This week’s guest post is by Nicole R. Rivera, Ed.D. Nicole is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at North Central College. She is also the Academic Research and Evaluation Partner of the DuPage Children’s Museum in Naperville, IL. For the past two years, I have been working with the DuPage museum to explore what parents and…
As we plan for 2018 at the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum, we have decided to reduce the number of programs we offer, holding workshops and home-school programs monthly instead of semi-monthly, and cultural festivals bi-monthly instead of monthly. The goal is to leave more time to ensure excellence of programs, and to build strong systems…
“Maker Spaces” are currently in vogue: they are now a fairly standard component of children’s museums, and many art museums have drop-in spaces for children and families to create art during their visit. Schools and libraries are interested in maker spaces as well. As with any other exhibit, a maker space is not inherently successful.…
A few months ago I stumbled upon an IMLS blogpost sharing research about the impact of informal learning environments on academic achievement. Deanne Swan, formerly a researcher for IMLS, mined a large body of data – the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which collected data from 21,000 children over nearly 10 years – for the correlations…
The Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum turned one year old last week. Amidst the birthday celebrations and thank you emails, I have been reflecting on the question: What did I learn from my first year as a museum director? What did we learn from the first year of operation of a new museum? I came up…
On Tuesday we are hosting a cocktail party for major donors – people who, over the 15 years of building the PlayHouse, have donated $5000 or more. The goal of this event is to thank them for what they helped us to create. I am struggling with my brief presentation to them. What information or…
Recently I saw a video of a science demonstration in a children’s museum, and found myself wondering if the children were learning anything. What is the purpose of science demonstrations in museums? And what makes them effective at achieving whatever purpose we assign to them? To address this question I experimented with a first for…
This week’s post is by Amanda Nobis, a junior at Bradley University, and the first Research Intern at the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum. This summer I had the opportunity to help form a collaborative relationship between the Bradley University Psychology Department and the Peoria Playhouse Children’s Museum. I was invited to join the staff of…
Sarah Schertz has a Bachelors Degree in Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Special Education from New York University. She was a part of the 2015 Peoria Playhouse Teacher Team. She teaches kindergarten at Methodist Family Child Care Center in Peoria, IL. Sarah brought her ten five- and six-year-old students to the museum for a…
Franke L. Smith is an Education Coordinator at Hickory Hill, a Watson-Brown Foundation historic home, near Augusta, Georgia. At the American Alliance of Museums conference in May, Franke and I began a conversation about a program she offers, and whether and why it may be controversial. This program, “Cotton Pickin’ Field Trip,” teaches students about the history of…
Museum Questions 