CCE AND SCIENCE MUSEUM COLLABORATE OVER ICE AGE
Fourth and fifth graders at Palm Beach Public will be traveling back in time to the Ice Age, thanks to a collaboration of the Center for Creative Education and the South Florida Science Museum. The 10 week, after-school program will allow 20 students a hands-on arts and science integrated lesson to learn about ice age mammals, fossils and the beginning of art. This collaboration is funded through a grant from Prime Time Palm Beach County.
“It is wonderful when the community partners with the school to enhance and enrich our students’ experience and education,” said Sharon Stevens, principal and after-school coordinator for Palm Beach Public. “I have worked with CCE in the past through our after-school program and it is always a pleasure to work with and provide artistic experiences for our students. I look forward to working with the Museum on this collaboration.”
The children will be constructing a 15-feet-wide by 6-and-a-half-feet-tall cave which will set the scene for the Pleistocene exhibit. Integrating arts and science into the program, science educators from the Museum, Sara Bogotch and Carla Duhaney, along with teaching artists from CCE, Jean Hart Howard, Tim Mitchell and David Tripp, will work with the group on various activities.
“This program has great potential for melding techniques used to teach creative arts into a program that can teach science to young learners,” said Lew Crampton, CEO for the South Florida Science Museum. “Science concepts are tough to grasp for some, so if this effort succeeds, our program will have implications beyond the pilot program we are beginning today.”
The children will paint cave art, chip away a fossil from a block of ice and then use it as a model to sculpt fossils from clay, design and create costumes that represent that time period, sketch ice age mammals after researching their characteristics, and many more activities. To end the program, the students will put on a performance for family, friends and the community to showcase what they’ve learned.
“This collaboration is a great way to expose children to multiple teaching methods,” said Tom Pilecki, executive director for the Center for Creative Education. “Arts integration is a critical way of learning and this unique project with the Museum is adding another layer. The Museum has many great tools and resources and by combining our talents we can really have an impact the child’s overall experience.”
Recently awarded the Muse award for arts integration from the Cultural Council, the not-for-profit Center for Creative Education uses the arts to enrich and transform children’s educational experience. The arts are infused into classroom curriculum and after-school settings to enhance the teaching of traditional academic subjects – improving each child’s learning potential and academic performance, increasing overall enthusiasm about school and shaping more productive, responsible community members that exercise creative problem solving throughout life. For more information on CCE programming or their upcoming Spring Luncheon on March 10, please call (561) 805-9927 or visit www.cceflorida.org.
The South Florida Science Museum delivers entertaining and educational journeys through the many worlds of science and technology for curious minds of all ages. Located just off I-95 at Southern Blvd. in West Palm Beach, the Museum features more than 50 hands-on exhibits, a digital planetarium, freshwater and saltwater aquariums, as well as natural history exhibitions. New happenings at Museum include the Bugz exhibit and an Amateur Radio Center open on weekends and holidays. Each year the museum welcomes more than 125,000 visitors and reaches more than 45,000 students through workshops at the museum and outreach programs to local schools. Established in 1961, the museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to exciting curiosity and furthering the understanding and appreciation of science and technology. For more information about the South Florida Science Museum or their upcoming benefit event, Fete du Soleil: A Toast to 50 Years of Science on April1, please call 561-832-1988 or visit www.sfsm.org.