Great suggestions everyone, and I will make sure they're well fed.
 
Gina
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Joanne Kluessendorf
Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 11:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] teaching high schoolers

Great tips, Dawn!!  Except I may have mentioned "food" a few more times :-)


Joanne Kluessendorf, Ph.D.
Director
Weis Earth Science Museum
University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley
1478 Midway Road
Menasha, WI 54952
phone 920.832.0125
fax 920.832.2674

The Weis Museum—Where Science Rocks!








On Jul 24, 2009, at 8:26 AM, Scher Thomae, Dawn wrote:

Since I have worked with high school interns for years and have done presentations on programs for teens at museums, here are a couple of pointers:
*Ask them what they would like to do or learn as you develop the program.
*Make sure the experience is meaningful and worthwhile to them.
*Ensure the museum staff is willing to work with teens and there is someone there directly assigned to supervise and mentor them.
*Make sure there is a social aspect to any program in addition to the educational one.
*Don’t schedule anything before 10am.
*Make sure there is food involved in some way.
Many teens are interested in career exploration and gaining relevant skills at this point so visiting professionals in the field at different sites is a possibility.
I am sure others can suggest specific programs suitable to your historical society.
Dawn Scher Thomae
Milwaukee Public Museum
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gina Gage
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 3:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: teaching high schoolers
Howdy all you wonderful museum people!
This is your friendly museum volunteer and professional archaeologist from Tempe, Arizona. I volunteer at a small community's local historical society museum. The town where the museum is located has asked me and a friend to put together a workshop for a group of local high-achieving high schoolers on archaeology and history. The workshop can be at our museum or at the community facililty, or perhaps a combination of both.
My dilemma is that I've never really dealt with high school students on any level. I've done several presentations (hour long to 1/2 day long) for younger kids and emotionally and behaviorally-challenged teenagers, but never for high-achieving teenagers. So, I'm appealing to all of you wonderful, knowledgeable folks for advice, suggestions, input on creative, fun, challenging things to do with these kids. We would like to plan a one day event, an ongoing event such as a once a week-several weeks in a row event, or an all week long (5 day) event. This is a small community with limited funds, but I'm not sure yet of our budgetary or other limitations.  
Thanks in advance for any suggestions, help, advice, and I apologize for my lack of details.
Cheers,
Gina
Gina S. Gage
Project Director and Historical Archaeologist
Northland Research, Inc.
1865 E. 3rd Street
Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 894-0020 office
(602) 339-0933 field cell
(480) 894-0957 fax
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