Exploratorium
Exploratorium Trip:
Parent Drivers: Shilpa (3), April (3), Diane, (and maybe if possible/necessary Marie, Kieran, Sherry, Teresa, Andrea)
Trip date is Thursday, March 1st, 2018
8:45 to 9:30 Math
9:30 to 9:45 Return to homerooms, get into car groups, leave DCS
9:45 to 10:45 Drive to SF (280 to King Street Exit to Embarcardro to Exploratorium)
Park at Levi Plaza Garage and get validation from Exploratorium = $10 for 4 hours
11:00 to 2:00 Exploratorium (take lunch break when you want)
2:15 to 3:30 Drive to DCS
Message to Students:
Please make the most of this trip by exploring well. Visit many many exhibits, read instructions, interact with them, and read about the concept it teaches. Not every exhibit is flashy or impressive at first; you'll have to spend a few minutes at most of them in order to understand what is going on and the science at play. Be patient and be curious. As often as possible, engage in a discussion about an exhibit -- talking things out often helps you to explore and understand your own thinking. Get the most out of this trip because there really isn't a better place that I know of for you to learn so much science in such an engaging way.
Room 25 students, on the morning of the trip you received a paper onto which you were to write 5 things about each of any 6 exhibits. You will turn that sheet in, but before you do, please choose the best two write-ups and enter the information into the form below. The results will show up in the spreadsheet below that.
Map of the Exploratorium (as of December, 2016)
http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/floor_map.php
Information from 2012:
Final Trip Prep Email, sent 10/11/12
Hi Parents,
The response to my "host some exhibits" request has been fantastic and all but two spots in the spreadsheet have been filled. I really appreciate how helpful you are willing to be and the kids will be better off for your knowledge, presence, and involvement. I also added a page to my website for the trip.
During their 3 to 4 hours inside the exhibit hall the kids will be touring on their own or in small groups. There will probably be times and places when/where kids will congregate into amorphous blobs of self-perpetuating inactivity (often on the couches in the sound booth). While a bit of this is fine, feel free to give them the ol "move along" as you see fit.
The "paperwork" accountability component of the trip is a single sheet of paper that homeroom teachers will give them at school right at the beginning of the day. It contains 10 panels, each of which needs to be filled in at some exhibit. I've pasted the instructions at the end of the email. After a student fills one panel in, they should come to you for an initial, since you are the parent in that area.
Now, I know that reality will come out quite different than my intentions, and that is ok. It is a valuable trip at any level, and I hope that everyone learns lots and loves it.
By the way, here are the results from previous year's students' sheets.
Y'all rock!
Email #1:
Dear Exploratorium Chaperones.
Our trip to the Exploratorium is a very important excursion for 8th grade science. So many of the topics that I will have the kids explore and learn are powerfully demonstrated by the exhibits and interactions there, and all year I find myself asking the classes "do you remember the the Exploratorium exhibit where you....?". I want them to get the most out of the trip, and remember it all.
The Exploratorium has five "areas" shown and described in this page of their website:
1. Seeing
2. Traits of Life
3. World of Matter
4. Mind
5. Listen: Making Sense of Sound
It would be great to have three parents be the "hosts" at each of those five areas. The job would be to invite kids to interact with the "variables" at various exhibits as they pass through by giving basic instructions, facilitating interactions, and asking guiding questions, and eliciting thoughtful responses. You'll initial the "Been There, Done That" portion of a sheet that I'll be giving them. Doing this asks two things of you: signing up for your location on this spreadsheet, and finding out more about the exhibits (and concepts demonstrated) by using their website or any other resource(s) -- if you have time (if not, just wing it). Whadya say.... are ya game? I'm hoping that 15 of you are up for it!
Chris