ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Greetings all!
We have an area in our Museum that is dedicated to children 4 years of age and younger and their caretakers. After reading the July/August issue of Dimensions, I was not only fascinated by the information presented by those institutions who had recently revamped/expanded their preschool areas but also very grateful to those institutions for sharing the results of their observations and research that was done in preparation for the expansions.
So, my question(s): After you have created a space that successfully encourages learning and engages the younger visitor, how do you use your museum staff in that space? Do you have a staff member monitor the ages of the visitors as they enter? Does your staff create programming (workshops, activities, etc.) to happen in that space? If you have staff for the preschool area, are their responsibilities focused solely in that space or do they overlap with other areas of the museum (general floor operations and programming, front desk operations, etc.)? If they are focused only in the preschool area, how does their focus change when the preschool area is slow (read what do you do to keep your staff from getting bored when it is dead in the preschool area)? Also, is this a part-time, full-time or volunteer staff position? Finally, how do you keep those staff members energized and invested in the position when there are significant downtimes in preschool area attendance and thus keep turnover low?
We are trying to answer these questions for our own organization. Any insight you could offer would be wonderful! Feel free to respond on- or off-list.
Thanks a million in advance and have a spiffy day!
-Erin
 
 
Erin S. Mattimoe
Visitor Services and Public Programs Manager
 
Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
220 E. Ann St.
Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104
 
Phone: 734.995.5439
Fax: 734.995.1188
Web: www.aahom.org
 

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