Celebrate the Cade’s 4th birthday with cupcakes, the 2022 Codebotics Competition, and the premiere of Animationland
Look who’s having a birthday, and you’re invited! The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention turns four this month. The Cade, as per tradition, has planned special events to celebrate the milestone of 48 months from the date the first visitors entered the museum.
To commemorate the occasion, cupcakes will be served to museum goers on the Cade’s porch on Saturday, May 21 at 1:30 p.m. (until supplies last).
Since opening four years ago, the Cade Museum has continually extended its outreach, “inventing possible” for curious minds of all ages throughout the greater Gainesville community and beyond.
One of the Cade’s newest programs, introduced this spring, is Codebotics. Children in grades 3-6 learn the basics of coding using Dash robots by the Wonder Workshop. They have been building their skills since January, learning how to use code to command their robots.
On Saturday, after the Cade’s birthday party on the porch, the 2022 Codebotics Competition will challenge the junior programmers to work in teams on solving puzzles and navigating their robots through obstacle courses, all accomplished through their beginners’ command of computer algorithms.
Both educational and fun, the Codebotics Club teaches students to solve problems, overcome obstacles, and implement solutions to problems using coding and robotics. For example, the students will have to create codes to navigate Dash around different obstacles or set lights/sounds to indicate solutions for the challenge.
General museum visitors will be able to watch the competition and cheer the students on starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 21.
The Cade Museum’s fourth Birthday weekend is also the public premier of the eagerly anticipated exhibition Animationland, coming to the Cade all the way from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The colorful and multisensory exhibition draws visitors in with a sketching studio, sound effects booth and stop-motion animation studio to understand firsthand the creative and production processes that make cartoons and other animations come to life.
“The activities we have planned for the Cade’s Birthday weekend—from the Codebotics competition to the premier of Animationland—represent what the Cade brings to our community,” says CEO Stephanie Bailes. “We inspire future inventors, entrepreneurs and visionaries. We are transforming our community by helping children prepare for a future full of challenges we can’t yet begin to imagine. The world is changing so fast we may not know what jobs will look like in 20 years, but we do know that these young innovators will need coding skills, teamwork, imagination, and creativity to succeed.”
The Cade Museum is named for Dr. Bob Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, who was a tireless educator, doctor, researcher, poet and musician, whose pioneering spirit and zest for life inspires the Cade Museum’s innovative programming.
“As the Cade grows with each year, the museum’s outreach extends to more families, surprising and delighting visitors with creative, outside-the-box programming that entertains and inspires guests of all ages,” added Bailes. “We’re sure Bob Cade would smile with pride in view of all we’ve accomplished the past four years.”
About the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention
The mission of the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida, is to transform communities by inspiring and equipping future inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. Named after Mary Cade and her husband, Dr. James Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, the project has been spearheaded by their daughter, Phoebe Cade Miles, and her husband, Richard Miles, since 2006. They encourage the development of innovation ecosystems through the Cade Prize for Innovation, the Cade’s proprietary Innovation Education learning framework, and the 2018 opening of a 21,000 sq. ft. hands-on learning museum designed to promote the development of an inventive mindset which the Cade calls Inventivity™. The Cade believes every person should have access to the right to invent and innovate inherent in the DNA of the United States and works diligently in outreach efforts to bring this understanding to all, with an emphasis on the underserved. To learn more about the Cade Museum visit cademuseum.org.