Our next adventure was a trip to the Museum of Ancient Life (which we fondly refer to as "the dinosaur museum"). Home to the world's largest collection of mounted dinosaur bones, with exhibits designed to demonstrate the principles of evolution, we are so lucky to have this resource 20 minutes from our doorstep. Currently, the museum is partnering with the Exploratorium of San Francisco to bring traveling, interactive science exhibits to our state. We went to check out the first of these endeavors, titled "The Mind, Motors, and Magnetism."
Our family loves hands-on science. We spent 90 minutes going through the exhibit, station by station. Some experiments warranted many tries, others a once-over. Physics is always entertaining, but the most fascinating stations involved perception. One dealt with perspective, creating a wonderful opportunity to talk about visual perception as well as how our philosophical worldviews color everything we see. Another dealt with how the brain edits extraneous information, like an extra "the" in a sentence, without us being aware of it. My favorite called for viewers to watch a film while counting the number of times a ball was passed between a group of people. Then you are asked if you saw the moon-walking gorilla! What!!!? Completely unnoticed by us, so fixated on counting passes, a person in a furry suit indeed had been right in the middle of the screen!
Maya's favorite station illustrated how our brains are designed to create meaning when faced with randomness.
A metal barrel contained colored blocks engraved with words. After turning the barrel, we were instructed to take a certain number of blocks, and place them in a particular color order on a table.
We repeated this process over and over, each time delighted with the results.
A hand-made sign posted by this word/meaning station suggested people make haiku. Maya loves poetry, and began to play with the word blocks. She worked with them for many minutes. While she often makes haiku, this time she decided to do something different, and that choice lead to our next serendipitous moment.
Right in front of us was a window into a museum office, where workers were observing visitors and working on various projects. After Maya had been hard at work for a good while, one of these folks came out and greeted us. He inquired as to what was keeping Maya's attention for so long. She showed him a poem she had made from randomly selected blocks, using one word to connect two sections.
Mark, our new friend, became very excited, and inquired what Maya was calling her creation. She replied, a "combined poem." Mark wrote down the poem and informed us that he would be making a new sign asking exhibit visitors to make a "Combined Poem" using Maya's as an example. She was delighted!
She was also happy to be thoroughly interviewed by Mark, an exhibit designer. He asked lots of questions, from how old she was, to what her favorite stations were, and why she enjoyed visiting museums.
After taking in an IMAX film about coral reefs, and visiting the rest of the museum, it was time to head home.
We decided to say goodbye to our new friend, Mark. To our surprise, he invited us into the office, and proceeded to show us some prototypes for upcoming exhibits. Maya was asked to test the prototypes. She had so much fun! While she worked, Mark explained how part of his job was to observe people in the Try-It Lab. He talked about what sort of behavior he usually observed, what exhibit designers really hoped people would get from their work, how difficult it is to design things for wide age ranges, and how and why prototypes are built. It was a wonderful experience.
One of the reasons I love our homeschooling experience is the serendipity factor. This is not the first time a professional has invited Maya into their world. In fact, one of the last times we visited this very same museum, Maya asked a question of a paleontologist, Rick, who just happened to be out on the floor, and he responded by taking us into his lab! With a little instruction and encouragement, Maya got to work on an actual fossil with a pneumatic drill and brush, and for her effort was given a dinosaur bone from Bone Cabin Quarry in Wyoming. Rick said he had noticed us as we lingered in an area outside the lab's window, and had been fascinated by Maya's attentiveness to the exhibits. Before sending us on our merry way, he reminded Maya to keep asking questions, and never lose her curiosity.
Because our "school" day is our own, we can afford to linger, and we can make time to absorb ourselves in whatever we're doing. We can experience flow. That is a great gift to give oneself, and it is enjoyable and instructive at any age.
Wherever we go, we are blessed with one-on-one experiences that open our eyes to how others spend their days. I believe this real-world engagement will help Maya make important decisions about how to live her life, and prepare her to be a happy, fulfilled, giving adult. The kindness of these strangers also reminds us how we all seek connections with others, and wish to share our personal knowledge and joy. When we reach out to each other, we make our world bigger, yet more intimate and immediate. We acknowledge all that others do to build our communities, and get the opportunity to thank them directly. We see clearly how our personal passions contribute to the greater good.
What I call "Community-Based Learning" is a large part of our home schooling experience, though it is often serendipitous in nature. Go out into the world, be open, and amazing things happen.
"Opportunity favors the prepared mind (and heart)" — Your family exemplifies this adage, in my experience. :)
ReplyDeleteWe've never really been to the Museum of Ancient Life. We'll have to check it out one of these days