WHEN: October 15, 2011
9:15 a.m. — 4 p.m.
WHERE: Lehman College
250 Bedford Park Boulevard West
Bronx, NY
The Bronx Children’s Museum’s very first traveling exhibit, “River on the Go,” — an interactive diorama of the Bronx River geared to children from 3- 8 years old — has been invited to the first Bronx Education Summit: From Cradle to Career. Dr. Diane Ravitch, NYU professor and Brookings Institution senior fellow, is the keynote speaker for a day which will include workshops for educators, parents and students.
The exhibit, located on the museum’s mobile bus, was created by a team of educators and artists under the leadership of a Bronx-born and raised young woman, Luisa Escalera. Ms. Escalera, a Teaching Fellow, is an experienced industrial designer who is currently working as a special education teacher in the South Bronx. Nearly 150 children have already visited the exhibit so far.
The River on the Go exhibit’s accompanying curriculum for teachers and resources for parents and caregivers were developed by Lehman College Associate Professor Nancy Maldonado and environmental educator Lilli Genovesi.
Dr. Maldonado, who specializes in early childhood education, says, “Thinking, problem solving and investigating nature are the crux of what we want to get across in the exhibit. It’s in the Bronx and it’s theirs. It shows them how rich their community is.”
She added, “We worked so hard to create an environment that speaks to children at their eye level, stimulating and multi-sensory, not only aesthetically beautiful but also incorporating sounds of the river, birds and leaves in trees, recorded along the Bronx River. The exhibit is a wonderland for children…it piqued their curiosity and imagination as soon as they entered. There was a high level of thinking in their questions about things on view like the eggs and the cattails.”
After its visit to the Bronx Education Summit, BCM’s new On-the-Go Bus will transport the exhibit to children at festivals, schools, block parties, libraries, shelters, and community-based organizations. Visits to the first nine sites in the south Bronx, and the design and fabrication of the exhibit, have been funded by the Simon Bolivar Foundation.
The Bronx Children’s Museum is currently developing exhibits for a home that is slated to open its doors by 2014. The museum will provide interactive inquiry-based programs both inside and outside the Museum’s walls that promote literacy, the arts, science, cultural enrichment, greening, and sustainability.
The Museum collaborates with, complements and supports community-based organizations, shelters, foster care and day care programs, and schools, as well as cultural and recreational institutions in the Bronx.
For further information, contact Sandy Shalleck
Email: sshalleck@hotmail.com
Phone: 347-945-2103
For questions regarding the museum and its programs please contact Richard Stein, press liaison for the board
E-mail: rstein001@optonline.net
Phone: 718-884-5715; Cell 347-291-5415