Finding the Subject in the Material

Every day there’s an opportunity to see the subject in the material. This picture is the perfect example: we weren’t looking for an art shot on our historic meander, but we found one.

Museums and schools have had a long symbiotic relationship that has recently been put on the rocks.  Schools these days are severely underfunded when it comes to field trips, making teachers focus on getting the most out of every trip taken in a year. Museums, in turn, have had to move towards a more formal look at their classes and offerings for schools in order to satisfy local and state curriculum and education standards. Thus, we have the subject of today’s post: finding the subject in the material.

What does that even mean? Don’t you usually write the material for the subject? Yes and no. If you go into a museum with the subject in mind, you may not get as full of a field trip or visit as you’d like. But if you go into a museum with the material in mind, the subjects are endless.

Take, for example, a natural history museum. Rocks, minerals, animals, maybe even dinosaurs (anyone that says they don’t like dinosaurs is probably lying, FYI). If you look at it as just a chance to study fossils or the natural environment, you may miss out on the opportunity to discuss texture, history, human impact, or mathematics (think word problems). If you go into an art museum expecting to only discuss art, you’re missing out on mathematics, politics, world cultures, literature, mythology, world religions, history, and science, as well as psychology and personal development (to name a few).

All museums offer something beyond what’s described or pictured on the surface.  And visitors from different backgrounds will take away different meanings and relationships from the same objects. Teachers have a hard enough time teaching in a classroom; museums give them a chance to teach a bunch of subjects to a bunch of individuals who may not always feel a personal connection to a subject in school. Suddenly that student may have the chance to create a potentially lasting relationship with a subject because they now see it in a different light. You never know what will be the initial spark to someone’s fire.

In grad school, we were required to write lesson plans for potential activities that fit state educational and learning objectives. Our professor told us to write the activities and lesson plans and then find the objectives that met them, rather than read the objectives and write plans that fit them. So now I offer that challenge to you, readers.

This post isn’t just for teachers or parents. This is your personal challenge this weekend to visit a museum you’ve never been to before with no pre-conceived subject in mind, and see what the material presents to you. Find the subject in the material.

Tuesdays are for Toddlers: Blinded with Science!

Welcome back for another edition of Tuesdays are for Toddlers! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and took time to appreciate the last official weekend of Summer. Now, we’re on to the Fall, and Seasons may just be covered by our venue of choice: Science Museums!

Science museums across the country are fantastic sources of learning and knowledge for toddlers and young children for one big reason: tactile experience. Science museums focus on the hands-on portion of learning. Many include interactive displays that go beyond bright lights and button pushing and actually demonstrate complex principles of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geology in ways that kids can relate to. Movement and tactile experiences are phenomenal learning tools for toddlers, and helps them develop fine and gross motor skills at the same time. Even better? It may mean some quiet time later when they wear themselves out doing all the activities a science museum has to offer.

Personally, some of my favorite memories from childhood were spent in the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington. They had everything from moving dinosaur displays to kinesiology experiments, weather and tides to how the body works. They also offer educational and entertaining IMAX movie experiences, and laser shows for adults later in the evening. The Perot Museum of Nature and Science (formerly the Museum of Nature and Science at Fair Park) in Dallas, Texas is another such place, and every time I would go to visit family, it was one of my favorite destinations.

It isn’t hard to engage a toddler’s mind in a science museum. Explain what they’re seeing and doing and get involved in the experiment with them. Seeing that you are also engaged, even if you already know how to do it and what it means, will increase their interest in it and make the lesson stick. If the science museum you’re visiting has dinosaurs, talk about their size and what they ate and how they would have lived. Get messy; if there’s sand or water or paint, join in and answer questions. Play with the displays and if they’re really enjoying one particular type of display or one subject area, stop by the library on the way home and check out some books to read together later.

Photo by Liesl Den: Earth Science: Plate Movements & Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Mountain-Making (while it says for 2nd Grade, it can definitely be adapted for Toddlers and Pre-K).

For a fun food related activity that can help reinforce what they learn at the science center, head over to the Homeschool Den by Liesl Den (now located at Parents.com) and see what she has to offer for fun ideas and ways to bring science experiments and other subjects into the home!

For another educational source for science experiments at home, visit Science-Sparks, where they have experiments from loads of subjects for all age groups, including Preschool!