Published: July 22, 2006 11:39 pm         

Children’s museum gets $10K

• Grant will get ‘Museum Without Walls’ started in Stillwater elementary schools

Significant progress is the name of the game for Stillwater’s Children’s Museum. The fledgling organization recently received a boost from Oklahoma Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, a National Science Foundation program, which awarded a $10,000 grant to the Museum Without Walls pilot program.

“We want to begin implementing our mission without a permanent building,” said Ruth Cavins, executive director for the museum.

The Museum Without Walls program is a way for the Children’s Museum to begin interacting with the community without having a permanent location. Through the grant money and partnership with Payne County Smart Start, the first Museum Without Walls program, Smart Start to Science and Literacy, will begin in Stillwater elementary schools in September, said Cavins.

Cavins said museum educators will read story books in prekindergarten through second grade classrooms at Highland Park and Will Rogers elementary schools, and engage the children in a critical thinking process where they would consider alternate endings.

Following the discussion, Cavins said the children will participate in a science- and art-based curriculum project applicable to the book’s content. The program will be conducted on a weekly basis, and last for 32 weeks.

Cavins said the 40-book curriculum was created by educators and child advocates using standards set by the Oklahoma Department of Education Priority Academic Student Skills and national science education standards.

The Museum Without Walls board consists of: Regina Hall, Payne County Smart Start executive director; Megan Matthews, Will Rogers Elementary principal; Pam Davis, Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma child care coordinator; C.D. Turner, Stillwater Head Start director; Karen Walters, Covenant Community day care and private school director and owner; Faye Ann Presnal, retired Oklahoma State University early childhood specialist; Kandi Speer, freelance writer and grant writer; and Kurt Baze, Highland Park Elementary principal.

Cavins said the grant money will provide supplies for the program but also allow the museum to hire eight OSU work study students to read and implement the program.

Cavins hopes to implement a science-based plant virus exploration program for grades five through eight in January. The program will use the grant money to study the history of virus research in plants and the horticulture industry. Cavins said they are looking for volunteers to administer the program and are hoping retired educators will be interested in teaching the program.

With these smaller programs, Cavins hopes the museum will begin to gain a strong and successful history in order to qualify for larger grants.

“These are the baby steps,” said Cavins of the first programs.

While the museum is making great strides in their programming Cavins said they are still in need. Right now, the museum is seeking corporate sponsorships and private donations and looking to the community to donate and volunteer professional accounting, marketing, legal and technology services.

     

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