Exhibit Development by Students:

High school student 'Explorers" from a range of classes (including art, technology education, environmental science, and child development) work with scientists, artists, and teachers to design and build interactive exhibits that are loaned throughout the school system to pilot teacher classrooms for student use. These exhibits provide teachers with hands-on learning tools with which students of all ages and abilities can explore concepts in science and math while making meaningful links to other curricular areas.

Student Run Museum: (click to see Explorers at work)

In addition to this exhibit loaning library, Explore and Discover has renovated a floor of the Bernat Mills on the second floor of The Uxbridge Youth Center into the E&D Youth Center Museum. The Museum houses a wide range of exhibits built by students and by area resources such as the Discovery Museums of Acton and the Cambridge Physics Outlet. The Museum is open to the public on Saturdays and serves as a field trip destination for pilot classrooms during the school week. Teachers may choose a general field trip or a focused visit on a particular concept, such as magnetism, electricity, or geometry. High School students from the E&D course serve as Explorers in the museum, working with younger students to maximize the opportunities for inquiry-based learning. High school students also run workshops, both in the museum and in classrooms, around concepts selected by the pilot teachers.

Connecting to the State Frameworks

E&D is committed to addressing the educational goals of both the individual teachers and the Massachusetts State Frameworks. Therefore, emphasis is placed on connecting each of the E&D resources to individual class curriculum and to the frameworks as a whole. For example, a third grade class constructed a five-foot high geodesic dome during a recent field trip to the museum. As the class was already studying the role of the triangle in geometry, the teacher requested a follow-up workshop in her room. Explorers came into her room and led the third graders in an exploration of the triangle, culminating in the students building geodesic domes of their own out of straws and pipe cleaners. Between the museum field trip and the workshop, the students covered a variety of learning standards from the state frameworks, including: investigating and predicting the results of combining, subdividing, and changing shapes, developing spatial sense, and recognizing and appreciating geometry in the world (learning standards from the geometry content strand in the Mathematics Frameworks). Other recent workshops have included sorting and graphing with Kindergarteners and patterns and quilt-making with pre-schoolers. Furthermore, a binder of curricular suggestions highlighting state framework connections accompanies each board in the loaning library.

The Visiting Artist Studios and Millworks Gallery provide students with further resources. Over the course of the year, the gallery hosts monthly shows of local artists, visiting artists, and art students. Along with the Gallery, there are 8 studio spaces for artists in residence, a workshop space and two studio spaces available to high school students upon request. Visiting Artists run workshops in the studios, often in conjunction with Museum field trips so that concepts explored at the museum are reinforced through art projects. Visiting Artists are also available for classroom workshops in which class curriculum is supported by various artistic media.

The Outdoor Classroom, located behind Blanchard Early Childhood Center, was designed and built by teachers, students, and parents. Set in a developmentally appropriate playscape, the classroom includes a weather station, a wind generator, photovoltaics, an interactive monument to the Blackstone River, a walk through rock garden, an amphitheater, and an electronic field guide to the school yard (featured on the E&D web page . Student Explorers help lead field trips for pre-school and elementary classes.