<<Date:    Wed, 18 Feb 1998 12:04:32 -0600

From:    "Sara E. Clinard" <[log in to unmask]>

Subject: ideal education facilities



We are in the process of planning a new museum building.  Has anyone

recently built a new building or education wing?  We are wondering what an

ideal education department would have.  We are a natural

history/science museum that serves a 13 county (rural/small town)
area of about 300,000 people.



Here are our questions



1.  How many staff persons do you have for your new facility?

2.  How many classrooms

3.  What kind of labs?

4.  What kind of storage space

5.  What is your optimum square footage for education?>>
   ----------------------------
Sarah,

The North Carolina State Museum of Natural History in Raleigh
should be opening their new facility soon, if I recall correctly.
They spent a great deal of time considering the same questions.
Unfortunately, I've misplaced their cards from my files, so I can't
give you specifics.

As for ideal education facilities, wow....that's a whopper of a
question.  I think that the Smithsonian Institution's Naturalist
Center is an ideal education facility (of course my bias is no
doubt showing!).  It should probably be more accurately described
as a public study center.  We maintain a collection of some 30,000
objects, a 2,400 volume library, and scientific equipment such as
microscopes for public use.  We have two museum staff members
plus one teacher provided by the local schoool system, and a
volunteer staff of about 60 docents.  We are currently serving
just under 4,000 students as part of scheduled school group
visits annually and about 10,000 total visitors.  The entire
facility could be called a classroom and laboratory since it allows
direct, hands-on access to all the resources.  Classes or individuals
can do structured activities or can do independent investigations.
Most of the classes that have visited this year, have designed their
own hands-on programs (with our guidance and approval of course)

At about 8,000 square feet, the Naturalist Center is larger than most
museumscould consider, obviously.  But several museums around the
world have similar centers that are smaller.I would highly recommend
learning more about them at this stage.  They shouldn't be the only
such education facility at your museum, but should definitely be
considered an important component.

If I read your address correctly, I'd suggest you talk with my good
friend Mary Suter at the museum there:  [log in to unmask]
She volunteered at the Naturalist Center for a number of years some
time ago.

If you would like more information about the Naturalist Center
please drop me a line, and I'll pop some material in the snail mail.

Richard Efthim, Program Director
Naturalist Center
741 Miller Drive, SE, Suite G-2
Leesburg, Virginia 20175
(800)729-7725