An opportunity at the American Museum of Natural History during NYS Regents week

http://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/grades-9-12/digital-learning-week




During January, 2013 Regents Week, AMNH is offering four new day-long programs. Each is designed using various digital tools to explore different museum halls. We invite you to help us test them out.

Space is limited and will be given on a first come, first served basis. Applicants can apply to more than one of the four programs but placements will aim to include the largest number over the course of the week. No previous experience is required around either the digital tool or content area. Participating youth will be invited to be the first to test out AMNH’s new digital badging system and contribute to the new AMNH Youth Advisory.

Digital Learning Week

Follow Me: Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples (an AMNH Youth Audio Guide Program)

January 22, 2013

In Follow Me: Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples (an AMNH Youth Audio Guide Program), youth participants will prototype the development of a hall-based audio guide as science journalists. Working with a wide-range of museum staff experienced in both audio production and museum content, youth will learn about the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples, use anthropological tools to conduct interviews with museum staff highlighting their unique perspectives on the exhibits, and use the social media app Audioboo to process and share their guides. This hall is important historically because of Margaret Mead and has become a recent draw for young visitors due to the popularity of the film character Dum Dum. By the end of the day, youth will have produced dozens of brief sound clips that will be aggregated into a prototype of an audio tour.

Digital Learning Week

Virtual Wonder Cabinets

January 23, 2013

In Virtual Wonder Cabinets, youth participants will design their own virtual museum exhibit. With a special focus on the Akeley Hall of African Mammals (and including the other halls featuring nature dioramas), youth will come to understand and appreciate the history, purposes, and wonder of a natural history diorama, learn how to arrange museum content into a compelling scientific narrative for public education, and present their work through an online multi-media presentation. This program aims to combine the power of objects and the importance of science with an inherent sense of wonder.

Digital Learning Week

Morpholution

January 24, 2013

In Morpholution, youth participants will be introduced to the practices used by evolutionary scientists in Morphobank, a web application for conducting phylogenetics or cladistics research on morphology. Youth will explore how the tool is used by scientists to document and communicate evolutionary data and will generate evolutionary trees based on their own data collected throughout the day.

Digital Learning Week

FoodCraft

January 25, 2013

In FoodCraft, youth participants will explore the science and politics of food through playing the video game, Minecraft (no previous experience required), and the new AMNH exhibit Our Global Kitchen: Food, Natute, Culture. More specifically, challenges to food production, preparation, trade, and transportation will be encountered in historical and present day simulations, such as a pre-Columbian Aztec marketplace, illustrating the vital and complex role that food plays in our lives.