Imagine It!, The Children's Museum of Atlanta

OK, so even though I’m now going to school at Tufts and exploring Boston-area museums, I have to give proper respect to Atlanta, where I lived for most of the last 14 years.  There you’ll find a number of museums, including Imagine It!, The Children’s Museum of Atlanta, which targets children ages eight and under.  As with other children’s museums, this is a fun, hands-on environment filled with great exhibits for families to explore.  These are a few of them:

·        Fundamentally Food traces the path that our food takes from the farm to the grocery store and to our tables.  For many children today, food is something that comes from the grocery store and they have no idea that what they eat starts out on a farm.  This exhibit offers children a window into what happens, starting with the farm area.  Here you can find a John Deere tractor that kids can climb on, fruits and vegetables to choose, and a life-sized cow model that can be “milked."

Buttercup the cow

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      From there you'll move on to an exciting forklift and delivery truck so that food can travel to the grocery store and be used to stock the shelves.  After shopping and buying groceries, kids can move on to the house area to prepare a meal.  Well laid-out and very interactive, this exhibit provides a nice foundation for understanding the origins of and the path taken by food.  It may still help to talk with your child about what’s happening to make the connections more explicit, and it might even prompt a visit to a farm.  But lots of other learning takes place here as well, including development of language, motor skills, imagination, and cooperation (there are a lot of kids playing together here!).  You can also engage your child in math skills by sorting and counting the food, or talk about nutrition when putting together meals.

What are ideas for extending the learning outside of the museum?

o       Check out a farmer’s market to buy some locally grown produce and talk with people who grow our food.  

o       Learn about nutrition by creating a collage of healthy food pictures cut out from magazines or grocery store ads.

o       Do you have toy food at home?  Work with your child on sorting them into groups (colors, healthy/unhealthy, like/don’t like, fruits/vegetables/meats/etc.).

o       I know that taking your child to the grocery store isn’t always the most fun, and it might be the last place you want to think about learning.  So how about taking advantage of the opportunities available before you leave your home?  Enlisting your child’s support in counting what you have at home, writing shopping lists together, and planning meals can develop his/her literacy, math, and critical thinking skills.

Playing with sand at Let Your Creativity Flow

·        At Let Your Creativity Flow, children and parents alike will have fun being imaginative and expressing themselves.  One of visitors’ favorite activities is making sand sculptures, which is a great tactile experience.  At home, I would recommend giving children lots of chances to play with different materials, starting when they are really little and they’re learning about the world through their senses and motor skills.

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o       Make playdough at home!  There are lots of recipes available, but here is one link to check out: http://www.bostonkids.org/grownups/playdough.html.

o       Use shaving cream.  Not only is it a fun kinesthetic experience, but if you spread it out, it acts like a white board for drawing numbers, letters, and shapes.  I’d suggest putting the shaving cream on a tray of some sort to limit how far the shaving cream will spread – and trust me, it will get all over the place.

o       Have a box full of rice or sand, then add spoons, measuring cups, funnels, and different-sized containers.  This is a great opportunity to learn about size and measurement.  Also put in small toy animals or people so kids can bury, play with, and make up stories about them.

·        The last exhibit I’ll talk about is Tools for Solutions.  The centerpiece is a giant ball machine that uses the six simple machines – pulleys, levers, screws, inclined planes, wheel and axle, and wedges – and lots of teamwork to move plastic balls around the system.   This is the ultimate cooperative learning experience, bringing together kids and adults to plan, problem solve, talk, and devise strategies to make the balls travel up, down, through, and all around the machine.  I challenge parents not to get involved!

The ball machine at Tools for Solutions

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o       The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago has a great website with science-related activities, videos, and games, some of which are for older children.  A fun on-line game about simple machines can be found at http://www.msichicago.org/online-science/simple-machines/activities/simple-machines-1/.

Boston Children's Museum

So back to looking at museums and their exhibits, and the great learning that takes place there.  Recently I went to the Boston Children’s Museum, which I last visited when I was 6 years old.  I don’t remember a whole lot from that last trip except that it was fun – at least that hasn’t changed in the years that have passed.  I had a great time, and since the Boston Children’s Museum is aimed at children 10 years and under, it naturally is full of terrific opportunities for active learning inside its walls and for inspiring creative play beyond.  These are just some of my favorites:

·        Bubbles, located in the Science Playground on the first floor, is one of those exhibits that attracts kids and their parents alike.  Here you find many adults laughing, playing, and getting just as wet as their little ones.  Visitors will find a variety of objects to use to blow bubbles, including hoops, cone-shaped and star-shaped objects, and circles of rope.  There is also information about bubbles, including answers to frequently-asked questions like why are bubbles round, why do they pop, and why do we see colors in them.  The recipe for making a bubble solution is 1 part dishwashing liquid and 8 parts water, and the museum suggests adding glycerin to help make the solution last longer.  What a simple and inexpensive way to have fun at home! 

"Bubbles," located in the Science Playground

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o       Instead of buying bubble wands, see what you and your child can find around the house to use for making bubbles, particularly in the kitchen.  A couple of ideas: a slotted spoon and the plastic rings used for 6-packs of soda.

o       Colorful bubble art – a fun idea is to take the bubble solution and pour a small amount into several cups.  Add either 4-5 drops of food coloring to each cup or some tempera paint (you need a good bit of coloring in the solution). Dip bubble wands in and blow bubbles onto plain white paper. Let the bubbles land and then pop on their own to create colorful artwork!

·        Body Power is all about encouraging families to be healthier.  It is a great place for kids and parents to get active and learn about the importance of exercise by pedaling bikes, showing their moves on an interactive dance floor, shooting hoops, pushing and pulling things, and trying out the climbing walls.  The nutrition activities help visitors learn about creating a healthy breakfast, balancing the food that goes into our bodies with the equivalent amount of exercise needed to burn it off, and identifying “Superfoods” through a matching activity.  For parents there is a ton of information all around the two floors of this area about food, exercise, serving sizes, TV watching, and games.  “Power Tips” and signs, some geared to children and some to adults, present healthy suggestions like going to the playground, building an obstacle course in the living room, taking the stairs, eating fruits and vegetables, and drinking water instead of soda.  Given the childhood obesity epidemic in this country, an exhibit like this one is so valuable for how it gives simple and fun ideas for how to make healthy living a fundamental part of our lives.

Kid Power

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Here a few books about nutrition and healthy food you might enjoy:

o       Gregory the Terrible Eater, by Mitchell Sharmat – a funny story about a goat that has unusual eating habits, this book will encourage children to think about what food is healthy

o       Showdown at the Food Pyramid, by Rex Barron

o       Good Enough to Eat: A Kid's Guide to Food and Nutrition, by Lizzy Rockwell

o       Get Up and Go!, by Nancy Carlson offers a positive message about the virtues of exercise

                 Get your child in the habit of eating healthy now!  One of the best ways is to 

                 involve him or her in preparing food, particularly nutritious snacks.  Do you 

                 have any suggestions for fun and easy-to-make snacks that kids can help 

                 prepare?  Also, what are your favorite ways to get out as a family and exercise?

                 Post a comment to this blog with your ideas!

·        Construction Zone, which can be found on the third floor, contains all sorts of activities for budding construction workers.  There are 2 Bobcats and some climbing equipment that kids will enjoy crawling on and over, as well as hard hats and vests for dressing up.  In the middle of this spacious room are ramps, bridges, tunnels, plastic construction vehicles, and signs for creating roadways.  Inside the “construction trailer” visitors can use manipulatives like Kinex, peg boards, and wood blocks to build things.  This exhibit supports children’s growth and learning in many ways, particularly with fine and gross motor skill development.  But it also involves kids in using their imaginations to create something, as well as critical thinking and planning as they design structures.  As they manipulate the blocks, in particular, little ones also learn about size and shape, weight and balance, and height and depth.  Additionally, with so many children here, they may be learning to play with others.

Construction Zone

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Although I know children (and many adults!) will enjoy using the fun stuff in this exhibit, I think that the museum missed a chance to really take advantage of this topic and teach children even more about the range of jobs in construction or to extend the experience even further.  Perhaps they could have included plastic or cardboard bricks, used bricks as a launching point for teaching about the concept of patterns, had things to make fences (craft sticks and glue?), introduced kids to electricity, or offered a place to make construction safety signs.  Setting aside a place to display samples of children’s pattern work or safety signs would serve as a rewarding and motivating way to encourage participation.  I also think that setting aside a quiet spot here with puzzles and books about construction would be worthwhile.

o       If your child is into building things, there are lots of different toys and manipulatives, including Legos, Duplos, Tinkertoys, wood blocks, and Lincoln Logs.  Include props like people and vehicles so that your child has the opportunity to create stories while or after building.  It would even be fun to write down or record these stories. Take photos to remember these creations and use them as a comparison with future projects.  And keep in mind that these things don’t need to be cleaned up right away.  Sometimes the best and most imaginative creations I saw in my kindergarten classroom were ones that students built over a period of days as they added, changed, and even periodically wrecked what they had made.  It’ll be well worth having a little bit of a mess.

o       The Boston Children’s Museum website includes a page with some “Science at Home” ideas, two of which deal with construction – Paper Bridges and Newspaper Towers.  Check them out for some fun and challenging activities to try: http://www.bostonkids.org/grownups/science.html#top

o       Do you know of any websites with fun construction-related games or activities?  Let me know!

Being involved with your children at museums

Last time, I mentioned my experience at the Museum of Science in Boston watching chaperones and students on a field trip.  The role of a chaperone is a tough one, and the responsibilities and expectations can really vary depending upon the teacher, the field trip location, etc.  The Museum of Science helps out by providing activity guides with questions, suggestions, and recommended exhibits to visit that are intended to focus chaperones and the students in their group on a specific topic.  But most parents who visit museums with their children will probably do it for a family outing and not on a field trip.  I’ve certainly seen lots of families at all different kinds of museums, and it is really interesting to me how parents and children interact with each other at these places.  One time when I was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I watched a mother in a gallery full of Impressionist paintings talking about the art with her kids, who I would guess were 2 and 4 years old.  At the Boston Children’s Museum I observed some parents gleefully playing in the sand and water with their little ones, while others sat back and watched.  At that same museum, an employee told me how some parents will point out interesting aspects of the Japanese House and reinterpret information so their kiddos can relate, but others don't even want to take their shoes off and instead send their children in alone.

What expectations do parents bring with them when they visit a museum as a family?  What are they looking to get out of it personally?  What do they want for their kids?  There are, of course, all kinds of reasons why families visit museum.  They may want to explore generally, see something specific, go to a new or special exhibit, get out of the house because it’s a rainy day, or just have fun.  Regardless of why we go to museums, these settings do offer opportunities for learning and discovery.  Moreover, chances are you consider learning to be important for your children.  Is it necessary to make every museum experience into an educational one?  I hope not!  I taught kindergarten for a long time and, even though I can tell you about the various cognitive, social, and physical benefits of painting a picture, building with blocks, and playing in the housekeeping center, I sometimes joined in these activities with my students just to have a good time and not to focus on educational objectives.  Nevertheless, I think it is important for parents to recognize the potential for learning that exists at museums and the crucial role they play in their children’s experiences at these places.

Many museums are set up for children to learn through natural discovery and interaction with the exhibits.  Children’s museums, science centers, natural history museums, zoos, and aquariums come to mind immediately, but many art and history institutions also do a great job of this.  A hands-off approach by parents can work really well in these places, and this also gives kids a chance to learn independently or by interacting with peers.  But when you do get involved with what your child is doing, there are so many ways he or she can benefit.   One way to think of it is as one-on-one instructional time – the type we all value when we think about our kids’ school education and why we want smaller class sizes or more help in the classroom.  When you are involved with your kids at the museum, you have an opportunity to ask questions, to get them to describe what they notice, to make predictions, or to make connections to their own knowledge.  It’s a chance for you to help them figure something out, encourage them to try something they might not have thought of otherwise, and extend their learning.  At an art museum, you can talk about the colors and shapes in a work of art, or you can tap into a little one’s familiarity with stories and get him or her to make up a story about what’s happening in a painting.  A children’s museum with an exhibit about farms provides parents and kids with a chance to talk about how food is grown and gets to the store, plan out a trip to buy groceries, or even discuss the idea of planting a garden.  Maybe this doesn’t seem like learning?  But it is, and it’s just as important and meaningful as learning the alphabet or how to add.  And as a parent, you should know that you are your child’s first teacher and you can have a huge impact on his or her education and attitude toward learning.

In case I seem too preachy, I can tell you that I’ve gone to museums with kids of various ages where I didn’t think about learning at all and I didn’t consciously try to do any teaching.  But I still got totally involved, we had a great time, and I suspect that a lot of learning occurred anyway.  Then there were the times when I tried to get the children to be curious, learn from the exhibits, and answer questions – sometimes this worked out, and sometimes it failed miserably.  For example, I went to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. with a three-year-old and had a great time dressing up in clothing from around the world and identifying and talking about the mounted animals in the Hall of Mammals.  On the other hand, I went to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California with two slightly older kids and tried to get them involved with the interactive dinosaur adventure so they could learn about dinosaurs and paleontology.  Instead they decided to use the hand-held “research transmitters” as wands to play Harry Potter.  Oh well, that’s the way it goes. 

So whatever your motivation for going to a museum with your child, I hope that you agree that a museum visit can be an incredible learning experience and that you’ll stay open to the opportunities and possibilities.  Be curious, ask questions, jump in there and get down and dirty alongside your kiddo, and take advantage of those “teachable moments” that so often come up. Whatever happens, I think you’ll find that it’s a fun, shared experience for both of you – the kind where you create memories together.

Museum of Science, part 2

When I was visiting the Museum of Science in Boston, I was in the Natural Mysteries exhibit when a group of boys – probably 4^th or 5^th grade – on a field trip came in and began running around, being loud, banging on exhibits, and horsing around.  With them were two chaperones whose main concern seemed to be getting their children to pose for a photo.  Maybe you too have experienced this on a museum visit, or perhaps you’ve been a chaperone on a field trip to a museum. 

Should there be some kind of expectation for the behavior of students in a museum, even one as hands-on and stimulating as the Museum of Science?  Is it the responsibility of chaperones or the teachers?  Should teachers give the students an assignment that keeps them focused on something related to the school curriculum?  Or is a museum a place for more informal learning, where kids can and should be able to get away from studying things that are going to be on the end-of-year test? 

 Feel free to leave me a comment on this blog.

So here are a few more of the great exhibits I saw on my trip to the Museum of Science.

·        Natural Mysteries is filled with all sorts of terrific stuff, including a large and diverse collection of animals, rocks, and shells that kids can observe and explore.  In fact, there’s far too much in just this one exhibit for me to describe or discuss all of the great things young children can learn.  So, let me focus on the main theme here, which is classification/sorting.  There are lots of activities that teach children about sorting – sometimes you have to sort items yourself, other times you have to figure out how the items have already been sorted.  As you can imagine, this is a terrific way to learn how children think and what they understand about the concept of sorting.  Did they put the shells into groups by size?  Color?  Or maybe a more distinctive way, like the pattern on the shells or how they feel?  Can the kids explain what they did?  Discuss it with them and get insight into their mind!  Sorting and classification are important concepts as kids go through the early years of school – not only for math, but also science (classifying animals, plants, living/nonliving, food groups), reading comprehension, and critical thinking.

o       This exhibit also has a station called “Make Your Own Museum” where you’ll find a variety of objects.  Children can create a display from objects provided by the museum and write about it.  I really liked this project because it encourages young visitors to think about how and why museums make the decisions they do when creating displays of collections, like in ‘Natural Mysteries."

"Make Your Own Museum" at Natural Mysteries

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o       The museum extends this idea of collections even further.  Just outside of this exhibit space, you’ll also find a display box full of the personal collections of people from the museum.  The collections rotate, but when I was there they included signed baseballs, Pez dispensers, and pressed pennies from all different places and attractions.  Let’s face it – almost all of us collect something.  I think the least embarrassing thing that I collect is postcards from my travels.  I’m sure your child already collects something – dolls, baseball cards, snow globes.  I think it would be a great idea to encourage your child to create a display using toys, stuffed animals, favorite books, etc.  This is also a great opportunity for your child to think about why these things are meaningful, decide the best way to arrange these items, and to write a label.  Get creative too – maybe do good guys vs. bad guys, arrange the stuffed animals so that they’re at a tea party, or make a series of clever scenes with props. 

Then take a photo of your child’s display and post it to this blog!

o       If children want to see other collections or even show off their own, there is a British website where kids can join and post photos of their collections.  Check it out at http://www.caboodle.org.uk/home.

o       And for some great books about collections, check out the dozens of I Spy and Can You See What I See? books that are available. 

·        The last of the exhibits at the Museum of Science that I wanted to focus on is the first floor’s New England Habitats.  This contains dioramas of mounted animals in various New England areas, set during different seasons.  In some ways these 3-D displays are very old-fashioned, showing frozen animals in a scene designed to give you a feel for their natural environment, including background paintings done by famous wildlife artist Francis Lee Jacques.   

New England Habitats

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      But I think they’re fantastic.  They beautifully capture a moment in time and they’re staged so that it feels almost natural to create a story in your head about what’s happening and why.  As a result, I think they’re great as teaching tools since kids can make observations about what they see, draw conclusions about animal behavior, and notice the signs of the different seasons depicted.  There are so many questions you can ask to get children noticing and thinking about what they observe, and it may even inspire them to go out and see the real thing! 

You will also find lots of books out there about the animals in this exhibit and about the seasons, but here are a few that I like:

o   Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey.  Although McCloskey is best known for the classic, Make Way for Ducklings, he also wrote this 1949 Caldecott Honor Book about the adventures of a little girl and a bear both in search of blueberries.

o   Pretty much any book by Jim Arnofsky.  This author/illustrator does a great job of creating books filled with detailed illustrations and simple text about animals and the natural world.  Some of his books are Every Autumn Comes the Bear, Beaver Pond, Moose Pond, and All Night Near the Water.

o   There also some good books in the Smithsonian Wild Heritage Collection, such as Black Bear Cub and Beaver Stream.

Museum of Science, Boston

Recently I visited the Museum of Science in Boston.  There are a tremendous number of exhibits, covering a range of topics that includes: animals, the natural world, forces, the five senses, engineering, math, and dinosaurs (http://www.mos.org/exhibits_shows/current_exhibits).  I had fun exploring, and I know that young children will enjoy a lot of what the museum has to offer.  A few areas stood out for me because of how they lend themselves to learning for younger kids.  Below you’ll find a description of these exhibits, my thoughts about the learning that takes place, and some ideas for how parents can extend this learning to the home.

·        Discovery Center is a two-floor area designed for children from birth to age eight.  It contains many hands-on activities, some staffed by facilitators and others where kids can play independently, with their parents, or with peers.  You’ll find live animals, fun manipulatives, and “discovery boxes” of real objects like rocks, fossils, and animal bones.  In several sections, the museum has included signs aimed at parents to give them information about what learning is occurring or suggestions for questions they could ask to get insight into their children’s thinking.  While it certainly can be tempting to sit back and let your youngsters explore the Discovery Center on their own, I think there are some great opportunities to play with them, observe what interests them, and integrate higher level thinking.  For example, upstairs is a pneumatic tube that kids can use to send different-colored letters from one side of the room to the other.  Depending on your child’s age and abilities, you can ask him/her to send only specific colored letters, uppercase or lowercase letters, or the letters of known words.  Does your child show an interest in examining the rocks downstairs?  Encourage him/her to sort the rocks by color, shape, or size.  Perhaps it’s time to start a rock collection, buy tools like a magnifying glass or rock polisher, or get books from the library about rocks once you get home.  And this is really just the beginning of all the active exploration and learning at this exhibit, so be sure to check it out!

o       The Museum of Science also has created a website just for the Discovery Center:  http://www.mos.org/discoverycenter/.  It contains tips for visiting with young children, research about child development, and a guide to other exhibits at the museum that may have particular appeal for kids 8 and younger.

·        A Bird’s World has some neat activities that children can do, but adult guidance can mean the difference between simply doing them and learning from them.  “Bird Voices” teaches visitors to distinguish between different bird calls and identify their meanings.  Getting your child to pay attention to the sounds in this way can develop his/her listening skills, which is an important part of the ability to distinguish sounds in words – a necessary skill when it comes to reading and writing development.  The "Sneaking Corridor" tests how quietly a person can walk through an area to avoid alarming birds.  It’s a good idea to talk with children so that they understand the purpose of this activity and don’t simply run through the corridor.  

"Sneaking Corridor" in A Bird's World

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      Also the museum has included a shadow puppet activity where a person holds a bird puppet up to a screen while someone on the other side tries to identify it based on the silhouette.  This activity may inspire kids to make shadow animals with their hands, create shadow-related artwork, or learn about the science of shadows.  Here is a link to a website with neat ideas for arts and crafts with shadows: http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/shadows/art.htm.  And below are some interesting books about shadows:

o       Bear Shadow by Frank Asch – one of a popular picture book series

o       What Makes a Shadow? by Clyde Robert Bulla – part of the “Let’s Read and Find out” nonfiction series

o       Shadows and Reflections by Tana Hoban – this author creates great wordless books that use photographs to teach concepts

·        Colossal Fossil: Triceratops Cliff presents one of only four nearly complete Triceratops on public display in the world, while Dinosaurs: Modeling the Mesozoic uses fossils, models, and interactives to inform visitors about dinosaurs and encourage them to think about how paleontologists use evidence to draw conclusions.  I could write about the many dinosaur activities and books that are out there, but instead I have some questions – prompted by the presence of only a handful of children at these two exhibits on the day I was at the museum – that you might be able to answer.   

I remember how my cousin loved to play with dinosaurs when we were little, and he knew the names and details of dozens of them.  But do dinosaurs still hold the same fascination for your children – or have they been replaced by superheroes, robots, and cartoon characters?  Is it even that important for kids under eight years old to learn about dinosaurs?  Frequently, early childhood educators talk about the importance of learning things rooted in children’s worlds, the familiar, the personal.  As a result, a lot of science at school in the early years focuses on observable phenomena like the five senses, plants, animals, water, and the seasons.  Even though children may be interested in or be able to learn information about a topic like dinosaurs, is it possible that they really can’t fully grasp it all since the topic is so far removed from their everyday lives?  I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

If your children do like dinosaurs, here are some games from The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and Scholastic websites that they may enjoy:

o       http://www.childrensmuseum.org/themuseum/dinosphere/kids/kids_about.html (scroll down and go to the links for Activities and Games)

o       http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/learn.jsp (look in the Science category and be sure to click on the tab that corresponds with your child’s grade level)

You know what… I have way too much that I want to say about the Museum of Science to fit it into one entry!  Next time I’ll look at a few more exhibits.

Welcome!

This blog is an assignment for a graduate Museum Studies class at Tufts University called “Museums and New Media.”  I am a former kindergarten teacher who is interested in how museums create educational opportunities for children through exhibits and programming, including field trips, tours, outreach programs, and special events.  I have explored a number of museums from the perspective of a general visitor and an educator, particularly children’s museums and science centers, and come away impressed with the incredible learning opportunities available at these institutions.  I have two goals for this blog:

1)      To look at museums and their exhibits, and offer insight into the great learning and discovery that takes place for young kids.  I also want to encourage parents to join in the fun and take advantage of these opportunities to support their children’s learning.

2)      To inspire parents to extend museum learning into the home by providing suggestions for fun activities and quality literature that connect with what their children experience at the museum.

I hope to show that fun and learning are truly intertwined for children at museums, and that this shouldn’t stop once they leave.  I also look forward to your thoughts about these and other museums, ideas for ways that families can engage in discovery at home, and suggestions for children’s books that can help bring learning to life.