Bay Area Discovery Museum Blog

Discovery Days Spring Camp Tuesday

The morning group made some fabulous plant rubbings and made great use of the rainy morning playing some fun and silly games in the theater. The all day campers lucked out with a dry afternoon and found some live crabs down on the beach. They also made intricate nests out of clay, sticks and string.

Discovery Days Spring Camp Wednesday:

Today Kelley and Casey took the campers for a great hike up to Battery Yates and then they all made some beautiful owl masks. The all day campers measured themselves and then compared their size to that of some native sharks using chalk and measuring tapes. They also had a chance to take a nice hike in some lovely sunshine. Check out more details over at the Tree Frog Treks blog. continue reading

It is okay to make a mess; really I promise you it is. As the families who joined Jessica and I in our Get Ready to Get Messy art class can attest, we encourage this behavior whole-heartedly at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. And we’re not the only place kids are being encouraged to stomp in the mud or paint with their hands and feet. El Cerrito Cooperative Preschool, in my sweet hometown, had a Messy Art extravaganza on Sunday March 29 which was put on by enthusiastic members of their board of parents. Open to the public, children were invited to partake in a feast of sensory experiences including a confetti tent, sand pendulum, shaving cream painting, and what can only be described as sponge tossing. Also available was a playhouse covered in “noise making equipment” inspired by our very on Play It By Ear exhibition. Now this is what I love to see: the early childhood community creating an exchange of ideas about how we can inspire each other and the children we serve. The school, which is a non-profit cooperative supported by the parents whose children attend, embodies the spirit of learning through play. It is a shining example of best practices where creativity blossoms just like it does at the Museum. Yes you hear it all the time, “Play is learning”; and making a mess is part science, part art, part social experiment, and 100% fun. Stay tuned as we refine our ability to offer these kinds of experiences through drop-in workshops and our continue reading

Here are just few activities the campers did on Monday: The morning session kids made crabs and met some turtles.  They also got to play in Bay Hall. The full day campers made “blubber gloves” and learned about seals in addition to making a mural, and of course playing all over the museum. Want more? Tree Frog Treks will be blogging about Spring Camps too! continue reading

This is an exciting year for Discovery Camps; we have several new topics that are not to be missed. Among them are Summer Time Rock Out and Dramasuarus which feature the multi-talented Brian Gorman of indie rock band Tartufi. I sat down with Brian to ask him a few questions about the camps he’ll be teaching along with fellow artists Paco Romane and Lynne Angel. How did you, Lynne and Paco get started doing Saturday Morning Rock Out? I designed the core curriculum for what became Saturday Morning Rock Out years ago, when I was a pre-school teacher. In early 2008 Lynne, Paco, and I realized there was an absence of music programs in the Bay Area that focus on kids ages 4-7. We decided to unearth my dusty, Play- Doh stained notes from years before and create the coolest, funnest music class we could imagine. Basically we designed the music class that we wished we could have taken as kids; one where kids write and record their own songs with plenty of time to just play around on the instruments. What’s your favorite exhibit at the Bay Area Discovery Museum? I can't say that I have a favorite exhibit as I find the whole experience at the Bay Area Discovery Museum pretty incredible. From the penny funnel in the entrance to the giant make-your-own birds' nests in the back of the museum, and everything in between, the Museum is full of engaging and fun experiences. What kinds of things will kids do in Dramasaurus? In Dram... continue reading

The day started off gloomy and rainy yesterday, though a visit from Sir Topham Hatt brightened things up for a large crowd of children and their caregivers.  By 2:00, however, the sun was shining brightly and it was gorgeous out.  So Kathleen Sheridan, our wonderful Connections Coordinator, and I decided it would be a great opportunity to prototype a natural building activity we’ve been working on.  We brought a bucket of sticks, leaves, feathers, rocks and acorns, along with a big box of nice soft clay out to the entrance of Tot Spot and settled down to play. It only took a short time before a small group of kids and grown ups joined us in making some fantastic sculptures and structures on some stumps in the nice warm sun. An adorable 3-year-old named Mina inspired us with her attention to detail and focus as she wedged items into the clay, and carried her creation from stump to stump. What more can any of us ask for than a nice sunny afternoon, and unbridled creativity? (Well, it also helps that the activity seems to be a hit we can put into action for our upcoming Connections visits.) We sure are lucky. continue reading

Prior to my Early Childhood Education career, I was a serious student of Cinema, not only of filmmaking, but also the scholarly discourse of Cinema Studies. I sincerely enjoy academic research whether on Cinema, Museum Studies or Education. This may seem strange because after reading Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind, I can see that I am fundamentally a “right brainer.” However Pink’s chapter on “meaning” has illuminated part of the reason why I have a passion for academia. He posits that in a world where many people have already satisfied their need for material things, the quest for a meaningful life is increasingly valuable, both spiritually for individuals and culturally for businesses and institutions. The search for a deeper understanding explains my constant reference to scholarly works. I always have a feeling whether I’m seeing a film, or watching a child try something new, “There must be more to this than meets the eye.” So I turn to the experts. Ultimately making meaning is the primary task of children starting at birth. What are those bright lights? Why is the sky blue? Where does fog come from? And as parents and caregivers, we are the scholarly experts. Yet there are times when we don’t know all the answers. It can be difficult to admit this. But when children ask the BIG questions, it is alright to say, “I don’t know. But let’s find out.” Here are some things to try to encourage children to pursue meaning in their lives:

• Model research. Why did the din... continue reading

Let’s get serious about play here for a minute people. In the Early Childhood Education community there is a resounding cry, “Play is the work of young children.” In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink, who will be speaking next tomorrow at the Discovery Forum, praises the potential for play in adult learning. According to Pink, play should be part of the work of adults too. He writes about Madan Kataria, a doctor in India who is spreading the doctrine of laughter as a healing process. Kataria told Pink, “When you are playful, you are activating the right side of your brain. The logical brain is a limited brain. The right side is unlimited. You can be anything you want.” Pink’s thesis for the book, in a nutshell, is that people who can harness the power of right brain thinking will be far more able to succeed than those stuck in the left hemisphere. The essence of learning through play for children and adults lies in the statement, “You can be anything you want.” When children play here at the Museum, they follow their own impulses to ring the bell at the top of Lookout Cove, see if a fish will flow downstream in Tot Spot, or find out what colors will glow under black light in Studio 10. As opposed to thinking of learning and play as separate, I prefer to think of learning through play as structured and unstructured time. We all need some of both to do our best. Here at the Museum, we’re really proud of... continue reading