Explore Dairy Innovation: Interactive Exhibit at Explore & More

The Project

Working Studio, Inc. was approached by Explore & More – The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Children’s Museum to design and fabricate a fully immersive, interactive dairy exhibit exploring how milk travels from the farm to your table. Sponsored by UNC Dairy and Milk for Health—two organizations committed to advancing and educating the dairy industry in upstate New York—the exhibit blends storytelling, mechanical systems, and digital technology to create an engaging, hands-on learning environment for visitors of all ages.

Working Studio led the exhibit’s concept development, interaction design, and full fabrication, translating complex agricultural processes into intuitive, play-driven experiences. The exhibit suite was engineered to balance durability, accessibility, and visual appeal while incorporating custom-fabricated components and integrated technology that invite curiosity and experimentation.

Upon entering the exhibit, guests race against an Automated Milking System (AMS), directly comparing human effort with modern dairy technology. This interactive station demystifies automation in agriculture, allowing visitors to understand how precision engineering and robotics have transformed efficiency and animal care on today’s dairy farms.

From there, visitors physically transfer “milk” through the production pipeline—moving it from the farm to a Tanker Truck and onward to the bottling system. These tactile interactions were designed and fabricated to clearly illustrate each stage of the process while reinforcing cause-and-effect learning through motion, sound, and feedback.

As guests activate the conveyor belt, the Cap Pyramid becomes a kinetic focal point of the exhibit. This custom-built, automated mechanism performs a vertical climb of caps that captivates audiences while visually reinforcing the final step of packaging. The combination of mechanical movement, sequencing, and repetition highlights the role of automation in modern food production and brings the bottling process to life.

Through thoughtful integration of fabricated elements, interactive technology, and layered educational content, Working Studio delivered an exhibit that transforms a familiar everyday product into an engaging exploration of design, engineering, and agricultural innovation.