Providence Childrens Museum

Programs: Museum learning occurs in the educational exhibits and programs created and presented by the museum. The museum creates and presents interactive exhibits designed to meet the developmental needs of children ages 1 - 11. In 2016, the coming to rhode island exhibit was reinvented and reopened in november to feature an immersive new story gallery highlighting a pre-famine irish immigrant, a new time tunnel, and an updated "story center," all designed to foster empathy and promote respect for diversity. 2016 also saw continued collaboration with brown university on two national science foundation-funded research projects, investigating how to make children's thinking and learning through play more visible and how open-ended exploration and parent-child interactions might support the development of scientific thinking in museum settings. Research studies by collaborators from brown and providence college engaged over 1,800 museum visitors.

the museum's nationally acclaimed families together program helps children in state care and their families rebuild relationships and develop better parenting skills through play-filled therapeutic visits at the museum and off-site at 'nina's house," a homelike setting. In 2016, families together served 438 children and parents in 152 court-separated families. At year-end, families together was awarded an expanded contract by the department of children, youth and families to significantly increase the number of families it serves.

the museum's americorps program reached a major milestone as its 20th americorps team completed a year of committed service to inspire a lifetime love of learning for children living in inner-city neighborhoods. Over the program year, the americorps members served over 20,000 hours as they: conducted creative problem-solving activities to support scientific thinking and school readiness for nearly 1,100 head start preschoolers; engaged 250 elementary school-age children with inspiring play-based math and science activities during after-school and summer learning clubs; welcomed over 1,400 low-income children and their family members to play together and receive 450+ free year-long admission passes at fun-filled family nights; and engaged museum visitors in exhibit exploration and developed displays and public programs.

providence children's museum is involved in an nsf-funded research partnership with brown university entitled: the emergence of diagnostic reasoning and scientific thinking (award no. 1223777). In this project, the museum is examining what children, caregivers, and informal learning institutions understand about learning through play at the exhibit face, is using this information to develop new ways to encourage children and adults to notice and appreciate the learning that takes place through play. In 2014, research efforts included: an interdisciplinary literature review of cognitive and metacognitive skills involved in play and educational practices that support these skills in informal settings; the development of research instruments for documenting children's learning in the museum; recording the metacognitive skills that appeared in children's play; interviews with 300 caregivers, documenting their perceptions of play and learning at the museum; evaluation of existing exhibit materials that communicate the ways children learn through play; discussion groups with museum educators on strategies for observing and supporting children's learning. The findings from this work have been submitted for presentation at national conferences, and are being used to develop new exhibit materials that will engage adults and children in reflecting on the learning that happens through play.