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