 |
 |
 |
|
 |
The Science Museum has embarked on a bold Reinvention plan to radically change—and radically enhance—the way the Museum serves the community. Visitors will learn more by being encouraged to ask their own questions, and to find their own answers. They will become explorers, adventurers, and scientists, and they will learn more.
The new Museum will focus on environmental stewardship, healthy living, and the improvement of science, technology, engineering and mathematics literacy in the region. We will develop three new galleries:
Healthy Bodies, Healthy Earth, and How It Works.
Preschool Discovery for our Youngest Scientists
Young children are natural scientists, exploring their surroundings and experimenting with everything they can touch. Certainly not everything is “touchable” in their homes and care settings, but the Museum’s Preschool Discovery Room will expand the universe of these young children by providing safe, stimulating science activities. We plan to offer hands-on science in the same core areas, presented in a way that is age-appropriate for our youngest scientists. By encouraging their curiosity and making them comfortable in the Museum setting, we hope to lay a foundation for a lifelong interest in science.
Findings of the National Academy of Sciences about the state of science education in the U.S. underscore the need for the science enrichment that we provide. The Academy found that many elementary school teachers may have never liked science at all, so that by fourth grade, students begin to lose interest. Our eight-graders now rank ninth in the world—behind Hungary and Estonia—and by early adulthood we slip further, to 25th in the world in the percentage of 24-year-olds with a science degree.