Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is somewhere I believe is a starting point for project-based learning. This museum is very involved in hands on learning and investigation. By bringing a student or child to this museum you foster their questioning. Many of the exhibits in the museum has students attempt to build things for science in which the may succeed or fail at. This opportunity makes them think about what they are doing and question why or why it did not work.
OMSI has entrance fees that vary from nine to twelve dollars to get in and than additional fees for theaters and featured exhibits. These additional fees are only due if you wish to see the additional exhibits, there are many other things to do for just the admission fee. When I travel to OMSI I usually end up spending around fifty dollars so that I can enjoy everything that the museum has to offer.
As an educator there are even more opportunities at OMSI. There are workshops and in-services for teachers as well as material to use in your classroom either before or after a visit to the museum. To benefit students involved in project-based learning I would take the students to the museum and encourage them to interact with everything that they can in the time the have at the museum. An exhibit that would have students questioning and working hands on are the exhibits in the turbine hall of the museum. These exhibits include building boats that hold up in the wind, building homes that stay standing in earthquakes, playing with color and light, chemistry labs, and physics labs.
Once returning to the classroom I would ask the students if they had any question regarding what they did while at OMSI. These question would be great jump off points in the project-based learning and the experience at the museum would give them a great background on the inquiry. When students have begun their projects as an educator you can the OMSI website teacher section where you can find resources for you and the students to work on their projects. These resources include worksheets if you wish but also have ways to replicate what you saw at OMSI in your own classroom so that when students finish their project-based learning they can try their inquiry out again to see if what they have found will actually work out if question something they had done in the turbine hall of the museum.
I feel the combination of the museum and the online support OMSI provides fosters the learning in project-based learning and inspires the students to learn.
OMSI has entrance fees that vary from nine to twelve dollars to get in and than additional fees for theaters and featured exhibits. These additional fees are only due if you wish to see the additional exhibits, there are many other things to do for just the admission fee. When I travel to OMSI I usually end up spending around fifty dollars so that I can enjoy everything that the museum has to offer.
As an educator there are even more opportunities at OMSI. There are workshops and in-services for teachers as well as material to use in your classroom either before or after a visit to the museum. To benefit students involved in project-based learning I would take the students to the museum and encourage them to interact with everything that they can in the time the have at the museum. An exhibit that would have students questioning and working hands on are the exhibits in the turbine hall of the museum. These exhibits include building boats that hold up in the wind, building homes that stay standing in earthquakes, playing with color and light, chemistry labs, and physics labs.
Once returning to the classroom I would ask the students if they had any question regarding what they did while at OMSI. These question would be great jump off points in the project-based learning and the experience at the museum would give them a great background on the inquiry. When students have begun their projects as an educator you can the OMSI website teacher section where you can find resources for you and the students to work on their projects. These resources include worksheets if you wish but also have ways to replicate what you saw at OMSI in your own classroom so that when students finish their project-based learning they can try their inquiry out again to see if what they have found will actually work out if question something they had done in the turbine hall of the museum.
I feel the combination of the museum and the online support OMSI provides fosters the learning in project-based learning and inspires the students to learn.
Resources:
OMSI. (2011). Omsi. Retrieved from http://www.omsi.edu/home
OMSI. (2011). Omsi. Retrieved from http://www.omsi.edu/home