The Greatest Places
Museum Educator Action Plan
Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center
San Diego, California

Program Title - Museum Trunk Programs and Demonstrations

Museum Educator - Aly Evans, Education Specialist
Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center
P.O. Box 33303
San Diego, CA 92163
Phone (619) 238-1233 ext. 847
FAX (619) 231-8971
E-mail aevans@rhfleet.org

Overview : Provide additional educational experiences to patrons to the museum, school students who visit the museum and those who participate in Fleet Center outreach programs.

Components
Science Discovery Days - The materials to be sent to the Fleet Center via The Greatest Places museum trunk may be developed into an outreach program targeting the annual Science Discovery Day programs throughout San Diego County. Programs that will be able to fit the SDD format will be developed while the trunk is housed at the Fleet Center, and during the run of the film. If the materials and the program warrants, additional trunk materials may be purchased from SMN for extended use at the Fleet. The primary purpose of this component is to experiment with ways to put the museum trunk idea to use in our region, and judge the educational impact of this type of resource for our area.

Trunk Demonstrations - In-house, table-top, or cart demonstrations may be developed to accompany The Greatest Places film, once it is playing at the Fleet Center and our building expansion is complete. Demonstrations to take place in the Lobby or areas of the Exhibit Galleries can illustrate The Greatest Places themes, activities and links between science and technology, math, and other educational area. Demos would be done by volunteers on a regular basis and would utilize trunk materials such as place artifacts. Simple activities may also be adapted from the teacher guide for the demo program.

Trunk Rental - A rental arrangement may be arranged once The Greatest Places museum trunk arrives at the Fleet Center. Teachers will be able to rent the museum trunk to be used for one week at a time. Cost of rental and replacement charges will be decided by appropriate Fleet Center staff. Use and actual outcome of The Greatest Places trunk will be noted by Education Specialist, as will the usefulness of this type of ancillary educational materials to our particular museum.
Program Goals - To utilize the wealth of resources provided to the Fleet Center with The Greatest Places museum trunk and to provide another resource for teachers to link the geography components of the film's subject matter to math, science and technology, and other areas of their curricula.

Program Implementation - NOTE: To implement the components of thisAction Plan, strong relationships will be developed between staff members from several departments. In order for these components to work effectively the entire Fleet Center staff must have buy-in.
Begin implementation by sharing ideas, themes and concepts of The Greatest Places film project with all Fleet Staff.
Introduce the components of the film project to illustrate the depth of project goals.
Allow staff to experiment with the materials found in the museum trunk to give them familiarity with the contents.
Work with staff to design carts for demos, find effective locations for demos, and provide support for program changes.
Devlop Demo program and train Voluneers to present programs, daily.

Program Audience - The audience for the first component of this Action Plan would be targeted toward the increasing number of schools calling to schedule Science Discovery Day speakers. The audience for the trunk demos would include the patrons who pay to attend The Greatest Places , other OMNIMAX( theater shows, or to the Exhibit Galleries.

Internal Contacts - Programming staff to determine the schedule for The Greatest Places film, Education Coordinator and Marketing staff to advertise trunk demos in house, Education Outreach staff, to be trained by Education Specialist, to present Science Discovery Day Outreach programs. Visitor Services and Engineering for cart creation and use (electrical needs) and lobby issues. Volunteer Coordinator, to be hired, will recruit and hire volunteers to perform cart demos.

External Contacts - Venders for cart creation, supplies for demo and outreach programs, teacher contacts from past Science Discovery Day programs.

Venue Dates for The Greatest Places - Estimated Fall 1999 .

Timeline for Planning and Implementation - Programs can actually begin once The Greatest Places Trunk is in house. Planning and implementation can begin as soon as a concrete list of trunk content and materials is generated and an estimated time is given for film release. Once a concrete list of trunk contents is made public and a copy of the teacher materials is distributed an outreach program and cart demo can be developed fairly quickly, approximately 3 to 4 months. The Demo cart will take more time, approximately 6 months due to the cart proto-typing and lobby location experimentation. Final Demo Cart programs will not take place until a Volunteer Coordinator is hired and the building expansion plans have been completed.