DESTINATIONS: Gainesville’s Cade Museum Continues to Dazzle and Inspire Future Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Visionaries
In just two short years, the museum has fueled a thirst for knowledge for young and old. Since opening the doors in May 2018, the Cade has offered unprecedented access to world-class inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries.
Bringing children to museums opens their eyes to different ideas and perspectives that are relevant to their lives. This kind of exposure can help develop higher critical and creative thinking skills, which are integral to future success.
“I think that hands-on activities are really important because they can show how fun science is,” said 13-year old Charlie Massey of Jacksonville, Fla. “This isn’t like just sitting and reading. I like the uncertainty of experimenting, beginning a project and not know whether it will turn out as expected.”
The Cade Museum is named for Dr. James Robert Cade, a professor of renal (kidney) medicine at the University of Florida and the lead inventor of the sports drink Gatorade.
Although he is most widely remembered for Gatorade, he was a man of many parts, a true Renaissance man. On the title page of his autobiography, Freut Euch Des Lebens (Take Joy in Life) Cade described himself as a "physician, scientist, musician, and inventor."
Visitors the Cade can explore STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) concepts in a unique way, highlighting cutting-edge and emerging technologies, and tracing them back to their original roots of invention.
“It’s a place where you learn and can raise questions, not just look at stuff,” said 10-year old Henry Massey of his trip last Fall to the Cade. “The museum is full of interesting things. We learned a lot in the labs. I like to design and do something hands on, rather than always just watch.”
Micro-exhibits present science through the lens of invention with DNA: Code of Life in June and Space: Moon to Mars launches in July.
In addition to maintaining current social distancing standards during the reopening, the goal is to provide the most engaging experience within a safe environment.
This allows visitors to experience the Cade’s Sweat Solution exhibit, Fab Lab, Creativity Lab, Gallery West, and Petty Family Gallery.
“It’s a new kind of museum — one where extraordinarily little is behind glass. People think of museums, and they think of a very passive experience. But the Cade has kind of reinvented what museums are,” said museum visitor Nancy Beecher.
The Cade Museum celebrates invention, so they have partnered with Violet Defense, Orlando-based creators of patented, ultraviolet disinfectant devices that eliminate up to 99.9% of bacteria and viruses.
Bolstering the cleaning protocols already in place, Violet Defense’s mobile ultraviolet disinfection units - currently utilized in hospitals - will be used before and after each guided tour.
The popular museum is open on Fridays and Saturdays for limited-capacity experiential tours, led by a talented team of Cade educators.
Visit for more information visit www.cademuseum.org.
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