Part brain-powered playground
for kids and adults, part cutting-edge classroom for communities
across the state, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
seeks to inspire wonder in each of its visitors.
Today, OMSI is one of the largest and most successful campuses
of its kind in the country, offering 219,000 square feet of
interactive exhibits, hands-on demonstrations, a big-screen
OMNIMAX® Theater, the Northwest’s largest planetarium,
and the USS Blueback—the last fast-attack, diesel-powered
submarine built by the U.S. Navy, now decommissioned.
Visitors to the museum can touch a tornado, uncover a fossil,
surf the Internet, enter the world of virtual reality, experience
an earthquake, or simply experiment on their own in one of
the many hands-on labs.
But just as OMSI bills itself as destination tourism for
the science wizard in each of its visitors, it is equally
passionate about bringing the love of science to thousands
of classrooms and students who can’t always make the
trip to Portland. Each year, OMSI reaches millions of people
through direct visits, outreach programs, camps, classes,
and after-school science clubs, traveling exhibits, and fairs—among
the largest outreach of its kind in the nation.
With a range that reaches more than 200,000 students in six
western states, including Alaska, OMSI is able to bring the
museum experience directly to them through traveling programs
and fairs—programs that include interactive presentations
on forensics, live animal demonstrations, and the popular
Discovery Dome Portable Planetarium.
A partnership with NASA known as STARS (Science, Technology,
and Rural Students) delivers hands-on training to 250–300
teachers and librarians in more than 70 schools and 13 libraries,
giving them special tools to engage students, curriculum help,
direct access to science experts, and access to digital labs
and live video to extend learning.
Another program, known as Facilitated Activities-based Videoconferencing,
allows OMSI to conduct hands-on, interactive teacher professional
development and classroom programs.
Teachers and students use supplies brought to them that day
by a museum representative with videoconference support available
from the entire museum education staff.
OMSI also places much of its focus on reaching out to underserved
and minority populations. The Salmon Camp Research Team, for
example, recruits Native American youth interested in protecting
natural resources for future generations. Students from 46
tribes have taken part so far, being paired with professional
mentors—rangers, ecologists, and university researchers—and
using the latest professional field equipment and lab software
for activities such as habitat surveys and stream modeling.
To serve inner-city young people, OMSI has created a Boys
and Girls Science Club for low-income youth in north and northeast
Portland. Each year this program—offered for free to
the 10,000 children enrolled in local Boys and Girls Clubs—supplies
students with a safe, stable, and supportive environment,
while providing an on-site science educator, equipment, hands-on
activities, and monthly field trips to the museum and other
science-related sites.
As educators recognize a national need to engage children
in science learning, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
is innovating, finding new ways to reach students, teachers,
and communities and show them that science, math, and technology
are not only relevant, but fun, and indeed truly inspirational.
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