In thinking about my first post for the blog, I immediately thought of an audience that we don't often think of when we think about school groups, a special education classroom that addresses the needs of students with multiple and severe handicaps. At the school I taught at last year, one of my favorite groups to sub for was the K-2 MD (multiple disabilities) unit. This small group of students has a huge amount of personality and an eagerness to learn that makes teaching them a joy. The teacher, Marcy*, agreed to talk with me about the way she approaches planning and executing field trips with her very unique group of students.
Shannon: Thanks for agreeing to talk to me about your class. Can you tell me a little bit about them?
Marcy: My group is a relatively big one this year as MD rooms go. I have eight students with disabilities ranging from severe autism spectrum disorders to Down Syndrome and genetic disorders that severely hinder physical and cognitive growth. Many of my students also have behaviors that draw attention to us and can be heightened by a new environment.
Shannon: So obviously, when you take them on a trip, you have a lot of things to consider. What are the most important things to you when choosing a field trip location?
Marcy: When choosing a field trip I make sure that its a safe environment that is willing to tolerate the different behavior of my students. I like to make sure that there will be opportunities to interact with same-age peers as a practice time for social skills. I also need a place that has a lot of things to do so the students engaged the entire time. I don't like down time.
Shannon: Are there any types of places that are out of the question?
Marcy: Oh yea there are. Last year I had to ask Benjamin's* parents to go to Deer Park (an outdoor park in Northeast Ohio with a petting zoo, lake and areas to feed fish and ducks). I know you aready know this, but Benjamin tends to run off and he loves to climb things. I was terrified that he was going to climb a fence and fall into a fish pond. I've never had to jump into a lake for a student, and I didn't want to start that day. Big, open outdoor places and spaces where there are multiple exits really make me nervous. I always have my aides with me and often a parent or two, but it only takes one second for a child to wander off or bolt for the door. Just one exit and entry point makes me sure that the kids won't try to fly the coop. I know museums are your field, but I would say they would be the toughest place to go. My students would not be quiet and it would be hard for them not to touch. They are also kind of complicated when it comes to layout, and I could just see Marcus* (a student that locked himself in the bathroom stall during my first subbing experience with them) running to hide in some dark corner.
Shannon: So, are there places you have been that were really successful?
Marcy: There are two that stick out to me. The first is Skedaddles, an indoor playground with bouncy castles and other fun equipment. The kids got the chance to interact with their peers and do so in a safe and somewhat familiar environment. The second is really obvious, but it is the dance the local YMCA sponsors for MD kids all over the county. They love getting dressed up and going and it gives us a chance to talk about social behaviors that are appropriate at special occasions like dances which translate to things like parties or weddings in their real lives.
*names have been changed
After talking with Marcy, I was a little sad that museums were almost automatically off of her list of great field trips. I decided to look for museums that have many or all of the qualities she mentioned made a good field trip. Though there aren't many, I want to highlight two, one on the east coast and one on the west, that do a great job of accommodating very specialized classes like Marcy's.
Pretend City Children's Museum-Irvine, California
Pretend City is a new Children's Museum in California that emphasizes learning through pretend play. They offer a host of accommodations for classes of special needs children. Just some of the highlights of their accomodations are staff trained in the support of all learners, special name badges for nonverbal children so staff can help more efficiently, and special needs specific items for special cases. These items include calming items like sunglasses, hats, headphones and weighted shoulder pads for students with sensory difficulties and special exhibition pieces made for motor skill and movement development. Their website is linked at the bottom of the page.
Port Discovery Children's Museum-Baltimore, Maryland
Located in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Port Discovery stresses its universal design principles and award winning special needs programs. They have partnered with several local groups to help promote their programs and especially to help underprivileged families that have special needs children. Their most successful adaptations are "Discovery Days", on which the museum is closed to the public and only hosts children with special needs and their caretakers. The museum itself adapts on Discovery Days by dimming the lights and sounds and only allowing about 300 visitors in the museum to maximize comfort. Discovery Days happen four days a year, two in spring and two in fall, with one dedicated exclusively to children with autism.
Pretend City
Port Discovery
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label schools. Show all posts
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Reading List for School-Museum Partnerships
Hi all -
To end our posts on school-museum partnerships, we wanted to leave you with a list of readings and resources to provide you with more information for future partnerships you may be a part of or even create! All listed below can be found on Amazon.com.
1. An Alliance of Spirit: Museum and School Partnerships by Kim Fortney and Beverly Sheppard
This recent publication, already a classic, “brings together the latest thinking and instructive case studies on how museums and schools can better understand each other s goals as they work together to provide school children the most inspiring educational experience possible inside the museum.” In addition, it also includes Putting It into Practice sections that provide advice for teachers and museum educators as they create these partnerships.
2. Building Museum and School Partnerships by Beverly Sheppard
This book tells the story of museum educators and teachers who met for three workshops that focused on how to develop closer working relationships between the two. “Each partner's expectations of the other, learning theories in museums, field trips, outreach projects, community as classroom, and cultural diversity constitute the core contents of the book.” There is also an appendix of effective program materials used by museums in Pennsylvania.
3. Museums and Education: Purpose, Pedagogy, Performance (Museum Meanings) and
4. Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill
As we all know, museums are currently tasked with the challenge of becoming “third spaces” and institutions for successful informal learning. The first book uses data from three national evaluation studies done between 2003 and 2006 that focused on the conceptual framework of Generic Learning Outcomes. The second provides case studies that show the various roles museums can play in the “production and shaping of knowledge.” Both seem like good sources to refer to when needing to justify the need for museum and school partnerships.
5. The Evolution of Library and Museum Partnerships: Historical Antecedents, Contemporary Manifestations, and Future Directions by Juris Dilevk
6. Museums in the Life of a City: Strategies for Community Partnerships by Portia Hamilton-Sperr and Ellen Cockran Hirzy
Although not focused on school partnerships, there is a lot we can learn by successfully partnering with other institutions, such as libraries and art centers in our communities. It is important to always promote the idea that museums are engaging and informative places of learning and can be resources for many different organizations. As we have discussed in class, the internet is drastically changing the face of museums, an issue libraries are also contending with. The Evolution of Library and Museum Partnerships looks into the possibility of library-museum hybrids, which can use artifacts along with library collections to “create authentic, interactive experiences for community members.” Museums in the Life of a City chronicled the pilot program that sought to “enhance the appreciation of cultural diversity by building partnerships between museums and communities.”
7. Out of Our Minds by Ken Robinson
This book is the least closely related to school-museum partnerships, but we thought was worth including in our list. Sir Ken Robinson is an expert on education and creativity who is often featured in TED talks. This updated and revised version of one of his classic books poses three questions to the reader -- 1. Why is it essential to promote creativity? 2. What’s the problem? and 3. What can be done about it? He discusses how creativity is a necessity for business and careers, but few people learn about their creative abilities during the formal education years.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Making the Most of Museum Field Trips
Every
teacher sees a field trip in a different way. Some see it as a stressful day of
coordinating busses and monitoring student behavior and chaperones. Others see
a field trip as time to relax and take a break from lesson plans for the day.
Still others view the day as they should, as a learning opportunity that gets
students out of the classroom and face to face with the content they are
learning.
Planning a
field trip is a tall order, especially in a time when content standards and
high stakes testing dictate almost every word of a teacher’s lesson plans. Many
teachers feel the pressure to keep their students in the classroom, rather than
“missing” a day of teaching by taking students to the museum. However, by
following a few simple guidelines for a successful trip, teachers can rest
assured that their students are adding to the vast body of knowledge and skills
they are expected to gain each year.
As a former
teacher turned museum educator, I have been on both sides of the fence, but in
both roles I can say with 100% certainty that the most integral part of a
successful museum trip is the implementation of pre and post lessons which
prepare students for and allow students to reflect on their experience outside
of school. The Australian Museum in Sydney, Australia encourages teachers to
fully prepare their students for the museum experience. Below is a list of
their guidelines for a good trip with commentary by someone who has been in
both sets of shoes. At the bottom of the post, you will find five examples of
museums across the country with exceptional pre and post visit lessons and
resources for teachers.
1. Establish baseline knowledge
·
Though this seems like common sense, many
teachers do absolutely nothing to prepare their students for the content of the
museum. Whether your class is participating in a facilitated experience or a
more self-guided tour, students need to have a basic understanding of what they
are going to see. Many museums offer ready-made pre-lessons that directly
connect to the content of their programs and exhibitions. Even museums that
don’t have lesson plans offer a host of resources and information on the web
and on site.
2. Create and discuss objectives for the trip
·
This is a great opportunity to work
collaboratively with students and prepare for the experience. Once the baseline
knowledge has been attained, students have an idea of the things they will
experience in the museum. Teacher goals are great, but students will also have
opinions about the things that they want to see and do. Ask them what they are
interested in and balance that with goals and objectives that school and state
standards dictate.
3. Organize yourselves
·
All the knowledge and objectives in the world
will not help a class who has no plan. Organization goes far beyond assigning
chaperones and packing bag lunches (though any teacher who has ever been on a
trip knows the first thing on everyone’s mind is LUNCH). First, familiarize
yourself with the museum. Ideally, do a visit alone or with family and friends.
Grab a map, take a tour and see what the museum has to offer. Prepare your
class in any way you can. Small children may need a discussion of museum rules
and behaviors while older students would benefit from advanced copies of the
map and exhibition information. Teacher
Tip: The best way to keep students focused is to allow some “free time” in
the museum before you have a facilitated experience. Letting them see what they
want to see, explore, find the bathrooms and take a look around before jumping
in cuts down on distractions.
4. ENJOY YOURSELF
·
Stop counting heads every five minutes and
worrying that Johnny is picking his nose or texting instead of listening to
every word you or the museum educator says. Most of your students will have a
great experience and learn and grow by leaps and bounds. Take the time to watch
them and see what excites them.
5. Compare new and old knowledge
·
The trip doesn’t end when the bus pulls back
into school. Connecting the pre visit, museum trip and beyond gives the trip
meaning instead of becoming a day free of planning or a “fun day” for the
students. Like pre-visit materials, many museums offer lessons and resources to
extend their content into your classroom after the trip.
6. Reflect on and use the new knowledge
·
Realize what worked and what didn’t. From the
logistics of the trip to the concepts learned, take time as a teacher to
reflect alone, with colleagues and with your class. Apply the knowledge you
learned on the visit to the themes you are teaching in your classroom. Link the
visit with other experiences and content areas to make the most of your trip.
Most museums
try their hardest to tailor their programs and resources to you and your class,
but just because it isn’t listed on their site doesn’t mean they can’t work
with you to meet the needs of your class. Standards alignment is one of the
first thing teachers ask for in museum programs, but there are a host of other
things that teachers need to make the most of a trip. Don’t be afraid to ask!
Museums
with a Host of Teacher Resources
·
The
National Building Museum, Washington, DC: NBM’s in house programming for
school groups is stellar on its own, but the resources and activities that it
provides to teachers makes it one of the best for pre and post visit lessons. Their
incredibly accessible site, linked below, allows teachers to download entire
lesson packets or individual activities that can be used for weeks before and
after the trip.
·
The
National World War II Museum, New Orleans, LA: Not only does the museum
provide lesson materials, but it also goes a step further in helping teachers
prepare for the experience. Their materials packet includes a list of museum
rules and reminders about the sometimes overwhelming experiences that naturally
accompany the content of the museum.
·
Rockwell
Museum of Western Art, Corning, NY: Like the National Building Museum, the
Rockwell provides a host of lessons and activities that are tied closely to
both state and national content standards. Their materials are listed by grade
level and subject to allow for easy access by educators.
·
Rock n’
Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland, OH: In addition to some of the
best lessons and experiences I have personally ever seen students experience,
the Rock Hall expands their relationship with teachers by allowing them to
review and give feedback on their experience via their website. They are
constantly reflecting on and making small changes to their lessons based on the
information that they receive from teachers.
·
Museum of
Tolerance, Los Angeles, CA: Another museum with moving and sometimes
emotional content, the Museum of Tolerance works to inform teachers as best
they can of all of the things that students will experience on their visit. An
entire book of resources and lessons is available for download from their
website and can be accessed by anyone.
Teacher Workshops
The primary
focus of this blog has been on partnerships between museums and schools and
meeting the wants and needs of school age children. In that vein, we have
decided the best course of action would be to offer an article on how museums
support teachers in their roles as educators.
One of the
most universal and successful ways museums support teachers is by offering
teacher workshops. These workshops can fit seamlessly into teachers’ schedules
by utilizing the break automatically built into the school year. Many museums
offer weeklong workshops in the summer and some, like the Philadelphia Museum
of Art, have shorter workshops available during shorter recesses like the
winter break school schedule. Many workshops are held over the weekend and rang
anywhere from half-day to two day workshops. The National Gallery of Art has a
program called “After-School Weekday Sessions,” which works within the teachers’
work-week schedule.
Beyond workshops, some museums
offer in-service days during which the museum staff travels to schools to
provide costume workshops. Often, these in-service sessions are only offered to
schools located within a specific distance from the museum. This means that
in-service sessions are not available to all schools and teachers; in fact, the
services are actually quite limited. This is unfortunate because the in-service
sessions are often the most customizable and, for that reason, may prove to be
the most useful to teachers. Logistically it makes sense, but museum staff
should strive to reach the teachers beyond the limit of the in-service sessions
in unique ways in order to overcome this obstacle.
Other ways that museums try to
reach out to teachers is by offering professional and/or graduate school credit
for attending their workshops. To offer credit, the museums most be approved as
credit providers by the state. For museums in areas that are easily accessible
to people from multiple states, it is beneficial to be approved as a credit
provider in multiple states. For example, the Philadelphia Museum of Art provides
professional credit in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It is also important to note that the number
of credits provided per workshop is easily located on the museum’s website and
on the handouts related to the teacher workshops.
Museums appeal to teachers by
highlighting what makes the individual museum unique and by offering ways to
harness this uniqueness in the classroom. Many museums offer workshops on a
wide variety of topics and disciplines.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art offers workshops beyond those structured
for art teachers. For example, they have workshops on “Art and Autism: Social
Stories,” “Looking to Write: Narrative Writing” and “The Narrative Life of
Frederick Douglas,” a workshop that is meant to assist teachers who celebrate
Black History Month. In addition, the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame conducted a workshop on using popular music in
special education classes and workshops on using the spoken word and slam
poetry in the classroom.
Marketing the workshops to teachers
is an important step in making the workshops successful. Museums have the
privilege of providing workshops on a wide variety of interesting topics that
are meant to appeal to the classroom teachers. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library & Museum offers the following workshops: “Political Cartoons in the
Classroom” and “This Damned Old House: Abraham Lincoln and the White House.” The
National Gallery of Art has a workshop called, “Can We Talk?! – Facilitating Conservations
with Works of Art.” Each of these workshops is easily marketable and is meant
to spark the interest of educators.
Aligning the needs of classroom
teachers with the offerings of the museums is the most critical step of making
a successful workshop. Luckily, there are a vast number of museums who offer
highly unique workshops to teachers.
Teachers have many opportunities to find something that might work in
their classroom. Museums have mastered the teacher workshop; they offer
workshops that work with teacher’s schedules, provide professional credit,
highlight the uniqueness of the museum and are appealing and interesting to the
teacher.
But they also offer an example that
goes beyond the workshop, a model in which the museum educators are the
experts. This might be a way to better welcome the classroom teachers in museums.
The future goals of museums should be to make a true partnership between the
classroom teacher and the museum educator. Hopefully, this relationship can be
extended into both the museum and the classroom. I found two examples of
museums striving to breakout of the teacher workshop model by offering
“Research Colloquiums” and “Roundtables.”
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library & Museums has a workshop titled “Research Colloquiums” that consist
of teachers working with the museum education department to learn how best to
use primary sources and object-based teaching in the classroom. The museum
educators show the teachers the tools used in the museum field, such as how to
navigate the digital collections and the Presidential Library. The teachers get
to experience first hand what it is like to work in a museum and the resources
that are available. On the second day of the session, the teachers and the
museums educator work to make a personalized lesson plan for the teacher. By the end of the session the teachers have a
fully workable lesson plan that they made using the resources of the museum.
The regular and award-winning
“Education & the Arts Roundtables” offer a truly unique spin on teacher
workshops. These roundtables allow for a partnership between several museums, such
as the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Page Museum at the La
Brea Tar Pits, and the William S. Hart Park and Museum, as well as selected schools
in Los Angeles County, art organizations and artists. The “Education & the
Arts Roundtables” strive to “foster deep,
interdisciplinary classroom learning, and give artists and educators joint
responsibility and authority over their Museum interactions.” The mission of
the “Education & the Arts Roundtables” is one that all museums should
strive towards when forming museum and school partnerships. It is truly a
partnership between museums, teachers, students, and the community where no
single member is the expert.
Links:
Education & the Arts Roundtables
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museums
National Gallery of Art
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Thursday, November 15, 2012
ArtLab+
This week,
I visited the Smithsonian’s ArtLab at its location in the Hirshhorn Sculpture
Garden. ArtLab is a digital media studio for teens. It is a space where teens
can partner with mentors, be creative, and develop marketable skills for the
future. ArtLab is open Monday through Friday from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm. These hours make it convenient for teens to
go to ArtLab after school. For the first
two hours, ArtLab has Open Studio where the teens can take advantage of the
space and materials in the ways that they deem fitting. The last two hours
consists of Artist Studio, which includes more structured workshops on
video/animation, photo/design, audio, and critical reviews.
What ArtLab offers is truly unique
in terms of museums partnerships with school-aged children. This uniqueness
comes with its own set of challenges. To gain a better understanding of ArtLab,
I observed an Open Studio hour and spoke with Amy Homma, ArtLab educator.
My initial observations of ArtLab
consisted of watching the Open Studio portion of the day. The Open Studio is
basically a drop-in hour for local teens involved in ArtLab. The teens can work
on projects, explore new technology, and discover things that interest them.
For most of the hour that I observed, the majority of teens were playing Xbox
and Playstation video games. While
playing video games may not seem like the best way to build relationships with
mentors, create new things, or develop new skills, the teens were freely choosing
how they wanted to engage in the space, which is the theme of Open Studio. They
were also developing social skills and mediating any conflicts that occurred
over which game to play or length of playing time. In addition, the teens are
being exposed to technology that they may not have access to at home or school.
One or two were working on projects
of their choice. These students were harder to observe. They were working
quietly by themselves drawing, working on computer graphics, or practicing in
the sound studio. Even for the students working on projects, free choice was
something that defined their experience. The overall atmosphere of the Open
Studio was comfortable and the teens were encouraged to express themselves
freely.
After my observations, I spoke to
Amy Homma about ArtLab. We discussed the things ArtLab has to offer, as well as
the challenges that face ArtLab, and ArtLab’s ability to connect school-aged children
to museums. Ms. Homma explained that the mentors were of key importance when
trying to engage the teens. She said that the building the mentor relationship
can be a “slow process”. But the process
allows for a “tailored experience” for both the mentor and the teen. The relationship
between the mentor and teen is built upon the foundation of personally knowing
each other and then expands to a “fun, productive, rewarding” relationship
where the teens are supported in “self directed learning”.
According
to Ms. Homma, in addition to the mentors, ArtLab also offers a space that is
truly unique. It is through this space that ArtLab is able to fulfill their
mission and engage the teen audience. ArtLab offers a space that is full of
choice and self-direction, while providing the supporting structure to allow
the teens to be productive, creative, and ultimately be rewarded for their
work. ArtLab provides a space where the
focus is not on the “output” but rather on the “process”.
While the
mentors, space, and mission are the defining features of ArtLab, they are also
the things that pose the greatest challenges. Offering the correct mixture of
support and freedom is what Ms. Homma describes as the “constant push and pull”.
The informality allows ArtLab to appeal and work for teens, but it also
provides institutional challenges. Ms Homma said that they are “Constantly
asking what success is.’ and “What are we looking for?” Since it is hard to define success, it is
even more difficult to measure and evaluate the success. ArtLab faces these
difficulties in a variety of ways. They conduct team surveys, and the
foundations supporting ArtLab plan to conduct several longitudinal studies
following different ArtLab participants.
Other
challenges that ArtLab faces are the physical restrictions of their building
and the location on the National Mall. Artlab’s
building is a small structure on the grounds of the Hirshhorn’s Sculpture
Garden. Since it is not located in the Hirshhorn Museum building it can be hard
to maintain that connection, but the teens are encouraged to explore the
Hirshhorn. The teens recently made a Halloween zombie music video that was
filmed in the Hirshhorn. The video can be viewed on the ArtLab’s Facebook page. I highly recommend watching it.
Artlab’s
location on the National Mall can also be problematic. Like many other museums
on the National Mall, ArtLab struggles with not being built into a community.
ArtLab’s mission is to engage local teens, but the National Mall is not a
residential community. The teens have to
commute to the National Mall to take advantage of ArtLab. This makes ArtLab
less convenient than other programs that try to engage teens in their own neighborhood,
which often take place in libraries or community centers near the teens’ homes.
After
talking with Ms. Homma and observing the teens during the Open Studio, it
became clear that many of the things that allow ArtLab to engage their
school-aged audience are also the things that provide the greatest challenges.
ArtLab is trying to define itself as a learning space outside school. For
museums attempting to engage school-aged children, the museum must understand
and embrace the wants and needs of this audience and offer something beyond
what is offered in school.
ArtLab website:
http://artlabplus.si.edu/
ArtLab facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/HMSGartlabplus
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Museum-School Partnerships
Museums are natural partners with schools; they provide opportunities that deepen formal curriculum, often in a more interactive, hands-on environment. These partnerships exist in a variety of ways - some work with only certain schools, others are more informal and open to student applicants from the area. We as museum educators need to continually advocate for this special relationship between museums of all genres and students. Our group has compiled a list of several interesting and effective partnerships between schools and museums to illustrate their benefit to students.
1. Oakland Museum of California and Korematsu Discovery Academy and La Escuelita (Oakland, California)
The science education department of the Oakland Museum of California partners with three fifth grade classes from Korematsu Discovery Academy and La Escuelita throughout a school year. The program, Water Striders Junior Guides: From Creeks to Coastline, helps students better understand the ecology of local watersheds and the affect their own actions can have on the surrounding habitats. Over the course of the year, students visit a creek, salt marsh, bay, and coast to observe both fresh and salt water environments. The students then use their observations and discoveries to create tours for the Natural Sciences Gallery at the Museum. Additionally, the students work with docents to design activities for younger students and lead students from their own school on tours to teach them about what they have learned during the project. Finally, the students use their new skills and knowledge to participate in a family event where they host their friends and family on a tour.
On-line exhibits of students’ work:
http://tinyurl.com/http-rosa-comhttp://tinyurl.com/http-ali-com
http://tinyurl.com/http-rusche-com
2. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum Student Docent Program (Ridgefield, Connecticut)
http://www.aldrichart.org/education/docent.php
This program is not a partnership with a specific school, but rather open to students from local schools. There are two levels of the program - Student Docents in grades 5-12, and Varsity Docents in grades 9-12. The Student Docent Program trains students in small groups to facilitate discussions with their own peers about contemporary art. The hope is that when their own classmates lead them on a tour, students are “more likely to make connections between the work on view and their own experiences.” Students who have gone through the docent program twice and are willing to make a more serious commitment are eligible to apply for the Varsity Docent Program. This program functions similarly to an internship, and introduces students to additional aspects of the museum environment, including multiple programs and audiences. This on-site experience is combined with discussions with staff members, field trips to New York, and artist workshops, and is intended to give student participants a strong foundational understanding of museum work.
3. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, Massachusetts)
http://www.gardnermuseum.org/education/school_partnerships
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum partnerships with a small number of schools each year in order to build deep working relationships. This year they are working with Boston Latin School, Maurice J. Tobin K08 School, Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School, and Rafael Hernandez K-8 School. Isabella Stewart seeks to help students explore art in a way that they can make connections through their own experiences and knowledge. They do this using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a discussion-based pedagogy that asks three questions: “What’s going on in this picture?” “What do you see that makes you say that?” and “What more can we find?” Through this discussion, students develop skills in reading artwork, becoming more flexible thinkers, and learning ways to become better speakers and listeners. The program is a true partnership between school and museum, as teachers must present 10 VTS lessons, and students visit the Museum multiple times. These visits last for several hours, and include an art-making project in the Education Studio or Greenhouse Classroom.
4. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (Los Angeles, California)
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has created the Education and Arts Roundtable, a partnership that connects Los Angeles-area schools with mid-sized arts organizations. This new initiative developed out of a strategic plan that sought to more deeply engage the community with museum programs. Staff and board members asked, “what sorts of student learning opportunities would emerge when unencumbered by practical needs and logistics.” These partnerships work with grades K-12, and they develop learning projects inspired by the Museum’s collections and resources. The Natural History Museum also includes an area on the first floor, Inter/Act which shows both the students’ work as well as the process they used to reach their questions and discovery. The goal of the Roundtable is help students learn to “use visual and performing arts as a catalyst to learn about the natural and social sciences.”
5. Early Elementary Science Partnership (Chicago, Illinois)
This partnership is a different from those listed above in that its purpose is to provide K-3 teachers with professional develop opportunities to improve their abilities to teach science. Ten schools have partnered with the Field Museum, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Children’s Museum, Lincoln Park Zoo, CPS Office of Science and Northwestern University as part of a two-year intensive plan of 76 professional development hours. One hundred teachers participate in this professional development, along with university-based coursework, collaborative teacher teams, and field trips, that will eventually reach 3,000 teachers. The goals of this partnership are to improve science content knowledge for both students and teachers, teachers’ ability to use museums as informal learning environments, and to pilot this cooperative partnership between schools, the University, and informal learning environments.
To finish this post, we wanted to provide you all with a website that provides a background, practical ideas, and resources for museum and school partnerships:
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