Early Discoveries in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math!
Support from the Minnesota Cultural Legacy funds will allow the Duluth Children’s Museum to address needs in three critical program initiatives. The museum will: 1. Strengthen the AIRSS (amateur radio on the international space station) club and provide critical materials, supplies, and staff leadership; 2. Engage 300 area students in a national program entitled Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP); and 3. Offer a new exhibit entitled Mysteries of the Mayan Medallion from mid-September to mid-December 2014.
$1,100,000 the first year and $900,000 the second year are for arts and cultural heritage grants to children's museums. Of this amount, $600,000 the first year and $400,000 the second year are for the Minnesota Children's Museum, $200,000 each year is for the Duluth Children's Museum, $100,000 each year is for the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, and $200,000 each year is for the Southern Minnesota Children's Museum.
1. The exhibit hall changes allow the Museum to bring new learning experiences to the regular visitor to the Museum. Dinosaurs Unearthed will close on September 1, 2014 and Mysteries of the Mayan Medallion will open in Mid-September and will close in mid-December 2014. 2. The local youth radio club will continue to engage the young people who participate through providing the resources necessary to keep the program vital and relevant. The program meets weekly at the Museum and will do so throughout the entire year. 3. Duluth Children’s Museum will serve as lead in the coordination of programming activates through the SSEP programming for the region.
1. The Dinosaurs Unearthed (through September 1, 2014), Mysteries of the Mayan Medallion (mid-September 2014 through mid-December 2014), Nano Technology (mid-January 2015 through mid-May 2015), and From Here to There (mid-May 2015 to September 15, 2015) expanded STEM programming for the museum through their unique focuses on different aspects of STEM and the draw of changing the exhibit hall on a regular basis with new and exciting experiences.2. The 2015 Summer Exhibit, From Here to There, provided visitors with a unique opportunity to explore STEM through the concept of how we transport ourselves and items from one place to another. The exhibit included a ridable hovercraft, hot air balloon, wing in the wind simulation, and many other interactive components. 4,324 individuals visited the exhibit during the grant period.3. The local youth ham radio club continues to meet regularly at the Museum site and continues to extend their club to other youth in our area. The club started with 6 members and we currently have 9 in regular attendance, a 50% increase. We frequently have youth visiting the club to see what it is about and we expect through continued recruitment to reach our goal. The intergenerational interactions between the members and their adult mentors has strengthened the experience for everyone associated as demonstrated by their regular attendance and continued expansion of youth experiences.4. The SSEP program was successful in engaging the required 300 youth from our region in participating in a rigorous student experiment process. The number of design experiments required by the external partner were achieved and the review process is currently underway to determine which experiments will be sent to the next level of review. Local STEM professionals were successfully engaged in the program and have become actively engaged in an evaluation process established by the national SSEP program that replicates the scientific rigor required for NASA approved experiments.
Kelly Davidson. Area Manager, Viking Automatic Sprinkler Co.
John E. Erickson, Partner, DSGW Architects (Past Chair of the Board)
Kyle K. Johnson, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Johnson Insurance Consultants
Dana Kazel, Communications Manager, St. Louis County
JoAnn Mattson, Director of HR and Risk Management, ZMC Hotels
Troy Peterson, Application Developer, University of Minnesota Duluth
Sandra Robinson, Retired
Stephen Sydow, Operations Manager, Daniel’s Shipping Services (Secretary of the Board)
Kyle Terrio-Johnson, Financial Associate, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (Chair of the Board)