Outreach: STEM Sensory Story Time at the Science Center

I was invited to be an advisor on the Super Spark accessibility committee at the Michigan Science Center last year. I volunteered as a guide during one of the Super Spark Special Needs Awareness Weekends and later met with museum staff and local disability advocacy group leaders to consult on ways to make the museum more accessible and welcoming to families of all ages with disabilities. Check out their accessibility page:http://www.mi-sci.org/accessibility/. They also offer visitors with sensory sensitivities a color-coded sensory map, indicating areas with especially loud sounds and bright, flashing lights. The museum offers accessible days geared to families with special needs one Sunday a month and accessible field trip days for special education groups the second Tuesday of the month. A couple months ago, Ed and I were invited to present a STEM-themed multi-sensory story time to a group of students with various learning disabilities in grades 4 - 6 on one of the field trip days. We went with an Engineering & Inventions theme to go along with what they were learning that day.

Here's the plan:

1. Hello -- "Today we are talking about engineering and inventions. Have you ever built something? What is your favorite invention?"

2. Mindfulness exercise: "Balloon breaths"  -- holding our imaginary balloon, take deep breaths and blow up your balloon until it's "so full," then release it (repeat).

3. Activity rhyme: "Building a Skyscraper"

Brick by brick

by brick by brick.

My building's so high

it's scraping the sky.

(place fists one on top of the other, going higher each time)

Brick by brick

by brick by brick.

My building will sway

when the wind blows this way.

(sway left, then right)

Brick by brick 

by brick by brick.

Now I'm ready to stop 

and a flag goes on top.

(open one fist and wave left and right)

(Source: Reedy, Polly 1001 Rhymes & Fingerplays)

4. Story: Dreaming Up: a Celebration of Building by Christy Hale

We scanned and projected this story on their big screen for this large group and added sensory experiences from the story -- touching water and clay (like the village in Egypt made from the four basic elements of earth, water, sun, and air), inviting a few students up to make a fort with blankets and chairs (similar to the design of the Yoyogi National Stadium in Japan), building with Legos (to look like the housing complex in Montreal, Canada), and passing around paper tubes (imagining a whole school made from larger, heavier versions like the temporary paper tube school in China).

5. Interactive flannel activity: Building with flannel shapes

We kept the building theme going, inspired by the book Moving Blocks by Yusuke Yonezu and a Flannel Friday post from Storytime Katie and Mel's Desk. 

We invited volunteers up to design a car and a rocket ship with our flannel shapes. Here's the rocket ship.

6. Story: Imaginative Inventions by Charise Mericle Harper

We chose a few of the invention spreads in the book that we thought the students might really enjoy and added some fun sensory experiences: 

1. potato chips (We offered everyone a chip to taste of course!)

2. frisbee (The very large theater was a great space to throw and catch the frisbee with a few volunteers.) 

3. doughnut (We didn't taste, but smelled the wonderful cinnamon aroma!)

4. flat-bottomed paper bag (Kids passed around a paper grocery bag from today's grocery store.)

5. chewing gum (Yes -- everyone got a piece of gum to chew. This was a favorite!)

7. Goodbye song: "The Inventor Song"

Oh it took Bell to make the telephone ring,

And it took Edison to light up our way.

It took Robert Fulton in a steamboat,

to go chug-chug-chugging down the bay.

Otis made the elevator go up,

McCormick's reaper reaped the rye.

So when you're spelling the word inventor

don't forget to dot the I!

Richard Hoe improved the printing press,

so we could get the news.

Charles Goodyear made the rubber

for the heels upon our shoes.

So if you talk about a new invention.

Incidentally don't forget to mention...

That it took Morse to make the telegraph hum

and it took Henry Ford to make an auto 

so that folks could go and take a drive.

Howe knew how to make a sewing machine.

The Wrights learned the right way to fly.

So when you're spelling the word inventor

don't forget to dot the I!

(adapted from classic school song)

We received so much positive feedback from the teachers the next day. I'm not sure who had more fun though - the students or us?!