The Delaware Museum of Natural History is focusing on virtual programs while it is closed for renovations. And its main audience is students:
Since closing for its facelift in January, the museum’s virtual programs have reached 1,500 students across the region.
“It’s important for students to have something different and something that engages them in addition to the regular classroom learning, because they normally would be getting field trips," said the Museum's communications director Jennifer Acord. "In 2019, we served 19,000 (19,319) students at the Museum and when we went out to schools and childcare places.”
Acord notes that all their programs are standards-based and designed to supplement classroom lessons - targeting pre-K through middle school.
“We have a new program this year that DuPont has sponsored that is for middle school students. And we’re really trying to reach out to more middle schools with this," said Acord. "We have a lot more opportunity for those grades. So far this year we’ve done 17 of those programs, reaching about 270 students.”
Acordsays middle school topics include Ecosystem Rehab, Nature vs. Nurture and Concepts of Climate Change.
They are also free, thanks to grants from PNC Bank, DuPont and others.
The Museum's nearly $9.8 million renovation is expected to wrap up in early 2022, when it will reopen as the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
