We are excited to bring on Angela Davis, founder of MuseWork, to head the Texas Colorado River Mobile Learning Experience! To learn more about her company, visit http://museworkexhibits.com/.
Water is precious. Here in Austin, our lives and livelihoods depend on a healthy Colorado River. But just saying so doesn’t necessarily encourage lifelong stewardship. For that, we need to reach younger audiences in new and exciting ways that will spark their interest. That’s why my partners and I at MuseWork were so excited to become part of the Colorado River Alliance’s Mobile Learning Project.
The CRA’s mobile learning project is truly reaching out to youth audiences by meeting them where they are. We think it’s a brilliant idea to pack a museum’s worth of science exhibits into a trailer and head out to middle schools across Austin. After all, these are the very people who will have some tough decisions to make as our population grows and our water supplies do not. Let me say that again – in the future, the fate of our water, our city and our environment will be in their hands.
Knowing the high stakes, it’s tempting to pack this exhibit full of information and teach these kids everything we can about our water resources – RIGHT NOW.
But, we know that truly successful exhibits don’t work that way. We must inspire learners to care enough to seek out knowledge for themselves. Our challenge is to create exhibit experiences that are fun, engaging and just cool. We are currently in the early stages of planning, talking to teachers and students and sketching out ideas. We are well on our way to creating a unique space where students can explore the river and the water that flows through our city in a whole new way. The exhibits will be rooted in STEM and will provide lots of opportunities for critical thinking. For example, one emerging goal of the project is to put kids in the driver’s seat, using games to engage students in some difficult decision-making. After all, they’re gonna need the practice.