Engaging Minnesota Educators
This project aims to deepen the Science Museum’s connection with educators and students throughout Minnesota by expanding awareness of its educational resources, gaining a clearer understanding of educator needs, and continuously improving programming based on direct feedback. The work spans a range of engagement strategies that vary in scale and personal connection — from broad surveys designed to capture wide-ranging input from educators across the state, to targeted email campaigns that deliver timely information, to face-to-face outreach at educator conferences and events.
In addition, the museum provides personalized support through programs like the Lending Library through curriculum consultations which offer educators direct assistance with classroom materials, lesson planning, and curriculum design. These programs create meaningful, individualized relationships that inform ongoing program development.
Supported by enhanced data collection systems and partnerships with key educational organizations, the museum systematically tracks participation across all activities. By analyzing geographic reach, engagement frequency, and participant feedback, the museum continuously identifies opportunities to broaden impact and tailor offerings. The overarching goal is to ensure that museum resources are widely shared across Minnesota’s diverse educational communities and that programming effectively supports the evolving needs of educators and students throughout the state.
Project Manager: Farzad Sadjadi
Increase Collections Access
For a long time, museums have worked to increase researchers’ access to collections. Scientists and other researchers learn about items via publications, presentations, and online databases. Participants in listening sessions conducted by the Museum Access and Equity Department at the Science Museum of Minnesota in the spring of 2022 confirmed that Dakota, Ojibwe, Hmong, and Maya community members are also very interested in learning more about the museum’s collections.
These conversations highlighted that participants want museum programming to connect to the collections, they want more access to the collections, and they want the programming and collections access to be more relevant, responsive and reflective of their needs. This work will continue to be the focus of this biennium — to increase access to the museum’s collections, maintaining a specific focus on native communities.
The roughly two million objects and specimens in SMM’s collections reflect the history of our planet from millions of years ago to the present day. From them, we learn of shifting natural environments and of diverse and dynamic human traditions. The collections are a celebration of culture and a presentation of nature, past and present. Importantly, they represent opportunities to learn about our world – by both researchers and the public. But, due to the sheer number and preservation needs, these accessioned objects remain largely inaccessible. Once digitized, both scientists and non-scientists can use our website to discover and learn about the objects cared for in the museum’s collection. Scientists will publish findings, museum professionals will use the objects in exhibits, programming, and communications, culture bearers will reconnect with their relatives and advise museum staff, and the public will learn more about the collections.
Project Manager: Ed Fleming
IDEAL Professional Development
Staff members from the IDEAL Center (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Leadership) at the Science Museum of Minnesota will meet the changing needs of Minnesota’s STEM educators by providing professional development. The IDEAL center is dedicated to supporting diversity, promoting inclusion, increasing access, and achieving equity in educational systems. This training will help educators meet the demanding DEI needs in the STEM education field. The project will fund an 11 day- long program professional development for Minnesota STEM educators is designed to support leaders in bringing about meaningful and lasting institutional change toward greater equity and inclusion within schools and across districts.
The Center’s scientific mindset and research-proven teaching and facilitation practices help participants become agents of change: transforming people, relationships, organizations, and our world.
Project Manager: Aki Shibata
