Donor Spotlight

LEGO Children’s Fund Supports Preschool Science Literacy

Thanks to a $5,000 grant from the LEGO Children’s Fund, The Children’s Museum will create a new science learning program for preschoolers and their caregivers. The Little Hands Science Workshop is a series of classes that encourages adult/child creative collaborative learning. Each week in the series, students will explore a different science-themed creative experience which was developed using the standards from the Connecticut Preschool Framework. The workshop will include hands-on experiments, exciting demonstrations, live animals, related books, and hands-on art projects, with topics ranging from insects and bubbles to magnets and color theory. Integral to this new program is the participation of a parent or caregiver. By empowering the caregiver to build on a child’s strengths it becomes possible for the experience to move beyond the classroom and into the home. We thank the LEGO Children's Fund for providing the funding to create this new education program!

It's Off to Mars at The Children's Museum!

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded a major grant of $589,449 to The Children's Museum to create From the Blue Planet to the Red Planet, a teaching and science learning program with a variety of educational features that explores planetary science for students in grades four through eight, as well as for their teachers and families. The Children's Museum was among nine institutions chosen nationally as part of NASA's Competitive Program for Science Museums and Planetariums, and the only Connecticut and New England grantee.

NASA's goal is to enhance educational outreach related to space exploration, aeronautics, space science, Earth science, and microgravity. Museum curriculum will include the characteristics of the climate and geology of Earth and Mars, hands-on programming around NASA's Mars missions, and programs designed to help prepare students to become the next generation of explorers and innovators.

"We are very excited and grateful for NASA's investment in us and our partnership in this initiative with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT). This is a great way to help new generations of students understand the importance of America's mission in space and its benefits here on Earth. These are learning opportunities that directly improve achievement in school and last a lifetime."
Kevin Sullivan, The Children's Museum President and CEO