Ready or Not....

Below are three videos that comprise the Ready or Not... session from the VAM 2012 Annual Conference. The speakers were Mike Henry, Site Administrator, Fairfax County Park Authority; Tracy Gillespie, Historic Site Supervisor, Aldie Mill Historical Park / Mt. Zion Historical Park/ Gilbert's Corner Regional Park: Properties of Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority; Scott Harris, Director, James Monroe Museum; Doug Harvey, Director, Lynchburg Museum System; Robin Reed, Executive Director, National D-Day Memorial Museum.

The session description goes a little something like this: Change is a constant. Managing change in new situations and positions requires skill, flexibility and adaptability. Panel members (no strangers to change) will share what new challenges they encountered and what lessons they learned as they managed the mutable aspects of museum careers. Thinking about a job change or maybe heading in a new direction? This session will help you get ready.

We hope you enjoy this little freebie from #VAM2012. We hope you consider joining us for #VAM2013 at The Homestead, where we'll all be treated to a room rate of just $95 a night! We can't wait! :)

KIDS CARING ABOUT COLLECTIONS-- PART 2

“I’m melting again!”  “I’m stuck in sediments.”  “Yeah, I FINALLY metamorphosed.”  These are just a few of the comments heard one day from the eight students in the Kids Caring About Collections (KCC) program at the Virginia Living Museum as they went through a Rock Cycle activity.

The mission of the Virginia Living Museum is to educate and  Deer Park ES wanted the students to learn about career opportunities, so when the KCC program was being developed we crafted it to have two aspects- work in the collections and short fun informational mini-classes every other week, dealing with different aspects of geology and careers in geology.  I enlisted the help of the educators and volunteers with background in geology to become the presenters.  The Rock Cycle activity mentioned above was one of these mini-classeses.  After a brief introduction by Education Associate Betsy Wolin, the students became rocks.  Rolling a special die they moved through stations representing stages of the rock cycle.  Along the way they collected beads to record their journey.  It was one of their favorite activities and introduced them to the different types of rocks they would be rehousing.

Another favorite topic for kids is paleontology (dinosaurs and fossils).  Judy Molnar, a Education Associate, has spent three summers in Montana with the VA Museum of Natural History digging dinosaur bones.  Her slide show, detailing the steps in finding, extracting and packing dinosaur bones really captured the attention of the students.  Although this group was not working on fossils, we wanted them to see what kind of cool things you could do in the field of geology.

Roseann Carlson, a geology professor and VLM volunteer added to their store of knowledge about geology and geologic careers. She taught them about sedimentary rocks, what education you need to become a geologist and related some of the experiences she has had working in many aspects of geology over her distinguished career as a geologist.

To introduce the students to the importance of minerals in their lives we gave them magnifying glasses and hardness test kits to learn about some of the properties of minerals. We also set up a display of minerals and a display of everyday things that are made from minerals.  We had them try to match the mineral to its product.  Many of the students were surprised to find minerals in their toothpaste, cold lozenges and baby powder.

Capping off the mini-classes was a spirited competition between the boys and girls in a game of Geology Concentration.  The students had to match the name of a scientist working in a geology career with a card that said what that scientist did. (Ex. Astrogeologist matches the cards “Studies and creates maps for other bodies in the solar system”.). This game, designed by Susan Summers a Education Associate at the museum, introduced them to eight different careers in geology, many of which they thought would be really fun to do.

By the end of the program the students had increased their knowledge of rocks, minerals, fossils, and careers in geology. They also walked away with a better understanding of what the VLM collects, why we collect and how we take care of our collections.  This program connected them to the collection and gave them ownership.  In return the students rehoused the contents of 51 drawers of rocks and minerals, replacing 738 acidic boxes with acid free boxes.  In addition they noted discrepancies, objects with no catalog card and even found one object that had been listed as “missing”!

For these eight students, geology stepped out of the text book and into their hands. They left with comments like “The VLM is very fun”, “This class was a great learning experience” “Its vary helpful! I love it. really much! (sic) and “I think this is the best enrichment, I love it.” According to the kids in the program, “Rocks Rock!”

Jody Ullmann
Collections Manager (aka, Queen of the Dead)
Virginia Living Museum
Newport News, VA
www.thevlm.org

KIDS CARING ABOUT COLLECTIONS (PART 1 OF 2)

A recent webinar stated that in order to get recognition and money for the things museum collections need, people need to feel connected to the collections.  Here at the Virginia Living Museum, the live collection takes center stage and few know that we even have a non-living collection as well.  Hidden away behind closed doors, with limited access by the public, makes us invisible and we were missing out on connecting with people in the same way that our live collection can.  After all, it’s hard to compete with warm, cute and fuzzy animals.
The local environmental science magnet elementary school, Deer Park ES, contacted the museum looking for ways to connect the kids to the museum and have them learn about job opportunities in the museum field.  Here was the perfect opportunity to connect these kids to a collection that they were going to be studying in school- rocks and minerals.  So the idea of Kids Caring About Collections was born. 

Every Wednesday a group of eight fifth graders enthusiastically leave their school and walk the two blocks to the Virginia Living Museum to work in the museum as part of this program. Combining learning with work, the students arrive about 9:30 and have a short lesson then they work for the next 20 minutes rehousing the geology collection in a classroom near the Collections storage area. They carefully remove all of the boxes of specimens, determine what size acid free box they will need and then carefully move the contents of the box from the old box to the new one, making sure that they also move all labels and tags in the box.  This may seem scary to most Collections Managers, but these kids are hand-picked from many kids that apply for this opportunity. We also insisted that the school provide two adult volunteers.

With our staff and the teacher, that ends up being one adult for every two students, a great ratio. While the students are rehousing the objects, they are also learning about the rocks and minerals, where they can be found and sometimes even that they have unique properties.  At the end, I ask them to tell me about their favorite rock or mineral or to look up an exotic place they have never heard of that was listed on a tag. Among their favorites was purple and yellow fluorite, the green malachite and the sparkling Herkimer diamonds.

"Before"

"After"

Jody Ullmann
Collections Manager (aka, Queen of the Dead)
Virginia Living Museum
Newport News, VA
www.thevlm.org