Anythink Library

I'm not the best photographer ;)
I tired to get photos of the key points.

This is there shelving system
Placards / signs that operate like a bookend with the "second subject line" printed

This example is of "Gardening" as main subject
The smaller signs on the shelf show "landscaping" "Flowers"

Enriching Exhibit Prototyping

Enriching Exhibit Prototyping
Jenni Martin / Sara DeAngelis
San Jose – Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose
Friday, 4pm – 5:30pm

The final program of the day Renee and I tag teamed. Seemed like it would be right up our alley – exhibit prototyping. The presenters were the San Jose children’s museum who are apparently well respected for the research they put into developing their exhibits. The session was a case study so it was very specific to San Jose’s project – which there were some good tips buried in there. It would have been nicer to have a panel where each compared there process. The other thing that I wasn’t huge fan of was the “stand up survey.” A series of questions were asked to gage the audience. Stand up if … “you have a hand in exhibit design, if you’re an educator, if you handle rentals, if you’ve worked in the field more than 2 years, 10 years.” I’m not sure what the unofficial “data” was being used for, perhaps future rentals of the exhibit?

The entire session was dedicated to prototyping of the mammoth exhibit that several of us saw on the No. CA. trip – Renee, Margaret, Barb, Adam, and I. This whole exhibit is based off of the local discovery of a young Colombian mammoth's bones. They named her Lupe. The museum has partnered with several people in order to research what activities will provide the guest experience and conversations they want to happen.

The exhibit definitely has more of a “science exhibit” feeling for me. Visitor’s can come in and see part of the mammoth’s skull in a case. The idea is for visitor’s to se in what position the skull is found. There is a small skull they can rotate to figure out the head position. Another part of the exhibit has visitors interacting with a femur bone found. Children can sit in a chair to measure the length of their femur. Another part has children choosing a foam bone femur to place on the wall and measure, while a shadow shape of the animal to which it is supposed to belong will appear. Yet another part of the exhibit has a dig (cocoa bean shells and corn husks I think) where attached fake fossils are bolted down and visitors can “unearth the bone”. There is also a small “diorama table” where there are small toy animals for the children to play with. The final piece is a light tracing table with a mammoth fossil that children can trace with colored pencils.

A good portion of the session was spent to describing these segments of the exhibits and the variations they tried to make this experience happen. We also got to meet several members from the panel who each had an important part in developing the exhibit. UC Santa Cruz & Berkley had students conducting observation, research, and evaluation on the testing. The water district that actually unearthed the fossils was a partner.

The interesting part was the research evaluation that the students conducted, which felt glossed over. The students evaluated only on one weekend day, which was typically when this prototype exhibit was open. Of course releases were filled out, children wore labels on their back identifying whether there was photography permission or not. The students recorded observations, conversations, and photographed families. There were a few slides (which should be in the powerpoint we’ll have access to in about week) that showed the grid of simple observations the students were making. The sample questions / observations: yes/no touched mammoth bone, played at the dig pit for more than 2 minutes, picked up the clipboard, mentioned dinosaurs, and then there was an area where anecdotes were recorded. We were only shown these few slides with the data results showing how the changes in their prototype had been successful based off of the data gathered by the students.

Some of the change in the prototype seemd like common sense – and a study wasn’t necessary – just knowledge of kids. Do you think the kids would like to play with the dig with or without a screen covering the top of it? Hmmmm. Without the cover. Of course, the data showed this. I believe they got a National Science Foundation Grant (I’ll have to double check my notes – now packed in my suitcase). I wonder if they had to be more scientific / more data because of the grant? I’m not sure because one of the partners mentioned at the beginning of the workshop how respected CDMSJ exhibits were because of all the research in the process. I think they mentioned that they have already been working on this project for several years and it will probably be another 2 or 3 before the exhibit makes it out? Looooong time!

Pretty good session. Most valuable thing was the evaluation info. Also the need for release forms and open they were with the public about the evaluation. Good tip was to have the evaluation station next to the front door (their rate jumped to 90% when they moved their location).

City Sights, Northern Lights, and Big Fun at the Minnesota Children’s Museum

City Sights, Northern Lights, and Big Fun at the Minnesota Children’s Museum
Friday
6:30pm – 9pm

This was definitely the highlight of the trip! It was sooooo nice to get out of the hotel and head to an AWESOME place! Luckily the hotel got a bus for all of us because it was raining and cold (which I like, but not everyone does – and the majority of us had packed for weather in the 70s and had no umbrellas or raincoats. Although Renee swears she packed one [hopefully it’s at home].). You could see the museum as we pulled up in the bus and it was so bright and welcoming with lots of windows and colors. We couldn’t wait to get off the bus.



The ground level of the museum is the gift shop, admission desk, and staff offices. We were met by Elmo, Grover, and a third Sesame St. character I didn’t know and the sound of Taiko drums! I was feeling kind of bummed hat the big night was happening and I wouldn’t be there. We’ve had Taiko’s at least three times in the building and every time I’ve missed them! It was nice to hear them. The museum only had three and I’m pretty sure Senryu had 8. Renee and I took our photo with Grover (he was my favorite as a kid – “Near, far!”). The center of the museum has a large staircase leading to 3 upper levels and has large beautiful painted fish mobiles (I like them so much I want to put them in my new house – hopefully my house).



We headed up to the 2nd level, which has three galleries (it also had the Taikos). Dinner was a series of hors devours stations. Naturally first stop was the food. Beef sambosa, chicken stay, and veggies in rice paper. We met up with, I believe the person responsible for Education, I’ll have to check my notes (she had brown curly hair and was wearing a mandarin collar jacket), in the food line who asked where we from and she said, “Cucamonga, Oh yes I’ve heard of you!” She thinks someone heard one of speak at PLA about the PAL project. She introduced us to the person in charge of exhibits. They knew all about us and the PALs (it seemed like we had a bit of street cred with them – like they were impressed).

She filled us in on their plans in working in “developing” their local libraries. They said one of their branches houses a 500 sq. ft. exhibit (we didn’t get to hear what it was). Mind you, this whole conversation was being shouted over Taiko drums and a bunch of children’s museum people playing with everything. They wanted to know who we had been working with and what the themes were.

We excused ourselves to hit up the galleries and get more grub. Also on the 2nd floor is the small city. Renee said it reminded her of Main st. I agree. Pretend city seemed really slick and felt new, Stepford (but in a good way - that is how all of Irvine is - perfectly manicured lawns). This museum felt more like a Universal back lot. There were brick buildings, columns, carpeted streets, vignettes set up in the windows, dogs & cats in the windows, and a lot more “culture” reflected. There were signs in different languages, an international market, the clothes shop had different clothes from different cultures, and one of my favorite spots was the community gallery. The community Gallery had a display of Chinese Lanterns to celebrate the festival of lights. Each case had a piece of the creation process. The city also had a corner with a guitar hero set up, a shadow play room (with shadow puppets), light play, and a TV studio (I had my 15 seconds of fame dancing around). They had a mini quesadilla bar set up with chips & guac (mmmmm guac!).



We headed to the second gallery space which had a building area, a theater, and a water play area. The water play area was really cute with water animals that looked like a child had drawn them with crayons. They had clear tubes that let children experiment with water pressure and even boat races. What was neat was all of the windows in the museum (Montessori – outdoor connection?). There was also a very cool paper exhibit on this floor. A DJ was starting to set up and as Renee and I danced in what we thought was a hidden corner we spotted Justine from Gyroscope, who spotted us dancing. Of course we denied it.



She was very friendly and interested in how everything was going. She wanted us to meet Susan (I think) from ImaginOn who she said had helped with a lot of the research Gyroscope presented to us. As we headed away from the dance floor another Gyroscope staffer from London appeared who was very nice. Justine pointed us in the direction of the last gallery, which was the “Traveling exhibit Space.” She told us that Minnesota was part of a five museum coop. She said the whole group pooled their money which made a big pot. Every year one of the five museums got the pot and got to create an exhibit (all the other pieces of the coop would help). The trade off (I think this is super cool) the exhibit gets to rotate with one of the five museums each year. So over five years, each museum gets a new exhibit and Justine says everyone gets waaayyyyy more money to work with to create the exhibit (as well as sharing the workload).

So we headed over and checked out the gallery. It was really neat. Not as “exciting” as I had hoped, but everything was interactive (maybe on an older level) and well done. All of the elements of the exhibit were about life in China. The segments were: inside a Chinese kitchen with a stove and cooking demo going on TV, a school with abacus and book, a great wall of china set up (they’re taking all of my API elements – shadow puppets, Taiko, now great wall of China!) with rubber wall pieces that looked like actual great wall pieces, a calligraphy area, a water buffalo there was even a pagoda structure with poetry, a wheel with Chinese zodiac animals. Renee and I took a picture with the Buffalo and sang “buffalo gals” to it, while we had our photo shoot. I think they were aiming to have “real materials” that you would actually see, feel in China.



Next we went upstairs to the third level, which only had what appears to be the craft room (I know our resident craft expert Isabel would love this!). I spotted a fire code sign permitting up to 75 in the room J. The famous Spark cart was in the corner, and was showing signs of ware. I tried to take some pictures where you could see paint had spilled on the wood and the letters were peeling off the top of the cart. It made me feel better about our PALs and the marker, crayon on them ;). On a side note – it looks like their spark cart would fit about the same number of kids about 6 – 3 on each side and space on the ends for adults? It is much smaller than our PAL. They had a really neat activity with salad spinners. I’ve seen it before, but it’s been a while – and it’s really fun. You take a white postcard and use an eye dropper with paint (those eyedroppers are stored in plastic red cups of paint) and release a few drops of paint onto the card. Put on the salad spinner lid and spin. This causes the paint to spread giving a tie dye appearance. I forgot to pick up mine :(.



We started to head upstairs and realized that every few feet the walls have an inspirational quote about children and play. Renee got some great photos of some of our favorite quotes. As soon as we made it to the third floor we were greeted by another app station (yay! – Sorry Barb, I can’t help the yays). This one had wall eye fritters on a stick, mushroom and squash empanadas, and mini hot dish. I had no idea what “hot dish” was – Renee gave me the lowdown – I’ll let her pass it on to any of you who don’t know either.

We headed into the first of two galleries – which was amazing. It was the Dinosaur exhibit (I can see Wess roaring and jumping with the kids now)! Of course they ad a dig, but they their dig was separated into ages! For the toddlers they had a super low dig filled with cocoa bean shells and for the older kids it was a rubberized mulch. They had a light table tracing fossil area, and a HUGE animatronic dinosaur (look out Jurassic Park. I could see this exhibit being a huge hit! Of course – we ran into Justine again!

We chatted about the PALs and how our experimenting with them has been going. We mentioned a few of the tweaks we’ve been tracking. She wanted to make sure someone was following up on them. Renee told her Scott was coming out to deliver the local history table and would be taking a look. She seemed relieved. We chatted about this being our first conference and I mentioned that I was just keeping quiet and absorbing as much info as I could. She said, don’t be quiet. You guys know way more than you think and people want to hear. You guys know so much you don’t even know what you know yet! That was a great pat on the back! To have a museum professional say that we knew what was going on felt huge! Wonderful luck, Susan from ImaginOn appeared! Justine introduced us and she was very pleasant and said it was a pleasure working for us. At that point, we learned in the next gallery they were taking hilarious costumed ice fishing photos – so of course we had to go!



The next gallery was called Earth world (I thought of Lorena and Kristin the second I saw the sign). This became my new favorite space (sooooo cute). We took our hilarious photo – we’ve got to scan it in so you all can laugh at us. Flannel is definitely not my style – I look burly. But it isssss funny – and I love silly hats!



The first thing you see in Earth world is trees with stuffed animals and what looks like a climbing structure or maze in the background. That was calling my name! The exhibit is all about ant tunnels. There are netted ramps winding up to a platform that is domed by a grass structure – giving you the feeling you’re under ground. At the base of the ramps are a series of wonderful tunnels and hidey holes. My favorite – gross motor (running, jumping, climbing!). There were ant sculptures, eggs, and other bugs everywhere. After climbing around on my knees (and realizing I’m getting old and wishing for padding) something else caught our eye.



We saw these super cool racing clouds above the trees. We took another series of ramps up to the top of the ranger cabin. This felt like Disneyland, there were about 4 or 5 wheels that kids could turn to race the clouds to other side of the exhibit and create a thunderstorm. We all tried to race our clouds, but they were pretty stiff (or we were really weak – we’re going with stiff and that they needed WD-40). Once the clouds got to the other side a HUGE stuffed dark cloud rose up on strings (a little like a theater curtain from behind another piece of the exhibit), real thunder sounds started, and flashing strobe lights created the storm. It was cool! Then we heard there were s’mores outside! I didn’t know there was an outside!



On the same floor a little further down was the outdoor roof garden (I wish we had one!). There were double doors (Renee says it for the climates with snow and wind). In between the doors was a small sink set up (no doubt for little gardeners to wash their hands). They had a whole dessert spread. Outside had heat lamps, a fire pit, and a really beautiful sand pit. We found out at breakfast the next morning it was real sand. She said the sun “neutralizes” the germs. They don’t cover it (apparently no cats on top of a large building in the city). It was still raining so we headed back inside and downstairs for our swag bags. We each got a free dinosaur book (promoting their dingo exhibit) and some cod cases.

It was a loooonnnnngggg day, but a good day.We headed back onto the bus and realized that while our event had just ended API was beginning. I sent good thoughts everyone’s way back home. I sent my infiltrator from home, Bryan & Savannah, to have fun for me. Actually our neighbor Aly was doing the Tahitian dancing for us and they really wanted to see her. I told them they had to see the Taiko for me. I’ll load up the museum photos on the I drive as well so you guys can cruise through and check out the “awesomeness”. Renee thinks this might be her favorite museum to date. I really, really liked it – definitely in the A rating range. I don’t know if I can have a favorite. I love pieces of each of the museums we’ve been too – or even exhibits we’ve seen (my heart belongs to the lucky climber). If you ever get a chance to see the museum – it’s definitely worthwhile (but scope out restaurants ahead of time or pack a lunch – and be sure to take the skyway!).

DIY Exihibit Design

Final Workshop
Friday, 10:30am-1200pm

DIY Exhibit Design
Iowa Children’s Museum

Cindy Dietz, Rockwell Collins
Deb Dunkase, Executive Director
John Dunkase, U of I Science Education center
Pam Hoogerwer, U of I Children’s Hospital
Fran Jensen, Marketing
John Weis, NASA Education Specialist

This was another session where the description makes the class seem like it is about a broader subject, however it is really just focused on the particular museum and there project. I guess the idea is take in the process and tips based off of their experience. I just wish they put that in the description.

It was a pretty good session. I really like Deb Dunkase – she is really well spoken, upbeat, seems really passionate, and like she knows how to get stuff done. They have a 28,000 sq. ft. facility with a community o 250,000 and an annual attendance of 125,000. Their annual budget is 1,071,000 and the museum operate sin the black with no debt. They also are located within the Coral Ridge Mall who does not charge them rent! They signed a 25 year lease for $10. She says that a value of 750,000 annually. They do all of their own exhibits in house. They only host occasional traveling exhibits, typically, VSA Arts, from the Freeman (?).She said they like change there exhibits on average about 2 to 5 times a year. It can be small like changing out the food in their international market or building a large scale exhibit.

Their two projects they discussed were refurbishing their children’s hospital exhibit about 10,000 sq. ft., which has been open for about 8 years. They spent a segment talking about the importance of partnering and how they had this relationship with hospital offering them storytimes and they would have students come out for program for years. The Hospital applied for a FEMA grant, based on knowledge about unintentional injury (who intentionally injures themselves?). Anywho, Pat from the hospital was inspired after visiting Indiana’s children museum and seeing the unintentional injury kits in their gift shop and thought it would be a great opportunity when the exec. Dr. came to her.

The other project was a 1.3 million dollar two level exhibit on aviation. It was spawned by a local pilots group who wanted to donate a flight simulator. They got grants from NASA, who had worked with the museum on previous programs. They got funding from Rockwell, who had previously worked with the museum offering an engineering day, as well as an IMLS grant.

I believe they did work with an exhibit designer (I wasn’t clear if that was a firm or inhouse) who didn’t really do everything they needed. I think whomever this was helped to develop space concept and then the museum took over. It sounded like they relied heavily on the university, local teachers, NASA, and Rockwell to develop educational content and whatever their needs were. I think the museum chose to work with “local contractors” and created the pieces. The biggest wow factor was that they said fabricators typically charge 250-300 per sq. ft. and it costs only 20 to 50 sq ft. to do it yourself. I think that is not entirely accurate. At the workshop on Thursday when they were discussing building your own small traveling exhibits they said it was more because of staff overhead. So I’m not sure what these folks numbers included.

I thought there were interesting tidbits in between their project description. She recommended when working on projects in house she would put the person was the most passionate or most knowledgeable as the team lead. Also useful, she said that getting the local Universities involved in the evaluation portion of the process was invaluable. She said that the whole aviation exhibit took them about 5 years to design and build. The gentleman from the University said that all educators are required to do 3 things: teaching, research, and service. He said that children’s museums can make a plea to help them based on fulfilling their service requirement.

I think it sounds like we’re on the right track. We’ve got Amanda Wilcox from San Bernardino involved in our evaluations. Tim Gunn from Azusa Pacific seems like a good back up. Michelle is great with grants! We’ve been partnering with lots of interesting folks. I think we’re on a good path. I think we could definitely do some small scale exhibits with the help of facilities, much like how Denver crafted their vet exhibit. I’m not sure we could do a two level exhibit and have it look the way we wanted it to since we really have such a polished look. Good to hear the inside story.

Peter Benson Keynote 3

Keynote speaker
Peter Benson
Search Institute, "40 Developmental Assets"
Friday, 9 am – 10:30 am

Notes from presenter:
Science should be used as a tool not an end. Mobilization of America is what we need and it should focus on the developmental journey of kids. Work is mobilization of towns and citizens. All kids are our kids (love this saying! And it is very true). Essential scientific idea and important philosophy – must be spread through America. Look for strength and build on strength. Too much focus on why kids fail. Focus on why succeed. 50,000 studies on depression, 40,000 on anxiety, but only 50 on joy. Build whole, healthy successful human beings. To mobilize the nation – you can’t give public constant message of danger, etc. The public assumes professionals should raise children. That is wrong! It is the community that should raise the children. Teach the community connectedness and engagement. Professionals don’t do this work, it is the people. Transform places where young people spend their time – schools, churches – these places have lost developmental touch.

We build disconnect – children do not know adults for longer than year. We segregate by age. Loss of sustained connectedness. It is in sustained relationship that we nuture best of life, pass on wisdom. Sustainability of connection across time. Remember and know young people across time. Someone knows they are alive and doing well. Being able to say, “You’ve grown so much, you look like your mother.” Rally for team of human development.

Spark – sparking curiosity, imagination. Building blocks. Engine. These are great developmental words we need to own and celebrate. Handouts 40 developmental assets from Search Institute. They cover support, empowerment, boundaries, expectations, constructive use of time, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, positive identities. This handout refers to ages 5 through 9 – main focus for children’s museums. On his website we can see the 0 to 4. Every human being needs to find their place in the framework.

These assets started 40 years ago. 3 million young adults have done this developmental asset. By the time you’re a high school senior, you might have 17 assets. Assets 2 through 9 are biggest risk for minorities. They don’t have lasting adult relationships, not welcoming school, lack of help from parents, and the perception that city doesn’t care about kids. Children being seen as a problem rather than as a resource.

Biggest thing we can do – spend an hour with staff and ask each other. Which of these 40 assets does out children’s museum touch? How do we do asset # __? Name what you touch. A huge affirmation for a team of people on the impact of the lives we touch. People love to hear ideas of strategies and tactics. We need to won, claim, and celebrate our asset building power.

Science – the more assets the better. The American problem is – we’re losing our way. We need a language of the common good. The Search Institute’s biggest achievement is creating this framework with no controversy around it. Everyone, all communities can look and say, yes this is what kids need. 600 cities are using this draw people together. Calling the schools, neighborhoods, parents, faith – what is your role? The only criticism we get is – what’s missing? Wellness and nutrition. That is key too. In the next few years we’ll be able alter the taxonomy to add wellness and physical well being.

Kids need 3 or 4 – family, school, community, and a safe place to go – all of which need to be asset building. Talks about Morgan Freeman and how he has good response to town. We’re losing this, losing this spark. What happened to thriving? We see thriving plants, fields – reaching up and out into the world. Who are the kids who are alive, in love with life? Development from the inside out.

You don’t learn to thrive from messages – you learn from the inside out - Plutarch, “kids are not vessels to be filled, but fires to be lit.” Where are you, what are you as a kid bringing got the human party? We must identify our spark, spirit – from latin spirtus “my breath.” What is your breath? That thing about you that is good and beautiful? Find and hang onto our spark. When we lose it, life is empty. When one is known and seen for one’s spark – everything becomes possible.

Harris, Gallop polls, thousands of adults and parents. 100 % of kids get the idea of spark in a heartbeat. What is it about you that gives you joy and energy, life seems full and gives you energy?2/3 of middle school can name it. 20 % of high school can name 2 or 3. 220 types of sparks kids name. Kids get excited – no one has asked me to name it. Leading, learning in a particular area (archeology, marine biology, languages), stewardship of the earth: constantly attentive about what can be done, protection of animal life, athletics, the big winner – the largest in America art, music, dance, creative movement – the art of creation. How did we lose this? Spark is not the same as career. Spark is anchor for identity? The gift I bring to the world, why I’m here. Something is good and beautiful and useful about that I bring to the world. Can I let my spark have life today? Be my best me today?

Help me growing up to discover my spark. Our job as adults is to find it, feed it, and trust it. (applause everywhere). One in family, one in school, one other community resource – 3 people – spark champions – that is what they need. Share your spark. Create a sustainable relationship. Alert your teams to the idea of spark. When you see a kid come alive with something – touching water, electricity – let staff know give children the words to identify it! That’s your spark! Learn it – see it – feed it. Stories about Steven Speilberg as a child. Teenagers, say you don’t see me. We lose sight of this. Story about grandson, “I am an artist.” Get young people on the road to naming and framing I am. We must be the anchor of the strength based movement. Tell kid’s teacher and parents what kids spark is. His school reform is to identify all kids sparks. Middle school say on one third can identify spark. Hand out assets, hold seminars for parents. Help parents learn spark dialogue for their kids.

Kabbalah story “In the beginning the world was made of light. All of this light has been scattered into everything and everyone. We must all gather the light from ourselves and the world. It is our job to gather it and heal the world.” That’s perfect for the spark. May all of your museums grow and blossom.

Really inspirational. I think this is definitely something as library we do now and we are able to do. Already we make a huge difference in the lives of the community by providing access to information. I think we can take it to the next level by applying more of the 40 developmental assets. I think Archibald probably has a bit more experience connecting with the community because they’ve been there for more years. However, I think a lot of the staff that has been here for a long time does a super job of connecting with the community. We’ve got examples of us doing this right now - storytellers forming relationships with the children in their storytimes, the teen crew bonding with teens in programs, and even when we’re remembering adults who come to use studyrooms. Another kudos moment for us. I really liked his ideas (continue growth in our case) of handing out these assets (maybe making them available online through our website, maybe even tying them in to our programs we are offering). It sounds like our personal connection with the public is what we’re doing well and how we can continue to grow.

Final morning

Sat at a Southwest table at breakfast primarily with folks from Houston. We talked quite a bit about next year’s ACM which they will host. They said it will most likely be held at the Hyatt and assured us Starbucks will remain open all day, there would be a shop in the hotel and an all-day restaurant. We also talked about there museum which would be great to see. We were able to tell them it was featured in a recent LA Times Travel article. We hope someone from our library will be able to attend next year.

At the end of the final plenary session, Houston CM presented an O Wow video inviting us all to InterActivity 2011. It was a fun view of the museum and really makes me want to visit. However they stole Jason's toilet paper and leaf blower stunt! Houston produces other O Wow videos for their blog so I'm going to have to search that out.

Renee

Personal Resource for Professional Development

On Friday morning I went to Personal Resource for Professional Development, a program that was not in the original program and produced a small audience. Speakers were from Please Touch in Philadelphia and the Minnesota Children’s Museum. They spoke about outreach programs they created with area partners.

The Community Partners Program created at Please Touch sounded something like the Parent/Child Workshop done through the Family Place Libraries (we renamed it the Play and Learn Workshop). The workshop included a circle time and a learning through play orientation session. They had substantial grant funding and could offer participating families museum memberships after finishing the 6-week workshops. Their goals sounded familiar after all the study of play we have done; increased parent involvement in children’s lives, introduce families to a museum experience; provide safe space to play and interact, and finally to encourage play at home.

A 2005 study showed that 50% of children in Minnesota were not ready for Kindergarten. The Minnesota Children’s Museum created a program to offer professional development opportunities to adults in the early childhood world. They focused on those who had the least access to high quality resources and training with a goal to provide education and resources to child care providers. They targeted licensed in home care providers, family, friend & neighbor (FFN) caregivers and directors of independent child care centers

They offer Super Saturday Workshops in fall, winter and spring. Part of the workshop is spent connecting content to developmentally appropriate practices and learning strategies, extensive handouts and materials for participants. They have a training plan that connects classroom practices to Minnesota Core Competencies for early childhood providers.

A Museum Learning Adventure is offered for all workshop participants. Participants had to bring at least one other family that they served. They were given a two-hour museum visit but could stay longer. Their guest family received a free book per child and 5 for each child care provider.

It was interesting to see that other agencies are working on projects to increase play and learning in young children.