Science Matters mobile museum to debut today at Science Museum Oklahoma
An innovative “museum on wheels” is set to make its debut today at Science Museum Oklahoma, according to a news release. Science Matters, a new discovery-based mobile museum funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, encourages students to explore science as they engage in numerous activities found within its walls. The museum will travel primarily to schools in rural Oklahoma, providing learning opportunities in areas of the state far from traditional museums.
“It is our feeling that every child benefits from dynamic hands-on learning experiences especially in the sciences,” Steven Anderson, president of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, said in the release. “And, it is our hope that when this amazing mobile laboratory rolls into a small town, the experience will help spark a child’s desire to learn for a lifetime.”
The mobile museum includes 10 different hands-on exhibits and activities that combine to provide students with experiences to which they may not have access otherwise. The participatory nature of the exhibits also challenges students, creating a fun, playful environment. Students can match wits in a challenge of speed and ingenuity, orchestrate a symphony of sound with bubbling flasks, and dodge lasers while attempting to decipher a secret computer code.
”Science Matters creates a highly immersive environment, transporting Oklahoma students into a state-of-the-art, multi-sensory learning atmosphere that encourages participation and inquiry,” Sherry Marshall, director of the Oklahoma Museum Network, said in the release. “Filled with hands-on experiments, Science Matters engages students as they measure, investigate, create and deduce, allowing them to experience true discovery learning.”
Science Matters is designed to travel throughout rural Oklahoma but will be on display today and Saturday-Sunday at Science Museum Oklahoma. It will then travel to the remaining Oklahoma Museum Network partners for brief engagements before it hits the road to serve students in rural areas.
As an extra bonus: teachers who visit the Science Matters Mobile Museum and present their school identification card during today’s preview at Science Museum Oklahoma will receive free curriculum featuring information and activities that correlate with the exhibits.
Thanks to a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, Science Matters joins the many other activities of the Oklahoma Museum Network that include rotating exhibit groups featured at each of the museum partners and numerous teacher professional development opportunities. For more information, go to www.oklahomamuseumnetwork.org.
-BAM
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I would like to place a request to have the mobile museum
visit our school, Peckham School preK-8th grade. We are located in Kay County. Please email me to let me know what
more I need to do to have you visit. Thank you, Joy