Early in 1998, after two lengthy meetings, several telephone discussions, and extensive data review, the Kennedy design team was ready to develop a first draft of a facility layout. At the first full committee meeting, held February 17, 1998, the Kennedy design team presented their Concept Plan Report. The Concept Plan Report was the first work product submitted in the process of exhibit design for Healthy Living Land. The purpose of the Concept Plan was to provide a solid foundation upon which subsequent phases of work will be built. This report laid the groundwork for design decisions to be made in the months ahead.

According to Jeff Kennedy Associates, "Conceptual Planning is not a phase in which decisions need to be made about the inclusion or exclusion of individual exhibit components or where every included component should be located. These important decisions are more appropriately made after agreement has been reached about the direction set forth in the Concept Plan." A separate document, Exhibit Components Under Consideration, was submitted along with the Plan to give readers a feeling for the kinds of activities and experiences being discussed for each exhibit area.

Jeff Kennedy and Greg Sprick provided insights, based on past research, into the value of possible exhibits. The proposal also moved that this was the stage at which the overarching theme for Healthy Living Land needed to be established. This decision would allow for the creation of all the elements of this new learning environment, from entryway to classroom to exhibit floor, with a single coherent theme. In this way, the facility would maximize the impact of its message. Memorial made the decision to move forward with "Choices and Consequences", stressing to children that the choices that they make today impact their health tomorrow.

In late February Diane Stover, Project Coordinator, made contact with Dana Blackwell of Kidfacts Research. Kidfacts Research researches the attitudes and opinions of children, youth, teens and their parents on a variety of subjects. In this case, Memorial sought their expertise for the purpose of refining a "kid-friendly" name for the museum and potentially gathering reaction on potential exhibits. In early March 1998, a list of approximately 30 names was forwarded to Kidfacts so they could begin their planning and approach. By mid-March Kidfacts returned a proposal that included four separate focus groups encompassing male and female 3rd through 6th graders. These groups were convened in late April and included some thirty children. The naming process was a lengthy process involving legal, promotional and community concerns. In the end, Memorial would choose HealthWorks! Kids' Museum for the new facility.

Although the word "museum" was not the best and fullest description of HealthWorks! (the right word didn't exist yet in the English language), it was an acceptable compromise that gave those prospective participants in the process some base of identity to refer to. Once open, the word "museum" would be dropped from the identity.

Schematic Design and Development

During the prior stage, Concept Plan Reporting, the advisory committees used JKA's strategy, which considered the following in their review:

understanding the difference between experiences appropriate for classrooms and the exhibit floor;
setting overall goals for exhibits;
defining the basic conceptual models for the exhibit experience;
identifying major thematic zones;
creating the basic approach to exhibit organization and presentation;
establishing criteria for evaluating "big ticket" items under consideration.

All of the physical elements of the facility were developed from the curriculum that would be taught there later. The time spent on site visits and research for exhibits and classroom props was more than equaled by the time spent investigating what the children needed to learn.

The process of curriculum development utilized a variety of approaches and tools. Not only did Memorial look back to the information it had gathered from the educators and learning experts during its focus groups, but to curricula used by other centers and several state education models. The logic engaged is that classroom teachers would be drawn to those field trip activities which best promote increased proficiencies.

Key Points of Selected Health Education Curriculums

Indiana Proficiency Guidelines, Michigan Model, Meeks-Heit's Totally Awesome Health:

Growth and Development
Family Life
Personal Health
Mental & Emotional Health
Nutrition
Substance Abuse
Communicable & Chronic Diseases
Consumer & Community Health
Injury Prevention & Safety
Environmental Health

JFK Health World (class groupings):

General Health
Substance Abuse Education
Family Life Education
Nutrition
Safety/ First Aid
Mental Health
Environmental Health

Ruth Lilly Center for Health Education (class groupings):

General health
Drug Education
Nutrition
Fitness
Human Growth & Development

Throughout the summer of 1998 Reach and Teach Action Group (RTAG), a smaller sub-group of the Reach and Teach committee, focused their energies on the development of the educational and curricular goals for HealthWorks!. With the aid of their research and after much discussion, RTAG was able to put forth their vision of the museum's educational purpose and a list of educational goals. These goals provided much of the foundation upon which HealthWorks! would be built. According to Jeanne Strickland, Project Educational Consultant, "While the Experiential Goals drafted in ‘97 and the Educational Goals for Kids were conceived well before the museum even had a name, they were and still are a guiding value statement..."

The group also presented their outline for an opening day curriculum to include: The Human Body (Inside Out), Personal Health (Healthy Me!), and Injury Prevention/Safety (Danger Zone).

Facility Goals

Educational Goals:

To help children understand that their individual actions have real consequences for their own health.
To increase children's appreciation of the wonder & complexity of the human body & emphasize that everyone is unique and that no matter what our personal abilities are, our bodies, intelligence & senses are spectacular and awe-inspiring.
To promote a holistic view of health that acknowledges the interplay of physical, emotional & spiritual aspects of healthy living.
That school groups will have a choice of five classroom programs on opening day.
Specific educational goals of the content areas & programs should be developed by Center teaching staff at a later date.

Experiential Goals:

Promote self-realization & self-potentiation by enabling young people to be in control of their own learning experience.
Prompt dialogue between young people, their peers, teachers & families.
Relate to school curricula & provide a base from which the teacher can expand.
Respect the strong emotions that health-related issues may engender for many families.
Inspire children to extend their learning beyond this experience, and suggest resources to facilitate self-guided explorations

Every child's visit will:

...elicit emotion to assure that the child engages fully in the individual messages as well as the overall experience.
...foster curiosity, optimism, exploration & self confidence.
...follow them home, in the form of new questions & behaviors, thereby stimulating new discussions & other interactions with parents & other family members.
...be fun and exciting enough that they will want to return & bring family & friends along.
...be remembered as a success.

In addition, the Imagineers Committee agreed to three things they never wanted to hear a child say after a visit to HealthWorks!: 1) I don't get it?, 2) that was stupid, and, 3) I'm never going back there again.

Memorial then turned the focus to the Schematic Design Development stage. The Schematic Design Report focused on the development of a preliminary floor plan, establishing the location, size and adjacencies of the center’s thematic zones and a listing of each exhibit. Exhibits in the Schematic drew from a variety of children’s museums across the country as well as Ontario, Canada.

On August 11, 1998, Jeff Kennedy Associates (JKA) presented Memorial with an Exhibit Component List which was discussed via video conference. Kennedy Associates divided the exhibits into three main thematic zones: The Human Body (body "testing, anatomy, physiology); The Senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing); The Mind (cognitive thinking, perception, memory). The items on the list drew from several sources, including the direction of RTAG and Kennedy's own research and experience. As in previous documents, JKA carefully outlined exhibits, listing subject matter and a description of the activity in which visitors would participate. Memorial's next task was to evaluate the proposed exhibition components using the newly formed facility goals as benchmarks.

Where Memorial's initial question had been: "What do elementary-aged children in our community need to learn about health?" The new question became, "How will elementary-aged children in our community learn what they need to know?" Jeff Kennedy noted, "Together, the Center’s programs and exhibits can give children the information they need to make healthy choices and the feeling that their actions count"