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2001
Mel
Fisher Maritime Museum Offers Arts & Science Summer
Classes for Area Youth
The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum
will offer a vast array of classes
for young people, kindergarten through eighth grade, this summer as
part of the Monroe County School District's 21st Century Community
Learning Program.
This program, which operates for
eight-week sessions in spring, fall, and summer, is part of an U.S. Department
of Education grant awarded to the
Monroe County School District for a three-year period. The pilot program
began in the summer of 2000.
Students in the program are chosen
by their teachers at Gerald Adams,
Glynn Archer, Horace O'Bryant, Sigsbee and Sugarloaf schools. Class sizes are
limited to 10 participants and each student is exposed to an art and a science
component. Jane Rohrschneider, curator of education at the museum, hopes
to develop a math component to add to the curriculum this summer.
Science classes taught by Clarice
Yentsch, Ph.D. in the spring semester
included a water quality monitoring program where students collected,
logged and analyzed water samples at local beaches to determine "how clean is
clean." Students also learned about the tools used for testing. Other science
classes demystified the shark, covering everything from
shark teeth to shark jeopardy. Classes also experimented
with optics and students discovered how the diverse organisms of
the coral reefs are interdependent and how we can become good stewards of our
reefs.
Digital microscopes are a
key part of every science class and microscopes tied to
computers allow students to create their own movies from the
organisms they view under the lens.
The art classes, taught by
artist Susan Pereira, include printmaking techniques, creating mosaics and
using food sculpture as a medium. Creation of paper projects and sculptures,
puppet making, the study of masks from other cultures, basket weaving,
and wire sculpturing are also featured. In every class, students create their own
work using the medium highlighted.
Many of the art classes include art
history lessons focusing on such artists as Warhol, Picasso, Magritte, and
Dali. Students study the lives of the various artists, how their styles fit into the art of
the period in which they lived and worked, and provide students the
opportunity to create their own art in the artist's unique style. For example,
the students created their own works based on Picasso's "blue period" last fall.
A class on the history of photography acquainted students with the work of
David Hockney. The student art from these classes is prominently
displayed on the second floor of the Mel Fisher Museum and
visitors express amazement that these works come from such young artists.
During the fall and
spring sessions, classes meet five days a week. Museum teachers travel to the schools
for two days each week and students are bused to the museum for three days. Field
trips are also a big part of the after-school and summer programming
at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Area students learn more about where
they live while increasing their science and art knowledge.
Parents interested in having their
kids participate in this exciting program should contact their child's
teacher in one of the schools that participate in the 21st Century program.
Participation is free and area businesses fund the camp t-shirts that are given to
each participant.
The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum
education program doesn't end here, however. Computer classes for the
young, as well as for seniors, give participants the chance to meet the 21st
century head-on. Seniors, in particular, who may find computers and computer
technology daunting and intimidating can have those fears removed. Hand line
fishing classes have also been a popular component of the museum education
program, as well as day trips to Fort Taylor and Fort Jefferson.
Traveling trunks have also been
developed by the Museum's education department to be used by schools
nationwide. These trunks cover the
Henrietta Marie and Atocha shipwrecks, as well as trunks featuring
pirates and coral reefs. Schools can rent these trunks from the museum for
hands-on use by students. Power Point presentations on each trunk are
available on the Internet on the museum's website at: www.melfisher.org. |
