Elev8 Chicago Parents Tour Field Museum

As part of the growing relationship between the Field Museum of Natural History and the Elev8 program, nine parent mentors from Marquette Elementary School in Chicago Lawn recently participated in a special tour of the museum.

Marquette Elementary and Southwest Organizing Project plan to bring more parents and students to the museum.

The tour, conducted in both Spanish and English, consisted of a walk-through of the ancient Egypt exhibit, where parents learned about mummification and hieroglyphics – information that will enhance the educational opportunities of future personal trips to the museum with their children.

The parents also visited the Field Museum resource center to witness the benefits of membership, including toolkits, videos, music and activity books. With such materials, parents can conduct their own workshops at home.

Marquette and Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) plan to bring more parents and students to the museum. “The parents left energized and ready to share their knowledge with their kids and other kids at the school,” said Stephanie Garza, an organizer at SWOP, a lead agency in LISC’s New Communities Program, who also attended the tour.

The Marquette visit evolved from a series of meetings among museum staff and representatives from each of the five Elev8 schools – Marquette, Ames Middle, Orozco Community Academy, Perspectives-Calumet Middle and Reavis Elementary – designed to help the schools take advantage of the resources and opportunities the Field provides.

Extended-day learning – one of the major Elev8 components – proved to be the most appropriate means for partnership. Michael Johnson, principal of Reavis Elementary in North Kenwood, described the objective of extended-day learning as “a way to create uniquely challenging programs for students.”

Field Museum staff hope to collaborate with Marquette and other schools in the Elev8 program in the future.

Museum staff shared some programs they felt would match this important objective. Possibilities included expeditions to nature reserves, science classes in the museum or at schools, multicultural awareness activities, a special teacher development series, or a course to teach children who live in urban settings how to participate in unstructured outdoor play.

Elizabeth Babcock, director of education and library collections at The Field Museum, was confident her staff’s content expertise and outreach programs would enhance future Elev8 programs. 

Luis Bermudez, Elev8 director for Orozco School in Pilsen, shared Babcock’s enthusiasm about the partnership. He believed that the programs offered by The Field Museum coincide with Orozco’s mission to “get the kids out and about to see the world around them.”