(dynamic instrumental music) (car engine revving) (dynamic instrumental music) (car engine revving) (dynamic instrumental music) (typing effect) (mouse clicking effect) (bright instrumental music) - Imagination Station is Toledo's Science Center.

This is a place where families can come and they can have fun, and they can learn at the same time.

(bright instrumental music) A lot of times when you think of STEM education or even STEAM education, you think science, you think math, and you're like, "Ugh, how can that possibly be fun?"

But we take it up a notch.

We take it to that next level where you're in here, you're working with your hands, you're creating things, and you're also learning things at the same time.

(bright instrumental music) We have hundreds of exhibits here in the building, and they run the gamut from learning about how your food turns into energy, learning about how water powers things.

(bright instrumental music) We have IDEA Lab, which you can just go, you can get hands on, and you can build something that's specific to you, something that's coming from your own imagination.

You could go into our Tinkering Space, you could make your own guitar, you could make your own set of drums.

So it's kind of tying everything back to that idea that science is really everywhere.

And the same goes for sports.

We hosted a summer of speed here several years ago, and it was all about how fast a baseball travels, the type of spin you need on a football to make it get from point A to point B.

It's finding those little ways to show that it's happening all around us, and let people use their hands to experience it themselves.

We do a number of extreme science demonstrations, as we like to call them, and they take place in our Extreme Science Theater.

We do two a day, and that's really a great opportunity for people to see science at work, so they can see chemical reactions, they can hear the sound and then learn about why you're hearing it that way and how those sound waves travel.

So we work really hard to come up with different ways to show science at work, because I think a lot of people, to be able to see it, to be able to touch it, it helps them to understand how it's all working.

All ages are encouraged to come here to Imagination Station.

We're really good at engaging the younger crowd, so when we have the little kids in here, they're always running around, they're having fun.

We have thousands of students that are coming through our doors every single year, and they are having those moments of, "I love this, this is something I could see myself doing."

Whether they're playing with something, they're learning about electricity, it's those moments that then carry them through to making a difference in our community.

(playful instrumental music) Creativity is key in science, because you have to have that mind that's always trying to think of how you can make something better.

And that's really what we hone in on in our Tinkering Space and in our IDEA Lab, we want kids and families to be thinking about how they can make changes to something to make it different, to make it serve another purpose, to do something in our community.

One of the things that we really challenge them to think about, it's when we have them sitting down and they're coding a robot.

Like, "Well, why are you coding this robot?

What do you want it to accomplish?

How is this robot and what you're doing going to make a difference in your community?"

And it sort of gets them thinking about how they can look at things differently, how they can use things differently.

(playful instrumental music) Oftentimes, Imagination Station is the very first place that kids are experiencing STEM education in this way.

And a lot of times it's in those moments where they have that aha moment, that "I didn't know that I could do this moment" that carries them through the rest of their lives.

It's that small spark that will then cause them to follow these dreams in high school, and to further it in college, and then eventually be working in our community doing something amazing.

(bright instrumental music) We're really good at engaging that younger crowd, but we're trying to branch out.

We want people to experience the science center in a number of different ways.

One of the things that we try really hard to do here is to get the adults excited about what we have going on, because science is all around us.

It's in the kitchen when you're making dinner, it's the engine of your car when you're driving to and from work, to show them that you can continue to learn no matter how old you are.

And I think a lot of times you hear, maybe parents are coming without their kids for the first time in 20 years, let's say.

And they're like, "I didn't know this was here.

I forgot about this."

And you get excited watching them sort of remember all of these things, like, "Oh yeah, I forgot this was how it works."

Or, "Oh, I love this when I was a kid."

(bright instrumental music) We have a lot of really popular exhibits here at the science center.

The most iconic is our highwire cycle.

Gives people that thrill.

You get your adrenaline pumping when you get on that bike and you start to pedal backwards, and you realize, "There's nothing holding me up but this small wire."

But what's really great about that is that you're learning at the same time, you're trying to figure out how that weight is keeping you from tipping from one side to the other.

(bright instrumental music) Mind Zone is a learning world that we have here that has been original to the science center, it's one of our most popular.

(relaxed instrumental music) You'll find the Distorted Gravity Room in that learning world, which is one that I think kids stay in for very long periods of time.

That learning world specifically talks a lot about optical illusions, kind of how our brain perceives things, even though our eyes are seeing something different.

(relaxed instrumental music) We're really excited, because just over the last two years, we've been able to really show off our brand new KeyBank Discovery Theater.

You can't really get an idea of its size from the outside.

It's once you're in there, you really see how immersive this area is for the science center.

Every single day, we're showing two different educational films, but those films are in 3D.

And they're taking you to space, they're taking you to the ocean, they're taking you to the forest floor, and they're teaching you all about the different things that you're able to find in those areas.

(relaxed instrumental music) It's critically important to have a science center here in this community.

This building has actually been a science center right here on the riverfront for the last 25 years.

We were fortunate to be a part of a downtown that is seeing amazing growth, to be part of a downtown that is doing new and exciting things.

(relaxed instrumental music) One hand, we are an economic driver for our community.

We're bringing in people from Detroit from Hancock County, from Williams County, from all over our area, and they're coming and they're spending money here.

But also just to be a part of a thriving area of Toledo.

I think we've seen the best and the worst of times, and to be here, to be on this upswing, we're humbled by it.

We're very grateful for all of the support that we get, not only from our guests, from our visitors, but also our surrounding companies.

They're behind us, they're behind what we're doing, and we support them, and it's great to be a part of this community.

(relaxed instrumental music) - [Heather] Aidan is one of a kind, he's world renowned.

He's been commissioned by popes, by several US presidents.

And I just think that people need to kind of honor what he has dedicated his life to.

(pensive instrumental music) (typing effect) (mouse clicking effect) (pensive instrumental music) - I'm from Cork, okay, in Ireland.

And Thomas Hawkes is from Cork.

A hundred years ago, he came over to the United States, and made this Hawkes Crystal world renowned.

(pensive instrumental music) And it then it lay dormant for about 50 or 60 years.

And it came into my hands, and I said, "I have to revive this.

I have to take this and run with it, and doing the best I can to show that man the respect that he deserves."

- Aidan is one of a kind, he's world renowned.

He's been commissioned by popes, by several US presidents.

And I just think that people need to kind of honor what he has dedicated his life to in this trade.

- So Aidan is an individual who has had lots, years and years of experience.

And it's not just in the brilliant cutting, it's in the intaglio cutting, it's in faceting, it's in polishing.

- I got an opportunity to come to Tiffin in 2000 by a company called Crystal Traditions, which was owned by two fantastic ladies.

I cut a few pieces for 'em, and they said, "Please, please come on up and join us.

You have artistic freedom.

Do whatever you wanna do.

Just do the beautiful stuff that you're doing in Cleveland, do it here and we can go places."

So I did, I came, I left the job in Cleveland.

And I came here in 2000, and I've been here ever since.

(glass cutting machine grinding glass) - When I think of Aidan's talent and ability, I think of it analogous to a top level athlete, like a LeBron James or a Michael Jordan type person, like a Serena Williams in the tennis world.

He's been challenged to do things that most people in his craft can't do, and he's done 'em and he's been successful with them.

- [Aaron] So Aidan apprenticed under a brilliant cutter from Waterford.

And so it's really interesting that he has obtained the same kind of skills that he's now passing down to me.

- I was taught by one of the great master cutters that ever came outta Waterford Crystal.

And he taught me, and as he said, "You need to pass on the gift that's been given to you."

He said, "You need to pass it on."

(transcendental instrumental music) - I think it's great to keep a lot of these old art forms alive.

'Cause once they're gone, they're gone.

You really need to have an appreciation for what it took to get there, and then to have that skill to pass it on.

- Hawkes Crystal finds it extremely important to pass the brilliant cutting style down to Aaron because it's a dying art.

There are not many people who do it by hand anymore, a lot of the stuff is kind of made in a factory or manufactured, whereas they do everything by hand, it's locally made and it's very, very unique.

So there are not many people that do it.

In fact right now, Aidan is one of, I think two or three people in the United States that's risen to the level of mastery in his craft.

So somebody like that, it's important to hand those skills and talents down to.

- I haven't learned much of the fastening, but that is something that as the years go by, certain things pique your interest, and Aidan is willing to provide that information and show me those skills when I'm ready.

And that's kind of how we go about the apprenticeship.

- Aidan and Aaron have a great working relationship.

Just in terms of respect, and trust, and stuff like that, they have a great working relationship.

Aaron, I think is in his third or fourth year of his apprenticeship, and highly regards the work that he's doing, has respect for the work that he's doing.

And alternatively, Aidan really appreciates having an apprentice and having someone to teach the trade to.

- He works hard, he does what he's told, he's honest.

And the qualities that I like in a person.

- I'll regularly ask him, "Hey, does this look nice?"

He'll come in and say, "Hey, does this look too big or too small?"

And then together we figure out and delegate who can kind of make the piece look the best using their skillset.

- The machines that I work with are anywhere from 60, to 70, to 80 years old, I love 'em.

I can use a diamond on it, and I can use the aluminum oxide wheels, which are stone wheels.

Your modern machines today, you can either either use a diamond, and then you have to go to a machine that where you can only use stone.

But these machines, I've converted them to diamond and stone, so I love 'em.

I love the speed controls, so it varies from slow to very fast, from about 200 revs a minute to about 6,000 revs per minute.

Depending on what type of cut you're putting on the glass will determine how fast you want it to go.

(bright instrumental music) - Brilliant cutting is the cutting of deep geometrical patterns in crystal.

Light wheel engraving is a little bit different.

You're using wheels that have softer angles.

That focuses more on pictorial kind of art.

The light wheel engraving, we're gonna be using more wheels and switching them out on and off.

Whereas brilliant cutting, a lot of times you're gonna stick with that same wheel, and have that nice angle all the way through because they're more geometrical designs.

- The brilliant cut is done with a totally different wheel than your normal European cut.

The European cut is done on 120 degree.

The brilliant cut is done on a 70 degree.

70 degree, what it does it traps light, whereas your 120 degree reflects light.

- The wheels are sort of like your pencil.

An artist has a paint brush or a pencil, and these stone wheels are like our pencils.

Each wheel has a different style of cut, a different shape, and sometimes even a slightly different color to it.

- And when you get a wheel, you hang under that wheel until there's nothing left, because it's a beautiful wheel and it cuts the glass perfect, the way you want it.

- So here at Hawkes Crystal, we polish by hand.

And the difference between that is you get a lot better of a shine to your crystal.

Especially when it comes to the brilliant cut styles, you have deeper cuts, and we're able to meticulously go over each of those cuts by hand.

Whereas an acid system sometimes washes out those cuts, and makes them not quite as sharp as they could be.

(bright instrumental music) - Well, I don't make any of this stuff here at Hawkes Crystal I'm very proud to be a part of the work that they do.

This is a hidden gem that people can take advantage of.

- We're one of very few that still cuts the way we do here.

People really enjoy seeing the artwork come to life.

- And that's the beauty of our store, because you can go down and you can see all different types of styles of cutting, and shapes.

And it is just amazing the stuff that we create, me and Aaron.

(bright instrumental music) - We are the most comprehensive bicycle museum in America.

We show the chronological order of the bicycle.

You're not gonna see bicycles like this anywhere else in the world, especially in this kind of condition.

(cheerful instrumental music) (typing effect) (mouse clicking effect) (smooth guitar music) The origin behind the Bicycle Museum of America is, in 1993, Schwinn went out of business.

And then in '97, they sold off the Schwinn family collection.

(guitar instrumental music) A local collector bought basically the entire collection.

It was about 167 bikes, and a lot of paper documents, and archives and that kind of thing, and brought it here as like a local attraction, and we've grown significantly since then.

(guitar instrumental music) The evolution of the bicycle kind of came from necessity.

People needed a way to get around, so a man named Karl von Drais, he invented the draisienne.

It was the predecessor to the bicycle that we know today.

They were very large, very bulky, very slow.

The problem with bulky and slow bicycles is you fell off of them 'cause you can't get any kind of speed.

So that's why we invented the high wheel bicycle, it was basically for speed and balance.

The problem with the high wheel bicycle is they're incredibly dangerous.

So that is what drove John Starley to create the safety bicycle.

Essentially a bicycle with two same size wheels low to the ground so you can't hurt yourself if you fall off of them.

And then we've had various other kinds of inventions at the time, innovations trying to make the ride more comfortable through suspension, through new tires, that kind of thing.

But essentially, the safety bicycle and the diamond frame came in the 1890s, and we haven't really changed since.

Obviously the materials that we use have changed, but the diamond frame that we know from the 1890s is what we still ride today.

So in total, we have about 180 bicycles on display.

In the whole collection, we have a little under 800.

We have a few offsite and some in storage facilities.

The collection has grown through a lot of different avenues.

We still participate in bicycle auctions every year, and we get generous donations from patrons.

(cheerful instrumental music) What makes a bicycle important for the museum is the narratives that we can talk about, if it fills any kind of gaps in the collection.

Really we're taking in bicycles that we can talk about, and it makes sense within the context of the museum, and the chronological order of the history of the bicycle.

So my favorite bicycle in the collection, kind of hard to pin down, but we have Ignaz Schwinn, he was the founder of the Schwinn company.

We have his family bicycle, it's a tandem bicycle that was made for him, and his wife, and his son.

It has a child carrier on it for Frank Schwinn.

We have that in the collection, but I would say probably the most popular bicycle is we have one of Peewee Herman's bicycles from the movie.

It's one of, I believe, eight left in the world.

So we have one of those on display upstairs.

(cheerful instrumental music) So what separates the Bicycle Museum of America from other museums, in my opinion, is we have things arranged chronologically so you can kind of work your way through time.

We have everything set up in a very comprehensive way.

There's information on each one of the bicycles so you know what you're looking at.

(cheerful instrumental music) So I think that the bicycle is important just to display how important it was to people through the 19th and the 20th century.

It became kind of a utilitarian tool for a lot of different kinds of people.

And it brings back a lot of memories for people that rode Schwinns in the '50s and the '60s, they come here and they like to see the bicycle that they rode.

I think it's important to preserve those kinds of memories for folks.

The bicycle has been a very important tool throughout human history, and I think that that's important for anybody to see.

I think it's important for people to know the evolution of the bicycle and how it came to be what we know today.

We're located in New Bremen, Ohio.

It's a few minutes drive off of I-75.

We are the most comprehensive bicycle museum in America.

We show the chronological order of the bicycle.

You're not gonna see bicycles like this anywhere else in the world, especially in this kind of condition.

(cheerful instrumental music fades) - Well, Mike had always had the dream of owning his own brewery.

We wanted to give life back to Fostoria, and be a community oriented business.

(pensive instrumental music) (typing effect) (mouse clicking effect) (pensive instrumental music) - I'm Michael Aurand, I'm the owner of the UrbanyWoody Brewery Honeybee Winery.

I'm the head brewer here, and we're right here in Fostoria, Ohio.

- I'm Tiffani Aurand.

My role here at the UrbanyWoody Brewery and the Honeybee Winery is co-owner with my husband, and operator, and I also handle all the marketing and events for the brewery and the winery.

- So this all started probably 20 years ago, with me home brewing.

I always wanted to have a brewery, I always wanted to start one.

I was stationed out in Minnesota in the army, went to brewery school out there.

Interned at different places, and I told my wife, I say, Hey, let's start working on getting the brewery started out."

So many people when we were starting this say, "Why would you do a brewery in Fostoria?"

And my same answer to everybody, because we live here.

- When we got here, it was just like we belonged.

We appreciated everything that Fostoria had to offer, but we knew that there could be more.

We wanted to give life back to Fostoria, and be a community oriented business for Fostoria.

(pensive instrumental music) The atmosphere here would be described as very welcoming.

Several people have also referred to it like the local Cheers.

We welcome anybody and everybody, we're very family oriented.

There are not very many businesses that are women owned, family owned and operated, as well as veteran owned.

I think it's a draw for people to see that listed and to wanna come and check it out.

- [Michael] When customers walk in, their first impression would be they love the atmosphere of it.

They love the atmosphere of the building, and the brick, and the stainless steel that's back there.

And I wanted something that was gonna be unique, so that's why we chose this building.

- [Tiffani] The building that we are located in is called the Foster Block.

- [Michael] Built in 1882, by Charles Foster, the 35th governor of Ohio.

I'm into history, so it's huge that this building that we're in, he walked in these rooms.

We tried to bring everything back to that era.

We tried to bring the brick back, we tried to leave the windows, that same style.

It's similar to what it would've been in that era or timeframe.

(pensive instrumental music) (slow guitar music) Basically, we wanna call our beer Ohio beer.

And it's probably 98% all Ohio.

Our hops are local, our grains local, and we make everything here.

Everything that we do is a style of beer, but we have our own tweaks to 'em.

- [Tiffani] Probably our most popular one that we have is called What the Helles Going On?

- [Michael] It's a lager, so it's more of a style of beer that people are more used to.

- And then, I think our second most popular one would be Hop Along, and that is a session IPA.

And my husband loves IPAs, so we always have an IPA on tap.

- [Michael] And then you go from that, right straight over to a stout, which we have an oatmeal stout that everybody loves.

(cheerful instrumental music) - [Tiffani] So when we first came up with the brewery, it was always our plan to incorporate a winery.

A friend of ours who is very influential in Seneca County reached out to us to inform us that we were definitely the first winery in Seneca County.

- So we had one wine.

My wife was like, "Hey, you're gonna name one for me, right?"

And so I call her Dimples, So one of our wine is called Dimples.

She likes sweet wine, so it's a sweet rose wine.

(cheerful instrumental music) Rome and Risdon were two parts of the town that became one, and they made it into Fostoria.

But we wanted to use those for the wine names just to bring a little bit of Fostoria history into the wines.

1882 is the year that the building was built, so we wanted to name one of the wines after that.

(relaxed instrumental music) - [Tiffani] It's great to be here, and see families come in from out of town.

They congregate here.

It really gives you a warm feeling to see that.

We had several class reunions here this past summer that they would meet up here.

And they haven't been home for 20 years, and couldn't believe that there was a brewery in their hometown.

So it was nice to see that expressed by other people.

And they just run into anybody and everybody that they could imagine here that they haven't seen for a very long time.

(cheerful instrumental music) (groovy instrumental music) - Want to see your favorite local story featured on our show?

Head to our website at wbgu.org/scenicstops Find the blue button, and let us know where we should go next.

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