With the Spark!Lab, our WeeMuse Parent/Child STEM program, science-based after-school programs, summer camps and more our Education and Interpretation team has worked hard to create a variety of STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) opportunities for area children.
In this post, Director of Interpretation Maria Mingalone discusses why access to quality STEM opportunities, starting at an early age, is crucial for our 21st Century kids.
Inspired by President Obama who tackled toy-gender stereotypes by putting science and sports-based toys into the ‘girls’ Toys for Tots bin, I decided to wander up to the Berkshire Museum’s newly opened Spark!Lab on a typical day to see how well we fared. It was terrific to see visitors of all genders (and ages!) engaged in an assortment of inventive activities – experimenting with electrical circuits, creating objects to fly in the wind tunnel, and prototyping solutions to posed challenges.
Listen here to a recent broadcast on Spark!Lab on WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
If we aim to be a nation that supports equal access to all, and hold high our aspiration as a nation of innovators, then we can start by modeling that in our work on a daily basis. Museums can address issues that we struggle with as a nation; that goes for providing access to children (both boys and girls!) and their families to creative and challenging activities in a forward-thinking environment that supports creative play and learning, free from bias!
Below you can hear more on this subject in a recent conversation I had with John Krol at Berkshire Business Today:
The post Innovation for all! appeared first on Berkshire Museum.