Overview of a Proposed Action Plan

for Educational Programming at the

Milwaukee Public Museum

related to "The Greatest Places" IMAX Film


prepared July 24, 1997

proposed by Mary Korenic
Director of Educational Programming
Milwaukee Public Museum
800 W. Wells Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233
phone: 414-278-2716
fax: 414-278-6100
e-mail: mary@mpm1.mpm.edu

Background of the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM)

The Milwaukee Public Museum is a museum of human and natural history. The Museum's exhibits and dioramas, which are exhibits featuring objects in a context creating a "you-are-there" experience, are arranged on three floors based on geographic location (Africa, Oceania, Asia, North America, Central America, South America, Arctic, Europe, and Milwaukee) and on topic(biology and geology).

Dioramas at the Milwaukee Public Museum relate to the environments/biomes/ecosystems presented in The Greatest Places IMAX film and include the desert (including Sahara, Kalahari, Sonoran and Great Australian Desert), the tundra (including dioramas of the Innuit people and dioramas of polar bears, caribou, and musk ox), grassland (including dioramas of an Africa grassland and savanna), island (including dioramas of islands in Oceania), rain forest (including the Amazon, Congo, and Costa Rica) and exhibits about plate tectonics and a reproduction glacier including evidence of glacial movement and glacial deposits. The Milwaukee Public Museum has a curatorial staff with specialties in invertebrate zoology, vertebrate zoology, botany, geology, history and anthropology and an educational programming staff with specialties in biology, anthropology, geology and other natural sciences.

Tentative Dates for showing The Greatest Places IMAX at the Museum Center
October 1998 - May 1999

Audience at the Milwaukee Public Museum
The MPM serves adults, families, teachers, school children, and scouts both in-house and at outreach sites. The Milwaukee Public Museum has as one of its best resources, the dioramas. It is this strength, the dioramas, on which programming for The Greatest Places IMAX film will be built. Requests from teachers in the southeastern Wisconsin Area for school visits to the Museum have been related to places (desert, rain forests, woodlands, etc.) rather than specific themes (death and survival, water systems, etc.) Therefore, programming will make maximum use of existing, "permanent" dioramas in the galleries. The programming described here proposes to be implemented during the run of The Greatest Places IMAX and can continue to be used after The Greatest Places IMAX has completed its run at the Museum Center.






Program Goals
The goals of the programming proposed in this action plan are:

1. To show connections between the Milwaukee Public Museum dioramas and exhibits with
The Greatest Places IMAX;
2. To inform the visiting public about the world's physical, biological and cultural diversity;
3. To inform the visiting public about adaptations of plants, animals and people to different environments;
4. To guide the visiting public in engaging, involving activities that attend to their varied learning styles
(e.g. offer lectures, hands-on experiences, written observation sheets and opportunities for social
discussions).


Overview of Programming at the Milwaukee Public Museum which relates to
The Greatest Places IMAX
Programming in this action plan proposes to use existing program formats at the MPM (such as lecture series, guided tours, gallery curriculum guides, travel tour series, afternoon adventures programs, stop spot programs, teacher conventions, teacher preview/open house, overnights, self-guided tours, and Celebrations of Culture: Hispanic Festival) and proposes to consider some new programs (such as a fair called the Greatest Place Day at the Museum, passport program, WIGA convention, Diversity of the World Tours, Biome Bingo, Greatest Places Photographs, Geography Awareness Week) in incorporating the themes and places presented in The Greatest Places IMAX and related to the biomes (desert, tundra, rain forest, grassland, etc. ) represented by the dioramas at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The programs described in this action plan are only proposals and will be a matter of further discussion. A finalized program schedule related to The Greatest Places IMAX is pending discussion and review of the Museum program calendar and programming budget for fiscal year 98/99.

Relationship of Proposed MPM Programming to the National Geography Standards :
The programs proposed in this action plan will directly support all of the five national geography standards:
Location (position on Earth's surface)
Place (physical and human characteristics)
Human/Environmental Interaction (relationship within places)
Movement (humans interacting on Earth)
Regions (how they form and change)

The following summarizes, in broad strokes, programs proposed at the Milwaukee Public Museum to be used in conjunction with The Greatest Places IMAX film.

Program Audiences:

For Adults :

Luncheon Lecture Series
This existing series consists of lunch followed by a lecture held at the MPM. Luncheon lectures are offered once a month, the 2nd Tuesday of the month, from October 1998 through April 1998. The audience is primarily composed of adults and members of the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Museum. It is proposed in this action plan that one of the series of lectures will feature a speaker on one of the locations featured in the Greatest Places or a speaker on a theme such as the botany of the greatest places or the geology of The Greatest Places. (Potential speakers may be drawn from the MPM botany or geology curatorial staff or from the University of Wisconsin Dept. Of Geography)


Afternoon Tour and Tea Series
This existing series consists of a tour of an exhibit gallery followed by tea and cookies. The program targets group audiences from senior adult centers, senior day care centers, women's groups, men's groups and bus tours arranged by travel agents within the state of Wisconsin and upper Illinois. The series is offered every other month on the third Wednesday and a Thursday from 2:30 - 4:00 p.m. from October through March. A nominal fee is required. One Wed/Thur combination will feature a viewing of The Greatest Places IMAX, followed by a Diversity of the World Tour in the Museum galleries, followed by tea/cookies in the Costa Rican Cafe. (An MPM docent will develop this guided tour for adults focusing on a visit to MPM dioramas such as the African grassland to talk about connections with the Okavango Delta; the Kalahari to talk about connections with the Namib desert; and the Amazon diorama to talk about connections with the Amazon River)

Natural History Lecture Series
This existing series consists of an evening lecture offered at the Milwaukee Public Museum auditorium. The series, offered 4 to 6 times a year, begins at 5:30 p.m. with a reception, 7:00 p.m. lecture. It is proposed that one of the evening lectures will include a speaker about The Greatest Places (Cecil Keen?) or related theme (geology of the Greatest Places potentially presented by a member of the MPM geology curatorial staff). It is proposed that The Greatest Places IMAX film be included as part of the program.

Travel Tour Series
The existing travel tour series takes groups of participants to various locations around the world led by staff of the Milwaukee Public Museum. Recent trips have included travel groups to Egypt, Costa Rica and Africa. During the run of the Greatest Places IMAX film, local travel tours will be proposed such as
*a day trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo to see the real animals featured in The Greatest Places IMAX
film such as lemurs, animals of the African grassland, etc.
*a day trip to Kohler Andrae State Park to see the sand dunes in Wisconsin and discuss how they compare
with the dunes in the Namib Desert
*a hiking trip to the Kettle Moraine area to view glacial features and discuss how they compare with
glaciers in Greenland
*a day trip on the "Iroquois," a boat which travels along the principle river in downtown Milwaukee;
discuss how the river compares with the Amazon
The tours would be led by Museum staff, preferably a curator and museum educator team, and would be dependent upon staff availability and weather conditions.

Diversity of the World Tours
The Milwaukee Public Museum offers free public tours to adults twice a day Mondays and through Saturdays (11 a.m. and 1 p.m.) and once a day on Sundays (1 p.m.) It is proposed that a new tour be developed , called Diversity of the World Tours. This tour would feature the dioramas that have connections to The Greatest Places IMAX allowing visitors to see the animals and cultural objects up close and with additional interpretation provided by a guide. The Tour would include stops at the African grassland diorama to discuss connections with the Okavango delta, the Amazon dioramas to discuss the connections with the Amazon River characteristics of the IMAX, the Kalahari desert diorama to discuss the connections with the Namib desert. The theme of the tours would focus on the adaptations of plants, animals and people to these different environments.

For Families :


Greatest Place Day at the Museum
Families/Adults will be invited to share objects, pictures, scrapbooks from one of the greatest places they have traveled to. Since the Museum has offered travel tour programs for many years, there is a group of individuals from which to draw to invite them to be presenters in this "fair" of greatest places; the presenters may include travelers to the Amazon, Africa, Greenland, South America, Tibet, and other places. Eight foot tables will be set up in Uihlein Gallery (maximum 20). Members of the general public will be invited to view, and interact with the travelers who will inform them why their place is the greatest place, where it is located, what the place looks like and the type of objects one may find there. For example, the Greatest Place Day at the Museum may take place the 2nd Saturday in November from1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Members of the public will be invited to visit The Greatest Places IMAX film during the day and then visit Uihlein Gallery for discussion about place, interaction of people/flora/fauna with place.

Stop Spot Program
The Stop Spot Program is an existing, popular program at the Milwaukee Public Museum. It consists of a cart with a single, focused, hands-on activity related to a diorama. A volunteer, who is familiar with the stop spot cart materials, interacts with the public 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. daily. Rather than a formal demonstration program, the Stop Spot Program works well with family groups and chaperoned school groups who travel through the Museum in small groups of up to 10 children. It is proposed that existing carts will be available for families/adults on the first Saturday of each month during the run of The Greatest Places IMAX. Existing stop spots to be scheduled are:
Sonoran Desert Rain Forest
Eskimo/Innuit Earth Movers and Shakers
African Grassland Museum Trunk developed for Greatest Places
Islands

Biome Bingo
Visit the program activities web page for this activity.

Afternoon Adventures
This popular program is offered for families every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. It consists of a 15 minute presentation by a museum staff person which includes a hands-on activity. The presentation/activity takes place in a museum gallery. At the conclusion of the program each family receives a bag filled with a take-home activity sheet to continue learning about the topic, materials to complete the activity (in some cases), and a museum souvenir (postcard, etc.) It is proposed that during the run of The Greatest Places IMAX, the Afternoon Adventures Program focus on the following gallery topics related to the film: October - Desert, November - Island, January - river (Amazon), February - grassland, March - tundra, April - rain forest.

Greatest Places Photographs
WINGS is a publication printed 6 times a year available as a benefit of membership. It is proposed that members will be asked to submit a photograph of their greatest place Wisconsin and why it is there greatest place. Selected photographs will be published in WINGS. This activity may be used to promote excitement about The Greatest Places IMAX.

Passport to Great Places
This new activity will make available a passport for adults/families in which they will check off/stamp the great places listed in their passport that they have visited in the Museum galleries and in the IMAX. Visitors using the stop spots will get their passport stamped by the staff presenter. Inside the passport will be 6 boxes (The Greatest Places, desert diorama, grassland diorama, Amazon Exhibit, tundra diorama, island diorama).

For Teachers
Preview and Open House for Teachers
An open house will be proposed for September 30 or October 1, 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. for teachers to see the Greatest Places IMAX. The proposed itinerary is as follows:
4:00 - 4:15 check-in, light refreshments,
4:15 - 4:30 get in line for IMAX; while in line receive teacher guide companion for IMAX,
4:30 - 5:30 view The Greatest Places,
5:30 - 5:45 presentation by museum educator from Discovery World Museum of Science Economics and Technology to briefly describe resources at their museum connecting to The Greatest Places
5:45 - 6:00 presentation by museum educator from the Milwaukee Public Museum
to briefly describe resources at their museum connecting to The Greatest Places

WEAC (Wisconsin Education Association Council) Convention
WEAC is the State Teachers Convention and will be held in Madison, October 29, 1998, 1:15 - 4:00 p.m.
Since many Milwaukee teachers do not travel to Madison to attend the WEAC convention, the MPM may take the opportunity to invite Milwaukee teachers on October 29, 1998, 1:30 - 4:00 p.m. for a session. This session would consist of introducing The Greatest Places IMAX film and the MPM with posters and slides, then getting the teachers involved by dividing the group into 4 stations and providing 4 activities related to desert, grassland, tundra, and rain forest. These activities may be done in the classroom prior to a visit to the MPM and IMAX but would be presented in the galleries. The activities show adaptations of plants, animals and people to 4 different environments. For example, activities for the desert may include one of the following (some of these activities may also be appropriate for stop spot activities):

a. Dynamics of Sand Activity
Materials: 9"X 13" baking pan, flour or corn meal (enough to fill 1/4 of the pan), straw

Discussion about how sand dunes are formed. A baking pan with flour (or corn meal or wheat germ) would be placed in a 9" x 13" baking pan. Using a straw to simulate air currents, the wind (kinetic energy air flow from the straw) would blow across the flour producing a dune. Notice that the crest of the dune is perpendicular to the air flow.

b. Why Do Desert Creatures Live Below Ground?
Materials: children beach sand pail, enough sand to fill the pail, light bulb with electricity, thermometer

Get a pail ( a children's beach sand pail will work). Fill it with sand. Place a light bulb directly over the top of the pail full of sand. With a thermometer, measure the temperature at the surface. Then measure the temperature 5 inches below the surface. The temperature below the surface should be cooler and therefore most creatures cool off in the hot desert by burrowing underground.

c. How Can Plants Live in a Desert?
Materials: 3 pieces of paper toweling, 1 piece of rectangle as large as a piece of paper toweling, baking sheet, water, cactus plant from a gardening store, light

Take three pieces of paper toweling. Moisten all three pieces by sprinkling water on them.
Take one piece and lay it flat on a table. Take the 2nd piece and roll it (jellyroll fashion). Take the 3rd piece and roll it jellyroll fashion and then wrap it in wax paper. Take a light and place if over all three pieces of paper toweling. Wait 10 minutes. Which piece dried out? Which piece remained moist? The piece wrapped in wax paper remained the moistest. That is because desert plants have a waxy coating on their surface to prevent excessive evaporation. Have some real cactus available to allow exploration of the waxy surface of cactus.




d. Water in the Desert
Materials: two sponges, baking sheet, two beakers, water, book

Get two sponges. Keep one sponge dry. Make the 2nd sponge moist. Place both sponges on a baking sheet. Tilt the baking sheet at an angle by placing a book under the baking sheet. Fill two beakers with equal amounts of water. Simulate a rainfall by pouring both amounts of water at the same time on the sponges. Which sponge will absorb the water? The wet sponge will absorb more water than the dry sponge. This is one reason that when it rains there are flash floods in the desert. Wetlands, which are present in Wisconsin, are simulated by the wet sponge; when it rains the wetlands are better able to absorb additional water.


Gallery Curriculum Packets
The Milwaukee Public Museum has developed 3 gallery curriculum packets (Africa, Tribute to Survival, and Rain Forest). Each packet consists of a set of 8 - 12 slides (or video) of the MPM gallery, slide script, pre-visit activity ideas, post-visit activity ideas, gallery activities and reproducible student sheets. The packets have been so popular with teachers that 3 other gallery curriculum packets will be completed by November, 1997 (Ancient Egypt/Rome/Greece, Earth: The Third Planet and Streets of Old Milwaukee: Then and Now). In line with the 5 year plan for educational programming at the Milwaukee Public Museum, the next gallery curriculum packet will focus on biomes. It is proposed that a teacher packet focused on biomes be developed for use by October 1998; this packet will feature biomes represented by dioramas at the Milwaukee Public Museum (tundra, desert, grassland, rain forest, island, woodland). The completion of this Biome packet will coincide with the presentation of The Greatest Places IMAX film.

Wisconsin Geographic Alliance Annual Convention
The Wisconsin Geographic Alliance meets once a year, usually in October, for an annual meeting. As a result of the Greatest Places Leadership Institute, the idea of having the WIGA Annual Convention in Milwaukee located at the Milwaukee Public Museum will be pursued. This connection would provide teachers in the state of Wisconsin with the opportunity to preview The Greatest Places IMAX and see how museum resources, particularly dioramas at the Milwaukee Public Museum, may be used as part of the school geography/social studies curriculum. (This proposal will be pursued with the leadership of WIGA and approval from the MPM).

Celebrations of Culture: Hispanic Festival
The Celebrations of Culture Program is a series of programs offered 4 times per year at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The program features the culture, music, dance, art, etc. of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans. If The Greatest Places IMAX is available in the Spanish language, it is proposed that the Spanish language version of The Greatest Places IMAX be included in the Celebrations of Culture: Hispanic Festival.

Children's Programs (Schools, Scouts, Overnight)


Overnights
The Milwaukee Public Museum offers overnight programs for 30 - 35 children most Friday and Saturday nights. During the run of The Greatest Places IMAX, it is proposed that as part of the overnight activities, the following be included: The Greatest Places IMAX, each student bring a baggie containing materials that represent them and their interaction with the environment of Wisconsin, and the stop spots be used as they relate to The Greatest Places IMAX.

School Activities connecting the Milwaukee Public Museum and The Greatest Places IMAX:
Adventure Sheet Paragraphs This existing language arts activity has been used with success for middle and high school students. Teachers visiting the Milwaukee Public Museum with their students will be instructed to use the sheets as follows. The class will be divided into 6 groups (tundra, desert, grassland, rain forest, island, woodland). Each team will be instructed to complete the Adventure Sheet by going into the museum galleries and find a diorama which matches their biome. Once the student finds the diorama matching the biome, the student will each complete the Adventure Sheet. The teams will re-convene in 45 minutes. When they reconvene, the students will switch their sheet with another student from a different group. Now the task will be to read the other student's Adventure Sheet and using the clues from the Adventure Sheet, locate that diorama. After the activity, the teacher may choose to conduct a discussion: How were the biomes the same? How were they different? What special adaptations of plants did the students observe that were unique to each biome? How did people adapt to living in this biome?
etc.

Self-Guided Tours
The Milwaukee Public Museum has developed self-guided observation sheets for students (middle school and high school) to guide themselves through the galleries. The self-guided tour instructs students to look at objects on display, make comparisons, and predict uses for the objects based on the evidence and context. It is proposed that a self-guided observation sheet be developed that guides students through the galleries featuring the tundra, grasslands, and Amazon rain forest. The theme of the self-guided tour is comparison/contrast of humans interacting with their environment. Emphasis will be placed on description of the three different environments and use of resources for food, for shelter and for material culture.

Geography Awareness Week
This week occurs in the second week of November. The Greatest Places IMAX film and related programs (listed above) can be offered in greater frequency during this week with special flyers mailed to schools.

Implementation Procedure for the Proposed Action Plan
for Educational Programming at the
Milwaukee Public Museum
related to "The Greatest Places" IMAX Film

Program Activities