Hands-On! traveling exhibits are developed and fabricated for use locally outside of the museum. The Hands-On! exhibits consist of five 1500 square foot exhibits:

• Trashbusters: Recycle! - the visitor cares for the earth in the model town as citizens who reduce, recycle, and reuse.

• Bubble Technology - the visitor becomes both a scientist and artist in the exploration of soap and water bubbles.

• Puppets Around the World - this interdisciplinary exhibit features different types of puppets and theaters from different parts of the world and touches on geography, art, culture, communication, technology and physics.

• Handi-Capable Kids - youngsters face challenging tasks such as maneuvering a wheelchair over a ramp, painting a picture without hands, using a cane while blindfolded, etc.

• Who Cares About the Weather? centered on the t.v. weather station, various aspects of weather are explored including art, communication, careers, literature, and science.

The Hands-On! traveling exhibits are scheduled individually with public schools and other organizations to fit their schedules. The exhibits are set up in community centers or schools for exhibit periods of one to four days. Each traveling exhibit contains 8 to 10 activity centers serving 300 children daily, who visit for nearly an hour apiece in groups of 50. Between 600 and 1200 children are scheduled in a week for an individual school or grade level visits across a school district.

The Hands-On! program's growth is in part attributed to the lack of public transportation between outlying areas of the Rio Grande Valley. Since children are unable to come to the program, the program comes to them. The programs are presented in Spanish or English, and the traveling exhibits can be visited by large numbers of children and their families during each one-day exhibit set-up.