Ep.13 Less screen time & more STEM at the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum

Learning by doing is by far the best way for kids to learn skills for life. At the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum, the Corrina Strecker and the team have created an immersive STEM environment that captures kid’s imaginations and teaches families valuable lessons in creativity, exploration and collaboration. From interactive water play through to Halloween slime sessions, Corrina and the team at Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum know how to grab a kid’s attention. Let’s get a little messy 😊 Hosted by Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education About Corrina Strecker
Corrina Strecker is a Senior Education Manager at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum in Michigan. Within the education department, Corrina runs the Distance Learning program which connects the museum to students from all around the world. Using interactive hands-on learning based lessons in combination with video conferencing technologies, she helps manages and teaches these types of experiences to over 300 classrooms each year.
The Distance Learning program at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum has received the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration’s (CILC) Pinnacle award for the past three years. This award recognizes outstanding performances by videoconference content providers based on teacher evaluations. Along with the CILC, Corrina was a founding member of the Pinnacle Education Collaborative (PEC) which is a collaborative professional network of Distance Learning providers who promote interactive videoconferencing and advice the CILC.  
Corrina received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Bowling Green State University in Ohio where she majored in Theatre. Before ending up at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, she picked up other skills at Spirit Airlines as a flight attendant and NSF International, a public health and safety company, working in their food safety and toy safety departments. Top 3 Learnings

Get involved in the arts! Much has been said about the value of the arts when it comes to STEM education and for good reason – it expands your creativity and can bring fresh perspective to a given problem. Additionally, the arts are inherently hands-on and as such you can pick up valuable DIY skills that you can use in your classroom. Corrina’s background in theatre most definitely brings valuable skills to her museum and no doubt helps her hold the attention of large audiences of all ages. Whether it’s sculpture, painting, drawing, drama, music or more your students will benefit highly from participating in activities that require them to create new meaning.
Get messy & let kids have a bit of fun. Part of working with kids is getting them engaged when they’re young means that they’ll be engaged when they older and this could mean creating more than a little mayhem along the way. As long as your students learn that they must clean up after they’re finished it can be highly valuable to allow them time for some unstructured exploration and discovery.
Go to an ISTE conference! If you’ve never been to an ISTE conference it could be well worth your while as this conference brings together over 20,000 teachers, librarians and more from all over the world to chat about the latest edtech and lesson techniques that teach STEM. If you can’t make it to an ISTE conference there are undoubtedly local meet ups in your area for motivated educators who want to make a difference.

Further contact details & resources

Contact Corrina via email on [e-mail] or [e-mail]
Ann Arbor Hands On Museum website: www.aahom.org/distancelearning

Contact Fizzics Education Web: http://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/ Phone: [phone] STEM Teaching support resources NEW Primary STEM tea