The Schenectady Museum is set to become a little less static and a lot more hands-on to create an education center unique to the Capital District.
The museum is being transformed into a regional science and education center with the addition of the area’s only Challenger Learning Center and an agreement with the internationally renowned San Francisco-based Exploratorium Museum to provide five years of annual rotating, interactive science exhibits. Also, plans for a new entranceway will complement the updated museum through a partnership with Rensselaer’s School of Architecture.
Changes inside and outside the museum are also spurring a search for a new name to better fit the updated experience.
“There has been a long history at the museum with science, innovation and exploration, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that there are so many archives that stem from GE’s work in the area,” Trudy Lehner, vice president of the museum’s board of trustees, said.
In the past seven years, the museum has moved from being a “pure museum” to an interactive museum, Lehner said. She said the growth of the region’s technology corridor has employers looking to hire locally, creating an increased demand for science-based job opportunities.
Museum officials said the new Science Center is projected to attract “tens of thousands of school children and visitors” annually to delve into the interactive education.
“We are hoping it will bring in school groups and constantly have something new for them to see and learn,” she said.
She said she realizes schools are facing tougher budgets and fewer field trips so the museum changed its hours around a year ago to accommodate a later crowd.
The museum reached out to BOCES before moving forward with plans, and BOCES “assured” them school groups would come to visit new exhibits, Lehner said.
Brad Lewis, president of the Challenger Learning Center Board of Trustees, said the new Science Center will be an important community asset for science and technology education and attract visitors to the area.
“This is a huge moment not just for the museum but also for the Capital Region,” Lewis said in a prepared statement. “The leadership and hard work of many people … have brought us to the point of this re-launch.”
The Challenger Learning Center is based on NASA’s space shuttle and space exploration program, which allows students to experience a space-themed science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program. It is aimed at students from fifth to eighth grade.
“Getting students interested and engaged in STEM is critical for our region so that we can continue to supply regional employers with a locally educated and highly motivated workforce,” Charles Dedrick, district superintendent of Capital Region BOCES, said in a statement.
The Challenger program will include a two-month-long classroom study program that will help students apply and enhance their decision-making skills, solve problems and communicate. The culmination of the students’ classroom work is a simulated space flight to launch a space probe into a comet’s tail or a flight to the moon or Mars.
“Bringing this program to the new Science Center will expose thousands of students from across the region to STEM studies each year,” Heidi DeBlock, president of the CLC Board, said.
Construction preparation has already started for the CLC, and it is planned open at the end of this year.
The museum’s partnership with the Exploratorium Network for Exhibit-Based Teaching (ExNET) will provide 3,500 square feet of new interactive exhibits every year, with the older exhibit rotating out.
“Seeing,” the first ExNET exhibit, which focuses on perception and how the eye and brain function together, is planned to open Oct. 6 and last until June 2, 2013.
“The region’s history, rich in the tradition of entrepreneurship and innovation, coupled with its future as a global leader in technology and high-tech manufacturing, make it a perfect place to provide this kind of hands-on learning opportunity, designed to stimulate young minds and get them to look differently at the world around them,” Sam Dean, director of ExNET, said in a prepared statement.
Rensselaer’s School of Architecture was tagged to create a modern new look for the museum, with a redesigned entrance facing Nott Terrace
Evan Douglis, dean of Rensselaer’s School of Architecture, said the university is excited to be involved in the project.
“The new regional Science Center should fit into the community, but also have a different look and feel that reflect its expansion and importance in the community,” Douglis said in a prepared statement.
The Schenectady Museum and Suits-Bueche Planetarium is also going to get a new name, with some help from the public. The survey was open for around a week, but just closed as of Wednesday, July 25.
A total of 65 names were brainstormed through meetings with stakeholders, but the final six were presented for a vote.
“It is always good to know what people are thinking and what their preferences are,” Lehner said. “We don’t like to impose a name on people, we want one that they are enthusiastic about.”
