The Discovery School at the Bay Area Discovery Museum Opens a New On-Site Exhibit – Bay Area Discovery Museum

The Discovery School at the Bay Area Discovery Museum Opens a New On-Site Exhibit

The New and Improved Slide Exhibit runs through May 24

Sausalito, CA- On Tuesday, May 15, the Bay Area Discovery Museum (BADM) opened a new, temporary exhibit. The New and Improved Slide Exhibit will run for two weeks in the museum’s Bridge Room space. What makes this exhibit particularly special is that it was proposed, designed, and executed entirely by the four and five-year-old students who attend The Discovery School (TDS), BADM’s on-site preschool.

Danielle Dong, a preschool teacher at The Discovery School, explained that the exhibit was envisioned as a way for the children to give back to BADM. The museum serves as a second classroom, playground, and source of delight for TDS’s students. Throughout the 2017-2018 school year, children from TDS have formed deep connections with BADM staff, and have taken it upon themselves to care for its spaces —including sweeping and mopping the grounds and adding fresh flowers to museum structures.

Inspired by the children’s deep sense of ownership over the museum, Dong brought a proposal to BADM’s Exhibits Task Force, hoping this team of museum leaders would give the green light for a project that was, at the time, still being solidified. “They immediately said yes, before asking any real specifics. I think their faith was really in the children,” Dong explained.

Eventually the children voted on ‘slides’ as the focus of their exhibit, and from there the project took off. The children completed a research phase, talking a lot about who the exhibit would be for and what elements would be included. The New and Improved Slide Exhibit features artwork from TDS students, 3-D slide models, and a slide-making activity for visitors.

More than anything, the opening of The New and Improved Slide Exhibit demonstrates the incredible capability of even our youngest learners, and their willingness to be drivers of their own creative learning. “They thought of everything,” said Dong. “Thinking about what a four and five-year-old is capable of, I think it’s easy to say this couldn’t happen. They’ve been able to do so much and they’ve come up with so many of the ideas on their own about what needs to be in an exhibit and what a museum does and what it’s for. To showcase that and honor their ideas and show that what they’re doing is important has been really special.”

The New and Improved Slide Exhibit will run from May 15-24 in BADM’s Bridge Room. Admission to the exhibit is included in general museum admission, and is free for BADM members.

 

About The Discovery School
The Discovery School—the only museum-based preschool in California—emphasizes inquiry and exploration through extended, STEM-rich programs that are inspired by children’s own interests, questions, and curiosities. The school is aligned with the Bay Area Discovery Museum’s research division, the Center for Childhood Creativity, which provides evidenced-based expertise in children’s creativity development.

About the Bay Area Discovery Museum
The Bay Area Discovery Museum is a children’s museum in Sausalito that applies the latest research to develop early learning experiences that inspire and build creative problem-solving skills in children, transforming the way they learn and the way they contribute to the world. As an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the museum provides STEM-focused, inquiry-driven experiences that develop creativity and conceptual thinking, critical components of problem solving.

 

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