Teens invited to digital gaming event at Museum of Life and Science

The Museum of Life and Science hopes to reach out to teens with a special event this Friday evening.

"This is our first-ever teen event that we've developed that is specifically for the teen audience," said Nancy Dragotta-Muhl, the museum's coordinator of community events and educational resources. "We'd like to explore doing additional ones and basing them on different themes."

The Museum of Life and Science is one of the top family destination in the Triangle with indoor and outdoor exhibits, along with wildly popular annual events. The museum has had success reaching out to the over-21 crowd too with after-hours museum events and talks.

Museum leaders hope to reach out to parents of teens to let them know this an option for them too.

"What we hear a lot from families is that was a great place when my son was 5 or my son was 6," Dragotta-Muhl said. "This is our way of reaching out to this crowd."

"Since there is such a great push for STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] education  for schools, we think this event is going to be a really great way to reach out for teens to say that the museum is still a great place for them to come to and that this night is all about them and strictly for them."

The event is for teens 13 to 18. Registration is not required, but requested. It's $5 for museum members and $10 for the general public. That fee includes a dinner of pizza, snacks and water. Concessions also will be for sale.

The museum has touched on digital gaming in a couple of its other events. Dragotta-Muhl said that they've found that local companies who have helped out with those events are really interested in reaching out to teens who play their games, but also teens who might be interested in sharing ideas and testing, she said.

"The participants will actually be engaging with these youth on a really informal basis," she said.

Knowing that teens will be bringing their own devices to play, Time Warner Cable is expanding the museum's band width for the evening to handle all of the activity. Teens from the BOOST and HYPE programs, as well as Parkwood United Methodist Church, are volunteering at the event and will help provide feedback once it's all over.