Middle school students from Manchester Academic Charter School will be taught in the new museumlab wing of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh when it opens this January.
The Children’s Museum new museumlab wing will be dedicated to applying the practical displays and workshops of the museum to the daily needs of education. The new wing sits in the 46,000-square-foot Carnegie Library. It was forced to close in 2006 after it was struck by lightning.
The Manchester Academic Charter School (MACS) will utilise the building during the week to teach 6th, 7th and 8th graders.
The partnership between the museum and the school will offer an innovative approach to education. Students will use practical exhibits designed by the Children’s Museum. Exhibits will be designed to teach students skills in both STEM and the creative arts.
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Christine Cieslak, project director for the renovation, said: “It creates a great synergy between the two programs. They’re able to use our exhibits to inform their learning models, and we will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of our various exhibits based on their educational progress.”
Jane Werner, the museum’s executive director, said: “It will always be changing with different artists, craftsmen and even technologists, introducing new ideas and processes.”
The new facilities will not just be for schoolkids. Outside of school hours, the museumlab will be fully open as a community resource.The MACS students will take their core classes on the second floor – leaving the first floor of the open to the public seven days a week.
“It is both a public space, where older kids and families with older children can have more in-depth experiences like the ones they participate in at the Children’s Museum, and a school,” Werner added.
The project is expected to cost about $18.5 million in time for January opening. The Grand Opening for the facility will be in April.
Image courtesy Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
