Vanessa Perez

Perez’s innovative teaching idea, “Museum Discover Kits,” will involve her seventh-grade students designing and creating kits with supplemental activities and sensory objects for use by third-grade students who visit and engage with exhibits at the Museum of the Great Plains. Perez says the kits will be aligned to Oklahoma standards for third grade social studies and science. Her seventh-grade students will research the exhibits, work with experts, use museum assets, interview visitors and choose the objects to in include in the bags. The students will use their computer skills to create printed materials for specific pieces and videos with information or extension activities. In addition to developing the kits, the process will be documented so that it can be replicated by other secondary schools to participate in this effort. The program will benefit the students by not only allowing them a real and hands-on way to use their technology skills, but also in a way that serves the community.