Educational and Interactive Miniature Golf Course for Worcester Historical Museum

We are a group of students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute who are working to design a historically-themed, portable miniature golf course as an interactive family exhibit for Worcester Historical Museum. Worcester Historical Museum (WHM), established in 1875, is the sole organization that collects, preserves, and interprets pieces of the city of Worcester’s vast history. Samuel E. Staples, the man who started the museum, “…proposed to form a Society for the purpose of increasing an interest in Archaeological Science, and to rescue from oblivion such historical matter as would otherwise be lost…”The museum has been striving to update its exhibits in order to be both more family-friendly and more child-friendly. Our project will be one of the museum’s newest exhibits, and the hope is that this exhibit will be relateable and educational enough to be enjoyed by entire families who visit the museum.

We must complete five objectives in order to achieve our goal of designing a family-friendly, educational miniature golf course for the WHM. Our first objective for our project is to determine the learning outcomes for the course. Second, we must develop themes for each hole in the course that we are designing. Third, we will establish design criteria, taking into account possible miniature golf course regulations as well as materials needed to create the course. Fourth, we must establish the components for hole design that will appeal to our target audience. Finally, we will compile all the information gathered and propose a completed design for the miniature golf course.

The students in this group are Christina Aiello, Kurtis Banville, Stone Cleven, and Eric Corriveau. Christina Aiello is currently a junior and is majoring in Computer Science. Kurtis Banville is a junior at WPI majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in aeronautics. Stone Cleven is currently majoring in Interactive Media and Game Design’s artistic track and his fortes are digital painting and concept design. Eric Corriveau is a junior at WPI that is studying both Robotics and Mechanical Engineering.