Cultsha Xpo a Great Success for Richmond's Cultural Nonprofit Community

I'm just speaking by way of what I saw last Saturday. VAM attended the first annual Cultsha Xpo, which was put on by CultureWorks for Richmond at the Science Museum of Virginia. Not knowing what to expect from this inaugural event, I pulled up to find that parking would be a challenge. Turns out I got lucky and found a space right out front, but the place was absolutely packed! Thousands of Richmond's "Cultural shareholders" were on hand to register, pick up their Cultsha Bucks, and "spend" the day away!

We were representing our TimeTravelers program, and gave away a ton of information, and sold several hundreds of dollars worth of TimeTravelers' passport guides. As the crowds slowly diminished and we began to pack up at the end of a long, tiring, but exciting day, I saw a lot of smiling faces, a lot of Cultsha Bucks being counted out, and a "coming together" and bouyancy in the cultural community. Thank you CultureWorks! We'll be there next year.

Flashmob at Cultsha Xpo:

Field Trip Perspectives: Henricus Historical Park (Part 3 of 3)

Museum: Henricus Historical Park
Audience: 2^nd grade
Format: 2 hour guided exploration of life at Henricus

Luckily, I had a day to recover between my 5^th grader’s field trip and my 2^nd grader’s. The second grade traveled to Henricus Historical Park. Unlike the 5^th grade trip, it was a relatively short distance from school, and therefore was not an extended day trip. I wasn’t sure what to expect, since I had never visited Henricus, and had never been on a field trip of children younger than 4^th grade.

Upon reporting to school, we received our groups and instructions from the teachers – we were to stay in a large group that would then be taken through the program by the museum educators. As chaperones, we were to help shepherd the kids from place to place, assist when someone needed a bathroom break or a behavior reminder, and generally help make sure the kids were engaged (they were extremely engaged the entire time!).

This was a very different format from the trip I had just taken, and my role as chaperone was different as a result. While the kids at the Aquarium had taken their own initiative to see this exhibit or that, the museum educators at Henricus were guiding us through various aspects of life for the Powhatans and the English 400 years ago in Colonial Virginia. The program had the kids planting seeds the way the Powhatan Indians would have, hoeing tobacco, and grinding corn. The kids were experiencing a ‘living lesson’ so to speak, while at the Aquarium the kids were largely ‘curating’ their own experience. What I realized was that both formats are extremely valuable for different reasons, and both formats have benefits for different age levels. One benefit of a program such as the one we experienced at Henricus, is that it can be correlated specifically to the standards and curriculum the children are learning in school.

An Aside (Diverging a bit from a chaperone perspective):
Again, there were several children on our trip with special needs. We had school personnel who work with these children on a daily basis on the trip, and we chaperones helped steer these kids back on track when necessary, such as when one child got very caught up in some nearby construction equipment that was working when we as a group were ‘focused’ on the workings of an English farm in Henricus. This made me wonder about best practices – this was a child who, in all likelihood, did not realize that earth moving machinery did not exist in 1611 (I’m sure he was not the only one!). Would this have been an opportunity for the museum educator to discuss “then and now” in a more basic way for the students who may have benefitted from such a discussion? Perhaps it might have, but perhaps not. This was a format where there were four groups circulating through various ‘stations’ within the museum area, and likely each educator had a strict timeline along with learning outcomes to cover. These types of issues, and a myriad others, are those that come up daily in the lives of museum educators, and discussing practices with colleagues and teachers allows reflection and refinement of strategies for all.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed the four ‘stations’ that they visited at Henricus. Each allowed them a glimpse into life at Henricus from various perspectives: the Powhatan perspective, the farmer’s perspective, the tobacco trader’s perspective, and the soldier’s perspective. Each of the educators had their own distinct style, which was good in that different kids  got ‘hooked’ by different strategies and styles. The kids got to see firsthand the differences between the homes, tools, and rules that governed the people who lived in Virginia in 1611.

Once our tour wrapped up, we ate lunch on the lawn before our busses rolled in. My son slept the whole way back to school. Again, I hope that, once back at school, the kids had a chance to reflect on the wide array of learning that took place that day. Research says sleep helps us process new information. Perhaps my son was “reflecting” all the way home!

Field Trip Perspectives: The Virginia Aquarium (Part 2 of 3)

Museum: Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center
Audience: 5^th grade
Format: 3-4 hour self-guided tour
I traveled with my son’s 5^th grade to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach. It was a major trip, and the school hired coaches. This fact, in-and-of itself, garners a lot of excitement among the kids. After all, it’s not every day you can “do your business” on a moving bus. Plus, since it’s May in 5^th grade, this is also the last elementary school field trip for these guys (one of the reasons I wanted to go – childhood is quickly evaporating for my 11 year old!). As chaperones, we were given our list of students, along with the teacher’s cell phone number in case of an emergency. This was to be a self-guided tour throughout this museum with multiple buildings and a huge outdoor component. As a chaperone to five boys, I knew my job would consist largely of “herding cats” all day, and doing my best to keep up. The teachers had downloaded an instructional worksheet from the museum’s website for the kids to use while touring the museum. As a chaperone, it was good to know that I could use this tool to help focus a child who might begin to wander or lose interest (for me, this was not an issue  – my group was incredibly interested, darting from one exhibit to another and truly reading/trying/learning from each).

Demographics
The school is extremely small as far as local zoning. There is only one classroom full of fifth graders from near the school. So the county uses this school as a “zone” school for special programs. So in addition to the local kids, who are racially & ethnically diverse but, largely, come from economically modest households, there is a large number of kids from 20+ other elementary schools who attend this school because they are in a “gifted” zone program. This group, too, is racially, ethnically, and economically diverse. In addition to that, the school has a zone program for deaf students.

An Aside
This makes me think about school field trip booking procedures (OK, I’m diverging for a moment from my perspective as a chaperone) – because, had this been a guided educational program led by museum educators or docents, they would surely have noticed that this was an extremely diverse group that required various special teaching considerations. I wonder how much of this type of information is gathered by most museums prior to a trip? Surely it would be helpful to know who you are dealing with, and how to best accommodate their needs. The kids’ needs and the diversity in the types of learners was not a problem b/c of the self-guided nature of the tour. That is one benefit to such a structure for a field trip – different learners will walk away with different experiences, based upon their interests, abilities, etc. At a place like the Virginia Aquarium, there were plenty of things to interest different kids.

Our group hustled through the Marsh Pavilion to the aviary, where they picked up the identification sheets so they could figure out what types of birds they were seeing. In the Pavilion, they loved seeing the snapping turtle, fiddler crabs, and seahorses. We had an hour in this section of the museum prior to eating lunch out back in the shade. The kids’ enthusiasm was only slightly tempered by hunger by the time we sat down to eat. One in my group was celebrating a birthday, so soon Krispy Kreme donuts were passed around and songs were sung. The day was not only filled with learning, it was festive and celebratory. The kids were (no wonder!) in a great mood and so happy to be together outside of school.

After lunch, we headed through the outside areas on our way to the main building. We could have spent a lot more time at each of the outdoor stations, but as chaperone I knew that there was a lot to see in the Center, and I also knew what time the busses would be picking us up, so we chose one or two stops along the way and pushed on so that we’d have plenty of time to explore once we were inside.

In the exhibit areas, one thing stood out to me (I had not been on a 5^th grade field trip since I taught 5^th grade back in the mid-90’s): the technology. The kids were not only interacting with the exhibits in the way that you’d imagine (touching, reading, trying the experiments, pointing out the fish), but many of the kids had some sort of technology – whether that be a phone with photo and internet capabilities, an ipod touch, or a digital camera. Some of the kids were looking up different marine creatures on the internet to learn more about them while in the exhibit halls. I overheard one girl, when we passed through one of the halls, comment, “Shoot! I just lost my signal!”

An Aside: II
The technology that gets brought into museums by school groups is, of course, rather a new phenomenon, but it is one that museum professionals can consider when exhibit planning. Should all of your galleries be WiFi areas? Should there be QR codes at different stations for those who have the capability to use their mobile device as a learning tool? What about the use of iPads in galleries? There has been a lot of buzz in the world of museum education about how these devices can be utilized in a 21^st century museum. Of course, not all age groups and demographics will have mobile devices (certainly in our diverse group, there were many kids who did not bring such a tool), so there is a balance to be struck between taking advantage of technological opportunities and serving all audiences.

Exhausted, with our minds buzzing with all we had seen over the past few hours, we entered the area where the kids could “pet” the stingrays. For my son, this was the highlight. It also provided a stop where the kids all slowed down a little, stayed longer than at a lot of the exhibits, and quieted down as they observed and interacted with the stingrays. It was a good ending. As we left the museum, I was wondering how (and if) the teachers were planning to “unpack the experience” for the kids once back at school. Processing ALL THE INFORMATION is key so that the group can get the most from their experience as possible. This is especially important on a self-guided tour.

An Aside: III
If your museum offers a self-guided tour, you may consider offering post-visit activities (online or otherwise) that assist in the “unpacking” of the experience. What I mean by that is that the experience itself is rather short, very filled with energy and excitement, and continually active. Educational research consistently shows that, to complement that type of experience, students need the opportunity to reflect, analyze, make connections, and extend their experience. While many of the post-visit activities I’ve seen focus on kids recalling what they’ve seen or classifying items, a simple, open-ended journal prompt that allows the kids to reflect back on an aspect of their visit, or an assignment that asks the kids to create a short instructional video about the experience for a younger student to view, allows the kids a little more leeway as far as reflection and consideration of the museum’s collection or program. (And if museum educators could have a chance to see products such as this, they’d provide invaluable insight for planning and evaluation of programs).