone.

Follow Your Instincts

This experience is geared to younger children ages 4 to 7 and will feature a role-play station centered around animals.

"You will either become the animal — and we have puppetry and shadow play and live theater — or learn about the habitats, how animals move, sound and what they eat. We've got trees that they can create the habitats, caverns so they can learn about nocturnal animals. Or they can become the veterinarian who takes care of the animals," Otero said.

Museum organizers want children to get interested in possible careers through the various zones.

In their play as veterinarians, the kids will be able to get high-tech stuffed animals with chips so that if they put a bunny in the X-ray machine, the X-ray will be of a real rabbit.

Fly High Zone

Fly High explores the aerospace industry.

"This is all about space, space flight, air, how air moves through. This is the most cool, high-tech, paper airplane testing facility you will ever see," Otero said.

The facility has an air canon, which visitors can use to launch their paper airplanes and observe how updrafts and crosswinds affect their aircraft's travel.

"They will be able to control the launch angle. They can add air from fans, updrafts and downdrafts. They can add obstacles," Otero said.

The planes will fly over a topographical map of the scale of the Franklin Mountains. The end of the canon features a big star to represent the Star on the Mountain, which is the goal of the flying planes.

The zone will include air dancers which teaches about air pressure.

The zone on the third floor will reiterate the importance of trying something repeatedly and embracing failure to succeed.

Making Waves

The Making Waves zone is all about sound, sound frequency and music. "It's a series of pods where kiddos can engage," Otero said. "They can engage with echoes, instruments and found objects so they play all kinds of sounds."

There is a deconstructed marimba in the shape of a sun hanging from a wall. Kids can use a coding table and pucks (that light up) to program their music so that the marimba can play their composition. There is also a separate drum room area, a sound stage and a green screen for video recording and after-school programs, and another area for early childhood.

Puzzle It Cafe

Puzzle It Cafe will be an area where families can time out and take a break, especially if they have children with sensory issues. It will be set up like a cafe with stools along the curved countertop where kids can do creative problem-solving challenges.

Visitors can check out a puzzle kit and apply skills for thinking laterally, thinking together, and thinking outside the box. A wide range of difficulty levels and puzzle genres in English and Spanish will ensure something for all kinds of thinkers. Puzzle It will also serve as a place for gathering, reflecting, and recharging within La Nube.

Flow Zone

At the Flow Zone, where water play takes different forms, children will have fun getting wet and even getting dry.

"They took the science of how we interact with water in our everyday lives and blew it up," Otero said. This zone features a giant drain and components that show how toilets and showers work and how much water is used.

Kids will be able to wash a bus, a nod to the original Greyhound bus washing station that existed years ago on the same property and play with water in the drain basin. There will also be a kiddie station for little ones to play with spigots.

Challenge It

The Challenge It Zone, which has not been released before, will feature the work of FabLab, a local El Paso company.

The area is a make-it space where kids can design and make their wood derby cars and race them on a hilly track. The structure, which will race three cars at a time, will collect data that can be saved on the kids' RF-ID bracelets.

The showcase wall will feature innovative work by El Pasoans to promote local inventors. There will be a maker's space studio with 3-D printers and tables.

"We want kids learning about innovation in our own community. The average El Pasoan doesn't have any clue as to how much innovation happens here. We have it in our minds that you have to go to Silicon Valley or New York City to do big things.

"No, great things happen here. We have like the top prosthetics lab. They are making prosthetics for animals. ... We want kiddos to want to stay here, to leave their talents here. Maybe go away to college but then come back to contribute to their community," Otero said.

More: Inexpensive dining, plenty of parks and museums make El Paso best staycation, study says

María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150, [email protected] and @EPTMaria on Twitter, and eptmariacg on TikTok.

Win a membership, how to get membership

To celebrate the opening of La Nube, the museum is offering an exclusive giveaway — a year-long Family Membership. Interested parties should follow La Nube's Instagram and Facebook accounts (@lanube915), tag three friends in the comments, and express excitement about visiting La Nube. No purchase is necessary. The giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. The winner will be notified on May 13 and announced on La Nube's social media stories.

Annual memberships will be available to purchase in mid-May. Individual museum tickets will go on sale in July. Information: https://la-nube.org

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: La Nube children's museum opens Aug. 10 in Downtown El Paso