DESIGNING SMART FUN

Museum Field Trips

What makes our school programs so successful? Our natural setting, loyal volunteer educators, exhibits, enthusiastic visiting teachers? Yes. But there’s another powerful force behind the expertly channeled excitement of a field trip. It’s the School & Community Programs staff at the Museum: Senior Manager Charlotte Zeamer, Ph.D., and Specialist Jessica Prichard. For the last four years, Dr. Zeamer and Prichard have worked together to preserve our reputation for great field trips, and to keep our programs evolving. They agree that a field trip is the best day of a kid’s year: “Why would you not want to be part of that?” asks Prichard.

Both came on the job in August 2019. Prichard arrived in Santa Barbara after six years of experience at the Getty. Zeamer— whose background is in psychology and education—returned to Santa Barbara from the Bay Area, where she taught at Santa Clara University and worked at NASA’s Ames Research Center. “In Santa Barbara,

I was raising my daughter, and suddenly I had a little time,” she recalls. “I started here in the planetarium. I loved being back in space.” The chance to run school programs lured her out of the dark.

“This job has a lot of the elements I’ve always found precious,” including the excitement of learning with kids, mentoring educators, and creating memorable experiences with science.

Zeamer and Prichard both delight in how museum learning creates an atmosphere of constant reflection and challenge.

“Informal education is powerful,” says Prichard. “Museums bring out the best in people. In museums, we can have so many different conversations. Kids have imagination, and they’re not scared to say what they think.” The two restructured our school programs to revolve around small groups, creating opportunities for genuine connection between educators and students. The personalized approach makes science fun and memorable for everyone involved.

“We encourage conversations about the things that excite kids,” explains Zeamer.

“A lot of the training we do for the educators is about science, but also, how to recognize the strengths of different ages. What does a kindergartener do really well?

After every tour, the educators reflect and swap tips, building a toolkit of different approaches for varied circumstances. Flexibility helps educators respond in the moment, says Prichard, and it’s built into the curriculum: “We bring a lot of open-ended questions. Things that make students think critically and connect with their lives outside the lesson.” It all contributes to recognizing science as a practice based on inquiry, experimentation, and testing assumptions.When students arrive, they’re encouraged to “put on their science hat” and try this way of looking at the world.

The team is rewarded by a constant stream of thankyou notes, illustrating what students and teachers took away. Prichard’s all-time favorite is one from a secondgrade student who proudly proclaims: “I still have the science hat on.”

Learn more at sbnature.org/fieldtrip