Kit Tidbit: Native American Supermarket kit

Are you going to have a full house for Thanksgiving? Trying to find fun and educational things to occupy the children? Well, I have the answer!!!!

We are promoting our Native American Supermarket kit for the Thanksgiving holiday season! You can reserve one by calling the SERC at 919.220.5429 * 356. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Kit Tidbit: Building a Science In A Suitcase kit from start to finish!! (part 1)

These next few blog posts are going to be about our most recent project in the SERC, creating a new Science In A Suitcase (SIAS) kit from the very beginning to the end. The topic for this kit is going to be Wetlands, and will be targeting grades 6-8. So...here we go!!

The first step to this process is figuring out the topic and budget for our new baby. We decided that a Wetlands kit concentrating on middle school science is going to be great for many reasons. The main thought is because we have an awesome Wetland at the Museum, and we really want educators to take note and use the resource around us! Another reason we chose this topic is because we can incorporate lots of field study activities...and get ready - an ENVIROSCAPE!

For those of you who do not know what an EnviroScape is, its a table top model of an Environment in which you can manipulate different aspects of it. The model we chose is titled "Wetlands" and it shows all the different industrial reasons a Wetland can become polluted. Because we're all about interactive science and work with lots of inner-city schools, this quote really sold me on including this resource.

"We go out in pairs with the EnviroScape to inner-city after school programs and Native American resource centers. Many people are unaware of the importance of wetlands. With EnviroScape we can dramatically show the points we are trying to make and the kids love it. Everybody gets a chance to interact and they get excited about learning something new."

JANE SCHMITT, League of Women Voters, Henrietta, NY.

The next step is to create great hands on activities for the kit! This is where we are now. Soon to come I will explain the process is this too! For me, it is all a trial and error because this is my first time creating a SIAS kit!!! Until next time:)

Kit Tidbit: Finalizing Science in a Shoebox

We are almost done working on the prototypes for Science in a Shoebox! We have written, re-written and are on the final copy of each activity guide. To refresh your memory, we chose three Science in a Suitcase topics: Eco Explorers, Rocks and From Seed to Plant. We pulled some activities from the existing kit and also wrote a few new ones! Each Shoebox comes with enough materials for 5 people, books, non consumable supplies (hand lenses, trowels, specimens), a recommended literature list and a vocabulary page.

These kits allow you to explore different activities, connect what you learned with real life practices, learn more about the professions involved and share your new knowledge with others! We are getting ready to jump back into our schedule of Second Science Saturdays after the holidays, so we will let you know what our guests think!  If you would like to rent a Science In A Shoebox, email me at kristenw@ncmls.org.  

Kit Tidbit: Science In A SHOEBOX? A new edition at the SERC

As many of you know we have something called "Science In A Suitcase" (SIAS) kits here at the Museum; which can be rented by educators, parents, home schoolers, etc. They are one of the great resources in the SERC, but a new thought has popped up. What about creating a science kit that is very similar to our SIAS kits, but smaller...really small...something a parent can rent and complete in a weekend??? So- we let our minds wander a bit and then came back to the table with this new idea.

It will be smaller, have between 3 and 5 activities for each topic, still have the activity guides and the kits will have all the materials included (i.e. hand lenses, books, field guides...). And so Science In A SHOEBOX was born! We chose 3 kit topics from our SIAS kit list to start with: Rocks, Eco Explorers and From Seed to Plant. I have already started creating the prototype for the Rocks kit, now I have to create a little activity guide, gather ALL the materials for the kit, find a functional container for the kit and then show it off and see how it goes!

I am excited that we are going to be creating these mini-SIAS kits! They are going to be less expensive to rent then the SIAS kits and will hopefully be more functional for the average parent, babysitter or awesome parent whose child is having a birthday and has run out of ideas to keep the kids busy!!

So, right now I am at a stopping point with this little project. I am hopefully going to be able to take pictures soon and I will get them up so you will be able to see all of my works in progress!!

Now, I have some questions for you! Would you be interested in Science in a Shoebox? What kits or topics would you like to see us adapt for smaller groups? How many kids should Science in a Shoebox be set up for - is 5 kids enough, or should we provide enough materials for up to 8 kids? Let us know in the comments section!

Kit Tidbit:Getting ready for a DPS kit rotation!

The resource center has so many functions! We are here for our own employees, our members, teachers, home schoolers and parents. We also work with Durham Public Schools (DPS) to supplement their science curriculum. The students get a chance to get down and dirty with science!!!

This is going to be a super quick overview of DPS's Science Initiative...I know you're excited :) The program works with Kindergarten through 6th grade. There are 4 kit topics per grade level, all are designed to target the NC Standard Course of Study. We (The Museum) help DPS by refurbishing all of these kits. The schools receive them on a rotational basis, and they will get all 4 kit titles each year. Every kit is unique, with everything needed for all the experiments from pencils and paper down to the gravel and animal cards!

One kit in every grade receives a title that is animal focused. This means that it comes with an animal card; which means when the teacher receives the kit, she will order his/her animals for that kit. They will come to him/her in the mail. These science kits are really cool and there's no better way to learn than to actually use your hands and do it!

So, we are getting ready for our third rotation this year, we have about 3 weeks to refurbish
A LOT of kits! We are making labels, counting supplies, shopping and getting mentally prepared to do this! It's a lot of work, but it is such an awesome program and that makes it totally worth it!

(This picture is of the first grade Solids and Liquids kit!)