Westchester Childrens Museum

Outreach:description: in our outreach program, our educators go to various locations to conduct steam (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) sessions. These can cover one or more topics in steam, as the steam learning concept is to learn through play so that children may not even know they are learning! Please note, that we can adjust a topic to fit any or all of our outreach, field trips, and workshops, for almost any age from 5 through 12 or 13 years old. Content: the list of topics covered is basically endless; we are lucky to have the ability to be flexible and customize the session to a location's specific needs. As part of almost all the outreach programs, we create individual kits for each child to use during the session; we also have the option of creating additional take-home kits for the children to share with their siblings and families. To name just a few topics: catapults; chromatography; lines and squiggles; kaleidoscopes; slime; superstatic, paper sculpting. Where: outreach is usually held at the requester's site. This includes schools, local ywca or ymca, after school care, libraries, and even other non-profit locations. We are fortunate that in the last 7 months, we have formed relationships in which we conduct a series of sessions, from 4 per year to one relationship where we have 6 per month plus week-long sessions during school breaks and the summer. Lastly, we have also conducted "outreach on site", where a group comes to the Museum, and is given a steam session plus free play time in the Museum.

Workshopsdescription: in our workshops, we cover a large number of topics in both the arts and sciences. These workshops are smaller, and usually have 6-12 children with at least one parent/caregiver with them. Content: workshop currently fall into two categories: visual and performing arts, and science. In these workshops is where we can concentrate more on a single topic. The arts workshops are greatly supported by grants, and can include painting, drawing, creating your own paints, dance or movement, music, sculpture, weaving, to name a few. These are conducted by our artistic coordinator or visiting artists. The science workshops are conducted by our lead science educator; some examples are: geodes; static electricity; flying paper; foams and phizzies; light-up cards by completing the circuit; dna. Where: workshops are conducted on-site at the Museum. Usually they are on a saturday, as that allows us to include school-age and/or older children who normally are not able to come to the Museum during the week due to school and after-school obligations.

Field tripsdescription: in our field trips, our educators conduct sessions for large numbers of children, who usually come from a school or other organization by bus or carpool. Field trips can include from 12 to 80 or 90 children in the Museum; we therefore have designated field trip days where the Museum is not open to the general public. Content: these field trips are usually a combination of a tour, a guided series of play in various activity/exhibit locations within the Museum, a craft, perhaps a guest artist, and time permitting, open play-time in the Museum. The activity and/or craft may be an outreach topic adjusted for the field trip time frame; other sessions may have an activity unique to the field trip topics. Where: field trips are held in the Museum, and usually include a large part of the hands-on activities in the Museum. These occur when the Museum is closed to the general public.