Woman & Daughters Looking To Spread Science Enthusiasm
Posted
Jackie Gorski-
A former Warsaw Community Schools employee is now helping to spread enthusiasm and knowledge of science.
Erryn Blake, a former digital learning specialist at Madison Elementary School, in conjunction with her sixth-grade daughters, Winnie and Gwen, started a mobile museum last year after the Field Museum in Chicago closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blake said she and her daughters are longtime members of the museum and Blake is an ambassador with the museum. They go to Chicago quite often.
When the museum closed last year due to the pandemic, Blake said her daughters were upset they couldn’t visit the museum.
It was then Blake said her daughters got an idea of putting together different science information that can be provided to people who didn’t have access to things like the Field Museum.
Blake and her daughters also created a basket, and later a tri-fold poster, with fact bags that people can take with facts about geology, insects, paleontology and other fields of science.
In the beginning, Blake said they put everything in their own Radio Flyer red wagon. Not wanting there to be a copyright infringement when promoting the mobile museum, Blake reached out to Radio Flyer to ask about using her wagon. Blake said Radio Flyer was thrilled in being associated with an educational project like theirs and sent them a custom-made Radio Flyer wagon with their name on it. Blake said the gift was unexpected.
Blake said a Facebook page was put up during this project called The Mobile Museum: Where Wondering Becomes Discovering. People can find information in regards to Egyptology, paleontology and other fields of science.
A website is planned to be put up this summer.
One thing they are doing is kid-driven interviews with scientists, Blake said, noting that when the kids interview the scientists, the scientists are asked to give interesting information, such as what it’s like to be a scientist and what they do everyday. Blake said it’s important for kids to relate to science.
Since Blake is an ambassador for the Field Museum, she said she has been able to keep in touch with different staff members of the museum and get information or ideas from them.
The goal of the mobile museum is to help educate people in science. Blake said she would love to be able to expand the mobile museum to underserved parts of the community.
Blake said her daughters have loved creating the mobile museum so far. They get to speak to different scientists. It’s also speaking to what they’re passionate about.
