Rootlab worked with PB Exhibits to bring Capturing Carbon to life, an interactive exhibit presented by ExxonMobil for the Chambers County Children's Museum. Combining the mechanics of pinball, pachinko, and skee-ball, the exhibit introduces young visitors to the concepts of carbon capture and storage through a pair of connected arcade-style games.
The experience begins at a large, enclosed pachinko wall, where visitors turn a handwheel to maneuver a mechanical catcher beneath falling blue balls representing CO₂ emissions. Captured balls travel through a network of mechanical lifts, ramps, and channels before arriving at a custom skee-ball lane. Players then launch the balls toward a series of targets representing carbon storage, with a digital scoreboard tracking the amount of CO₂ successfully stored.
Rootlab provided fabrication design, mechanical engineering, custom fabrication, controls integration, lighting, and installation. The exhibit combines CNC-fabricated cabinetry, steel structures, custom ball-handling mechanisms, programmable electronics, illuminated displays, and suspended molecular models. The result is a hands-on experience that makes an otherwise invisible industrial process tangible, playful, and accessible to children.
