Students of various backgrounds and grade levels in the University of California, Merced Engineering Service Learning team Merced Children’s Museum have been working alongside the UC Merced Calteach program and First 5 to build a venue to support K-12 educational efforts. In Merced County, only 13% have a college degree. “Informal education, like this exhibit plays a big part in a person's development,” said Professor Mayya Tokman, Faculty Advisor of Merced Children’s Museum team. “We want to encourage students to open themselves more to opportunities in fields like STEM.”
The venue will be realized as an Aerospace Exhibit that teaches velocity, mobility and position in space targeted towards third through sixth graders. An informal educational venue like this exhibit will help increase graduation rates in the Merced County. Merced Children’s Museum aims to captivate young students in active learning with this STEM-focused showpiece.
“It will be nice for children to have access to exhibits like this where they can gain hands-on learning,” Merced Children’s Museum Team Member Celina Arellano said. Arellano and her team are designing the exhibit to be open year-long and free for children to interact with and reinforce what is being taught in the classroom.
Currently, the team has completed the framework of the exhibit as a dome so that students stay immersed in the concepts being taught. The Engineering Service Learning team is designing and testing the subcomponents of the exhibit that will teach its concepts to users in an engaging way. Along with other Engineering Service Learning projects, the Merced Children’s Museum team will not only design the exhibit but also build and deliver in the Fall 2018 Semester.
Additional information on the Merced Children’s Museum team and the children’s museum, Merced for Kids, can be found at https://engineeringservicelearning.ucmerced.edu/team-mercedchildrenmuseu...
