Audio Transcript

Published: 6 August 2017
APA 7 Citation: Newsome, B. (Host). (2017, August 6). Less screen time & more STEM at the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum [Audio podcast transcript]. Fizzics Education. https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/podcast/fizzicsed/less-screen-time-more-stem-at-the-ann-arbor-hands-on-museum-michigan/

Ben Newsome CF is the recipient of the 2023 UTS Chancellor’s Award for Excellence and a Churchill Fellow. He is a global leader in science communication and the founder of Fizzics Education.

[00:00:00]
Ben Newsome: In this episode, we speak with an awesome science educator who’s teaching kids right across North America, plus across the globe, and she’s teaching science using her background in theatre and quality control. This will be interesting.

[00:00:12]
Announcer: You’re listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. For hundreds of ideas, free experiments and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. And now, here’s your host, Ben Newsome.

[00:00:29]
Ben Newsome: Yes, welcome again to another FizzicsEd podcast. My name is Ben Newsome and I’m really glad to have a great friend of mine, Corrina Strecker, pop in to talk about all things creative when it comes to STEM with kids. And the reason why I definitely know that she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to kids knowing creativity is she works at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. That’s up in Michigan, up in the northern part of the USA. And their job, their remit so to speak, is to work with kids period. That’s exactly what they do.

[00:01:00]
Ben Newsome: And Corrina does this very well, not just within the museum but also via video conference across North America. And you’ll see what I mean when we jump into this interview because she has an interesting background. She’s worked in theatre, she’s worked in planes, and she’s worked in quality control. So, she certainly brings a lot of interesting skillsets to the Hands-On Museum up in Ann Arbor. And I’ll tell you what, it was really good having a chat with her. So, jump on in, I’m sure you’ll love it.

[00:01:29]
Announcer: This is the FizzicsEd podcast.

[00:01:31]
Ben Newsome: Hi Corrina, welcome to the FizzicsEd podcast!

[00:01:34]
Corrina Strecker: Hi Ben, I’m so happy to be here.

[00:01:36]
Ben Newsome: I’m really happy that you’ve been able to jump in on this as well. Now let’s do first things first. We missed you in San Antonio.

[00:01:43]
Corrina Strecker: Oh my gosh, I was so sad to not be at the ISTE conference this year for sure.

[00:01:48]
Ben Newsome: The ISTE conference is, for those people who may not be aware of it, this massive mega conference for EdTech teachers and consultants and digital education people in some way, shape or form. And it’s not a small one, it’s like over 25,000 people rock up. It’s kind of wild.

[00:02:05]
Corrina Strecker: People don’t even believe it when I come back from those conferences and say how many people were at the ISTE conference. They don’t even believe that there’s that many people in one space just to talk about technology and education. So I was very sad.

[00:02:17]
Ben Newsome: It blew my mind. But obviously full disclosure, I know Corrina from a while back. I actually met you back in Atlanta.

[00:02:30]
Corrina Strecker: Yes, gosh that was about three years ago? Two years ago? Three or four, yeah.

[00:02:34]
Corrina Strecker: But it was even before that when you were just connecting with us during the playground of the conference when you were in Australia at probably 6:00 AM or something similar to what we’re doing here today and you were talking about your distance learning programmes.

[00:02:51]
Ben Newsome: Actually, I now remember that. You’d think I’d remember but I had actually forgotten. So yeah, you’re right. We did a connection via video conference to the floor in the International Society for Technology in Education conference talking about science education by video conferencing. I think actually it wasn’t 6:00 AM, it was about 3:00 AM or 2:00 AM. And you were dressed as a pirate.

[00:03:11]
Corrina Strecker: Yes, I was! Our pirate playground where we kind of allow the people at the conference to get their hands on video conferencing technology so that they can take them back and use them in their classrooms.

[00:03:22]
Ben Newsome: Which is good fun and probably rolls forward to today. So obviously I know you, but there’ll be some people who don’t know you at this point. So Corrina, what do you do?

[00:03:33]
Corrina Strecker: Okay, well I am a senior education manager at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, which is a museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where we have four floors, over 250 exhibits here at our actual museum location. And so people can come to our museum, learn all about science while playing around with different hands-on exhibits that we have here on the floor.

[00:03:56]
Corrina Strecker: I work in our education department and I work mainly in our distance learning programme. So we connect to schools virtually with video conferencing technologies and we do hands-on science experiments, one-hour workshops. So we connect to schools for one hour and I basically take over teaching their classroom.

[00:04:17]
Corrina Strecker: We can do this anywhere. We do this all over the United States. We’ve been to I think 44 of the 50 states. We’ve also, we connect to Canada a lot, we connect to Mexico and of course our friends down in Australia. We have made some connections down there as well.

[00:04:31]
Ben Newsome: Ah, there you go. And actually I’ve seen some photos of you dressed as a witch playing with slime at one point.

[00:04:36]
Corrina Strecker: Yes, yes! Our Halloween slime time is one of our most popular programmes. All through the month of October we only teach our Halloween slime. So we’re making slime and talking about the states of matter and different state changes while the students get to make slime on their own. So we send materials to the schools so that they have everything they need for the programme itself.

[00:05:00]
Ben Newsome: Well, seems to me if you call it a hands-on museum they’d better get to do stuff, right?

[00:05:03]
Corrina Strecker: Yeah, exactly! Exactly. So of course when we meet with our international classrooms we have them gather the materials themselves but for those that are close by, Canada as well, we usually just send them a box of things so that they don’t even have to worry about gathering all of those things before the programme time.

[00:05:20]
Ben Newsome: Actually it’s, in a lot of ways what you do is somewhat similar to what Karen Player does from the Australian Museum, who does Museum in a Box and sends stuff to all these different schools across mainly New South Wales but certainly to other places as well. And the ability to send bits out rather than the teacher having to run around and grab the stuff is kind of nice.

[00:05:38]
Corrina Strecker: Yeah, absolutely. We do find that teachers like it so much. I mean they do have a little bit of prep, they have to obviously pass out the materials and different things, but it certainly makes it a whole lot easier when they can open a box, read a few directions and get their classroom ready. And then not that the teachers sit back and relax during the one-hour programme, you know, there’s lots of hands-on activities that we need the teachers to help the students along since we’re not in the classroom.

[00:06:01]
Corrina Strecker: We have a different type of classroom management that we have to use, but I am simply in a room maybe about the size of a closet and I’m talking to a camera. So I can’t help the kids actually mix their slime or try to balance that paper clip on a cup of water or something like that. So the teachers are on hand to do that, but they don’t have to worry about getting all of those things ready before or gathering them, finding the right materials.

[00:06:31]
Ben Newsome: It’s funny thing about people who do a lot of distance learning in their distance learning room. People think it’s this huge glorified recording studio and the reality is that we’re in a broom closet often because the audio sounds good.

[00:06:44]
Corrina Strecker: Yes, exactly! Exactly. I mean my room, our studio is a little bit bigger than a closet. I mean it would be a really nice closet if I had this in my home. But still, the equipment doesn’t take up a lot of space, things are pretty small. We don’t do a lot of huge big interaction things but everything is pretty much tabletop and our space is quite small.

[00:07:06]
Corrina Strecker: Everything that we have that we send out to the schools in the packages we also have here in this room, so I’m sharing this room with a lot of space which makes my show space a little bit smaller.

[00:07:17]
Ben Newsome: And speaking of which on camera I can kind of see that you’re sharing it with a skeleton and a lot of blue paint.

[00:07:23]
Corrina Strecker: Yes, yes! Absolutely. So I have Harold, who is my trusty assistant. He is our skeleton who helps us out when we do kind of physical or kinaesthetic activities. So we don’t just want the students to be sitting in their seats, we like to get them up and moving and so maybe I’ll use Harold to be my example of a partner if we were both molecules in a solid or a liquid and we’d kind of show what those molecules would look like.

[00:07:49]
Corrina Strecker: We do a little molecule dance. So that’s what Harold is there to help me out with that. Yeah, and behind me we have a blue curtain which we use as a blue screen as opposed to a green screen. I’m not exactly sure why we went with blue. It’s really not very efficient with our chroma key because I do tend to wear clothes that are a similar colour so I sometimes blend into the background and I’m just a floating head. But yes, so that’s what is behind me in our studio, pretty small little space here.

[00:08:18]
Ben Newsome: It’s good fun. Now obviously you haven’t been doing this all your life. I mean you’ve had an interesting and really interesting way into the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. Just describe where you’ve come from.

[00:08:31]
Corrina Strecker: Sure, sure. So I went to Bowling Green State University, which is a college in Ohio, so not too far away from here in Ann Arbor. But I studied theatre there. So that was my major. I was one of those things where I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I loved doing community theatre. I said, okay, this is something that’s always going to be a part of my life, I’ll major in this and we’ll see where that takes me.

[00:08:55]
Corrina Strecker: I didn’t want to move to New York and do some, you know, I wasn’t destined for Broadway. I mean my mom probably thought I was, but I did not think I was. But I knew I would always use those things throughout my life, those different skills that I learned. So after college I actually became a flight attendant for two years. I needed just kind of a break, something fun.

[00:09:17]
Corrina Strecker: I worked for a smaller airline here in the states. They basically went to vacation spots. So I got to hang out in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Florida and all these beautiful vacation spots.

[00:09:29]
Ben Newsome: Oh, that’s terrible. You can’t do that, that’s terrible.

[00:09:33]
Corrina Strecker: Right! I mean I will say that that was definitely the best customer service experience that you could ever ask for or dream of because to have to deal with people in a confined space for an extended amount of time and make sure that they’re happy and not throwing a fit or anything, it was a very good experience.

[00:09:56]
Ben Newsome: I totally agree. Like when I went through university I had to, like everyone else, work our way through it and I was in a bar and so working with basically drunk people. But at least they could get away and I can get away from them. I am amazed the sort of work that people do on airlines, what you were doing is insane. I mean I was just on a flight from Dallas to Australia, we’re talking 16-hour flight. I’m amazed that they’re somewhat sane by the end of it.

[00:10:21]
Corrina Strecker: I mean not many of them are. I was only there for two years too, and I think speaks to that it’s a very intense, it’s intensive. It’s one of those professions that doesn’t get a lot of respect, but then when people kind of think about it they’re like, oh wait, these people are actually doing quite good and work that not a lot of people want to do. So that was a very fun experience, it was good customer service experience, had nothing to do with where I ended up.

[00:10:48]
Corrina Strecker: Although I do still find that there are times, you know, thinking quickly on your feet and how to make a situation appear better than it actually is does come in handy.

[00:10:58]
Ben Newsome: Mind you, I kind of think it’s almost the same thing in some ways. You’ve got 30 people travelling from one place to another in a confined space, or you could have 30 children confined in a small space.

[00:11:09]
Corrina Strecker: It is very true, I guess I never really thought about it that way. You’re absolutely right. I also did find that my theatre background definitely helped me out with the airlines as well. I mean because you had to put on a happy face and just power through whatever sort of situation it was in, which is certainly something that I find with education as well.

[00:11:30]
Corrina Strecker: So after my time with the airlines I worked for a public health and safety company here in Ann Arbor that does a lot of testing. I worked in their food safety testing area first and then I worked in their toy safety department. So they were doing different quality tests and certifications on those. So that kind of gave me a glimpse a little bit into kind of the toy industry and that kind of world.

[00:11:53]
Corrina Strecker: And I made my way here to the museum though through my friend Ann Hernandez, who another one of our video conferencing friends that comes to the ISTE conference with us. And she was the distance learning manager here at the museum and because of my theatre background, I knew her through community theatre that we both, that was how I had met her and how we became friends. And then she said we’ve got this position that we needed to be filled and I think you can kind of do it.

[00:12:20]
Corrina Strecker: And it was one of those things where I didn’t have an education background, I didn’t have a science background, but they kind of took a risk with me and it really fit. And so I’ve been here for about four and a half, almost five years.

[00:12:34]
Ben Newsome: That brings me right to exactly why I wanted to have a chat with you because sometimes people think that you have to have a PhD to do this type of thing, that you need some serious background in education and science. And let’s be honest, that’s going to help, don’t get me wrong here, but there are plenty of science centres and museums and all sorts of types that bring on artists, these perfectly dynamic people on stage and they really can hold an audience. You’ve just got to learn the content. And that’s actually what I really wanted to dive into because your first day must have been, okay, so I’ve got this background in performance art and I’m about to talk about molecules.

[00:13:12]
Corrina Strecker: Right, exactly. I mean it was a lot, there was a very high learning curve that first year. And it was a lot of watching someone else do the teaching and I mean simply repeating the script back. It took me a while to get comfortable going off script or doing things that weren’t like, oh I understand how this happens but I wouldn’t be able to explain it.

[00:13:31]
Corrina Strecker: But you know, it’s really funny and I’ve found through the past couple of years, you know, just myself personally, like just becoming so much more interested in science and just learning in general and how much that just being around people who are educators and being around students and people who are learning all of the time that really it kind of reignites that within yourself.

[00:13:53]
Corrina Strecker: As long as you have a passion for it, it really is going to come. I mean I liked science when I was in school, it was just not something that I said, oh that’s what I’m going to do when I grow up. I mean looking back on it I probably should have studied a little bit more, it probably would have helped me out a little bit more in my current gig, but I don’t think I would have done anything differently.

[00:14:14]
Ben Newsome: But I think the number of times I’ve run programmes where, it’s not necessarily teachers but I might have adult learners or in retirement homes or whatever, and they just sit at the end of the one-hour workshop whatever saying, look if I just got to do the stuff that we just did then back in school I would have been a totally different world, my world would have changed.

[00:14:37]
Corrina Strecker: Absolutely. I find that every day. And so that’s what I kind of take into teaching the students that, you know, whenever I’m connecting with a classroom and they have, you know, time for questions and they ask, are you a scientist? And I’m kind of like, no, I mean I have a passion for science and it’s something that is everywhere. I mean there is not an aspect of your life that doesn’t somehow, you can’t relate it back to science. So to me it’s, it should be a passion of everyone’s. But it’s like you don’t have to go to school to be a chemist in order to have a real love and understanding for how chemistry affects our whole world.

[00:15:14]
Ben Newsome: And that’s the thing, like I mean there’s this real push to make sure that the A as in arts is included in STEM, you hear this STEAM thing. I mean mind you, it seems like everyone just wants their own acronym in there. I think this acronym is going to become the alphabet soon enough.

[00:15:28]
Ben Newsome: But anyway, but with the arts thing I mean the training that you actually get to be able to be not just liberally minded but to be able to make connections that other people may not see means that your presentations and your ability to make people understand logic, it’s unique and it’s great.

[00:15:44]
Corrina Strecker: Yeah, it is. And I think it helps to have that creative side to be able to think of things creatively. But you know, and sometimes I do find with our education programmes is that sometimes having, not having the science background is really helpful in that I have to learn it myself so it’s like, how can I make this relatable just for myself to be able to teach it?

[00:16:08]
Corrina Strecker: Is really helpful and okay, how am I going to have students be able to learn about this? Because it’s just kind of a process where, okay, if I’m going to be talking about, you know, molecular structure, I’m going to have to learn what that even means to begin with. And in that learning process can come out some really creative ways to teach students.

[00:16:26]
Ben Newsome: And there are really creative ways around. I mean we only just shared a thing on our Facebook page last night where there was a parody, it was a takeoff of one of Ed Sheeran’s songs and it’s called The Molecular Shape of You.

[00:16:38]
Corrina Strecker: Oh my gosh, I love it.

[00:16:39]
Ben Newsome: There you go, there’s something you can go check out on YouTube. But just how people can just creatively change something to try and fit a teaching concept is amazing.

[00:16:47]
Corrina Strecker: Yeah.

[00:16:48]
Ben Newsome: Hey, I’d love to know, like I mean so obviously you’re doing hands-on science programmes and that could be for all sorts of age levels, but what’s your like main group that comes through the door and in your case through your camera?

[00:16:58]
Corrina Strecker: Yeah, so we, most of our programmes that we tend to see, even so our building when people come on site is really kind of for younger, younger elementary. I would say probably we don’t get a lot of kids over the age of eight or nine. I mean they maybe will come with their families but kind of that’s our sweet spot is kind of preschool and that kind of area. And that kind of tends to go into our distance learning programme too. So we have programmes, you know, we start off as young as preschool and we really cap out about eighth grade. We don’t really even tend to do fifth through eighth grade, we don’t do that often, but we do see them on occasion.

[00:17:38]
Corrina Strecker: I would love to have more programmes where we’re reaching those older audiences, even high school, but it really, for getting those kind of hands-on, kind of spark their science interest and being able to get those kind of accessible hands-on type activities, the younger ages are really where we can do that best.

[00:17:59]
Ben Newsome: So the, what’s the one that like, you know how like you’ve got several floors on in your museum, what’s the exhibit that constantly is filled with kids and you have to push them out the door with a broom?

[00:18:12]
Corrina Strecker: Oh, we have one gallery that’s called H₂O. It’s all about water, and we have water tables that you see in a lot of children’s museums or science museums where kids can play, but they’re kind of taking it to a whole new level. So there’s, you know, levers that they can pull and push and different ways that they can stream the water to, you know, make it do different things and create energy and all sorts of different things.

[00:18:44]
Corrina Strecker: When you get kids in a place where they can make a mess and it’s okay, even if it’s just water, which is easier on us, but that is definitely one where you are always, there is always a lot of noise and a lot of activity in that gallery whether there is three kids or 35 or 90 kids all kind of in that space. So I definitely think it’s some place where they can kind of are free to make a mess and kind of get their hands dirty, I mean as much as you can get your hands dirty with water. But you know, where they’re actually, you know, getting their hands on to their learning.

[00:19:20]
Ben Newsome: No, that’s awesome. So if you had to, I don’t know, you grab those kids, you somehow wrestle them away from the water play area, throw them a towel or three or five, and you sit them down finally, I mean what would be like if you got to choose any experiment, any particular science demonstration or whatever, that you thought you know what, I just want to grab these kids’ attention about how the world works on blah, on this thing. What would you go to? What would be your go-to thing, what would you love to do?

[00:19:47]
Corrina Strecker: Oh that’s a good question. I mean there are plenty of things that I would love to do. I think the thing that always kind of surprises me, is making slime, which I mean I talked about that a little bit earlier. But I mean that’s really in our distance learning programme especially, and even the school groups who come to the museum, people are always booking slime.

[00:20:07]
Corrina Strecker: And I think that every time I do it I learn something new from the kids about, you know, how they’re experiencing it. And it really is just such an all-sensory, you’re using all of your senses. And that’s kind of what we teach during our slime programme is like, okay, we’re making this slime and then we’re investigating it. And in our particular programme we talk about solids, liquids and gases and we’re asking the students to kind of explore their slime and to try to figure out what state of matter it’s in. Kind of just leaving it pretty open-ended for them to kind of explore.

[00:20:39]
Corrina Strecker: And it’s always so interesting to hear what kind of observations you are having. So younger kids can do this and they can be smelling it or putting it up to their ear and seeing if it’s making any noise. And they’re kind of just getting to that scientific method, you know, while they’re having fun because man, kids are into slime!

[00:21:01]
Corrina Strecker: And Ben, I would like to think that is because of us. You yourselves, who I know make slime, and these science museums who have been making slime for years, and it really is a big thing now. And I think we should probably take all the credit for that.

[00:21:13]
Ben Newsome: Well why not, we should always take the credit for everything that ever happens in the world! No, but the slime does grab attention. I mean I must say that’s one of the popular programmes that we run only by video conference called Four Slimes in 30 Minutes. And that’s exactly what happens.

[00:21:31]
Corrina Strecker: Wow, they make four? I am shocked. Four slimes in 30 minutes, that’s great!

[00:21:35]
Ben Newsome: Yeah, I’ll just rack them up. They do three, I do an extra fourth one just with polyvinyl alcohol and borax solution just because hey, that’s the one that they may not have on hand.

[00:21:44]
Corrina Strecker: Right.

[00:21:45]
Ben Newsome: But actually that actually brings me to a point. So we do cornflour slime, but if I tell people in North America cornflour slime, people go, what are you talking about? Cornstarch!

[00:21:54]
Corrina Strecker: Right.

[00:21:55]
Ben Newsome: The psyllium husks, psyllium husks and hot water, it will come out a bit gloopy. And also soap flakes. Simply soap flakes. Just yeah, it just, if you got soap flakes plus water plus food colouring, it has a slimy feel. And actually we talk about surfactants and I know it seems like oh you’re just talking about slime, what’s that got to do with anything? Turns out that surfactants actually keep you alive with your lungs because they stop your lungs sticking together when you breathe in and out.

[00:22:21]
Corrina Strecker: So interesting, right? There’s so many things you can tie into slime. I mean, who would think, who would have thought that?

[00:22:27]
Ben Newsome: Actually yeah, we actually, we’ve been running a lot of distance learning events with a number of museums down in Australia with Virtual Excursions Australia where there’s a theme, a general theme around a particular programme so it might be pirates or whatever it is. And we certainly know that one that grabs people’s attention is slime day. And obviously the science centres go, cool we’re doing slime, no problem, that’s easy.

[00:22:47]
Ben Newsome: But people got really creative. I know the Australian National Maritime Museum who’s coming on the podcast later on, they did a slime between convicts’ toes. And the idea, I know it’s a weird thing, I didn’t actually make the stuff that’d be gross, but what they did was talk about the living conditions while they were moving between England and Australia in that big migration that we had. You can almost twist any topic to fit anything.

[00:23:08]
Corrina Strecker: You really can! And that’s really the cool thing about kind of having the ability to, to create new programmes and to do new things and, and work with a lot of other museums that we’ve actually been able to do. And that, it’s kind of a cool, the collaboration piece to working in a museum is really becoming a lot easier, especially because of video conferencing technologies and just technology in general. But kind of doing those collaborative things has been something we’ve really tried to do a lot here.

[00:23:37]
Ben Newsome: So now I’m just sort of wondering now, just like you’ve obviously been doing this for a number of years, you go and head off to another museum. Actually I heard a little birdie told me that you’ve done, you’ve got a little bit of work here and there around like other places as well with this, what are you else up to?

[00:23:51]
Corrina Strecker: Yeah, so we as a museum, we’ve actually merged with a local nature centre. So close by, the Leslie Science and Nature Center, we’ve actually kind of, we’ve merged our organisations. So we’re still two different places and we have our normal things that we have going on, but education wise we’re trying to kind of bring it together to be able to reach broader audiences. So they’re a nature centre, they’ve actually been doing distance learning with us for longer than I’ve been here.

[00:24:17]
Corrina Strecker: So we have an owl, they have an owl programme where they bring live owls and we both kind of do the teaching about different adaptations of owls and then I go through an owl pellet dissection during the actual programme itself. So they’ve been, we’ve kind of always had this distance learning relationship with them, now we’ve kind of brought them in to kind of expand that out even more.

[00:24:38]
Corrina Strecker: And we also have a new partnership with, it’s called the Yankee Air Museum and it’s an aviation and history museum that’s not too far away as well. And they’re kind of looking to expand, they didn’t have education programmes so they kind of brought in our museum to start to build up an education programme. Doing the same sort of things, doing distance learning programmes, onsite education programmes, and outreach as well.

[00:25:02]
Ben Newsome: So it comes full circle for you.

[00:25:04]
Corrina Strecker: It really does! That was, that was kind of the cool thing and I’ve taken on the managing of this new, this new partnership. So yes, it was finally that, you know, my time spent in the airlines is going to actually pay off once again. So it definitely came full circle.

[00:25:20]
Ben Newsome: Fantastic. You must have walked in with a slight shudder going oh my gosh, there’s the exits forwards, back then aft.

[00:25:26]
Corrina Strecker: Exactly! Exactly. It all came flooding back to me.

[00:25:30]
Ben Newsome: Fantastic. Hey um, thank you so much for popping on here. I mean, obviously people can get in touch with you but before we go into your contact details, I’d just love to know if someone had to suddenly step into your shoes, of which now you’re involved with three separate museums, there’s going to be some shoes to fill. I mean, what would be some advice for people who may not have a science background who really want to jump into a hands-on science museum and just work with kids? What would be some tips?

[00:26:00]
Corrina Strecker: I would say number one you have to be creative or maybe innovative too. And not even, not just in the types of things that you do, but just kind of in creative thinking. Like you have to just think outside of the box all the time. And especially thinking, being very flexible, and thinking on your feet.

[00:26:20]
Corrina Strecker: So it’s like at times when maybe there’s a question that you can’t answer, for one you should always be able to say I have no idea what the answer is. But also just to be able to think kind of very flexibly in your thinking and just how can I approach this differently or if I don’t know this answer, how can I kind of steer this conversation back to something you know that they can, students can get a learning outcome from it.

[00:26:47]
Ben Newsome: Oh that makes total sense. I mean obviously any teacher in any classroom knows that they’re effectively performance artists in some ways, they’re not just educators, they’ve also got to keep the kids’ attention and that makes total sense. And thinking on your feet is really just our bread and butter, it’s our job all the time.

[00:27:06]
Ben Newsome: And actually that just sort of throws up just a question. Has there been a time when you really had to think on your feet because this thing is just going wrong, this is going pear-shaped, this is not what I wanted to do, something’s gone wrong in the lesson? Have you had a time where it just completely stuffed up?

[00:27:17]
Corrina Strecker: Yeah, it does. We have had a lot of those. Just as a museum we call it the museum switcharoo, where we’ve been doing something, we had a programme that we were actually doing here on the floor with visitors at the museum and we had had a complaint from a customer and our executive director said you got to scrap it, you got to figure out something else because we can’t have this out on the floor.

[00:27:41]
Corrina Strecker: So it just was kind of a collaborative effort. Everybody just kind of came together and said okay what else can we do, how can we fill this spot? And you know this was maybe 10 minutes before the museum was supposed to open. And you know you have to just like, you know, people are running upstairs to get supplies and other people are, you know, kind of taking the other stuff away. I mean you just have to really work, work with what you’ve got. Kind of again just be really flexible and ready for anything.

[00:28:09]
Corrina Strecker: So that’s kind of, there have been times like that. We also had a camp-in group, a group of girl scouts that were coming to do a camp-in. So an overnight at the museum. And as they were checking in, we were checking the people in and the leader of the camp, the group, the scout group said, okay so we’re here to do this lab about the crime lab or something.

[00:28:31]
Corrina Strecker: And we were like, what? No, you’re doing the five senses. We had all these activities ready for them to do something about the five senses and the group that came in thought they were coming to do something on a crime lab to talk about forensic science. And so the team literally had to think on their feet, swap the things around. I mean a lot of them were, oh, forensic scientists have to use their senses. And so but they really, I mean within you know an hour of having to change a complete curriculum on a four-hour event, there have been times where things get very hairy but you have to just say okay, this is what we’re doing, we can figure it out. You know, we’ve got closets of supplies, what can we use, how quick can we change this up.

[00:29:19]
Ben Newsome: So that’s uh, things have gone quite pear-shaped I’d have to say. I tend to agree. I kind of wonder that on our business cards it might say education manager or teacher or something, I reckon it also should just say duck that swims on water. So it looks all, it looks all super placid on the top and there’s absolute massive paddling underneath.

[00:29:31]
Corrina Strecker: Right! Yeah, absolutely. I mean it sometimes, it’s, you just never can, you never can predict what’s gonna happen, but you should be prepared for literally anything. And sometimes it could be, you know, something very simple or sometimes you have to just throw the agenda out the window and come up with something on the fly.

[00:29:51]
Ben Newsome: Which is like why, that’s why the learning curve is so high for a brand new person entering education. I totally agree. Hey, thanks very much. I love that story because the number of times that we’ve had to swap and change because a particular thing might have been booked in but it didn’t get passed onto people within a particular department and all of a sudden we’re running out, we do a lot of outreach. So we arrive at a school and the material we’ve got is what we’ve got. So often we’ll have to, you know, turn up again or something like that. Mind you that is a rare case, but occasionally wires do get crossed and communication gets missed and all of a sudden what you thought was booked was not the case. I totally just see it.

[00:30:31]
Corrina Strecker: Yep. Absolutely. As long as you can keep a smile on your face, that’ll keep the customers happy and you know, keep the kids learning because that’s really what we’re here for and as long as they’re learning something in the end does it really matter?

[00:30:43]
Ben Newsome: That’s right. As long as you can fit it back in the schedule another time. Totally so. Well thanks very much Corrina for popping over. I really am stoked that you’re able to jump in. Especially when you’re describing how much busyness you’ve got going on coming to your school camp season. I know there’s a lot going on. How can people get in touch with you or the museum?

[00:31:04]
Corrina Strecker: Yeah, absolutely, you know the internet is a great thing, you can come to us, worldwide audiences can come and see what we do. So we have, our website is aahom.org. So that’s Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum dot org. And you can backslash that with distance learning if you want to learn about our distance learning programmes.

[00:31:22]
Corrina Strecker: I can personally be emailed at [email protected]. I can also be found on the internet. I’m on Twitter at C Strecker, I’m on LinkedIn and all of those regular things. We are on all, the Hands-On Museum is all over social media as well so check out what we’re doing. That would be great to hear from you.

[00:31:41]
Ben Newsome: Totally so. And as usual I’ll throw that all in the show notes and please get in touch with them. Especially if you’re not just in the Michigan area but anywhere there’s this thing called the internet and the internet can do things. It can connect people, which is kind of good.

[00:31:52]
Corrina Strecker: It’s really great. And that’s the great thing too. I appreciate you for coming in nice bright and early on that nice Australian morning where it’s, you know, time for me to go home.

[00:32:06]
Ben Newsome: That’s all right, I get to have the first cup of coffee. That’s it’s all good. Well thanks very much Corrina again, much appreciated. And hey, we might catch you perhaps at another ISTE conference soon!

[00:32:17]
Corrina Strecker: I hope so. Chicago 2018!

[00:32:19]
Ben Newsome: Catch you later mate.

[00:32:20]
Corrina Strecker: All right, Ben, thanks so much!

[00:32:24]
Announcer: This is the FizzicsEd podcast. We’re all about science, edtech and more. To see 100 fun free experiments you can do with your class, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S. And click 100 free experiments.

[00:32:41]
Ben Newsome: And there you go. I really hope you enjoyed that interview with Corrina Strecker from Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. I certainly did, and it was certainly worth getting up nice and early to be able to speak with Corrina in her timezone and make sure that she didn’t have to work in the middle of the night for her. And look it was really good fun having a chat with her. And I certainly picked out a few things out of here so I really want to list a couple of them down and no doubt you will have a few yourself as well.

[00:33:05]
Ben Newsome: So number one for me was see if you can get yourself involved in the arts. It’ll expand your creativity without a doubt, and theatre certainly gives you the presenting skills to be able to hold a class or even a large audience really, really well. And Corrina definitely brings that to the Hands-On Museum without a doubt.

[00:33:25]
Ben Newsome: Number two, and this is a classic one and I know that most people here would certainly know this without a doubt but we’re going to put it down anyway. It’s okay to get messy. It’s okay to let kids get hands-on and have a little bit of fun. When it comes down to it, letting kids getting their hands busy into some material, whatever it might be, it’s about getting them engaged while they’re young so that they’ll be engaged when they’re older.

[00:33:48]
Ben Newsome: Let’s be honest, yes we’d love to be able to create a bunch of scientists. Yes, that’s obviously part of being in science education. But having people who are science literate who actually care to read about what’s happening in the scientific community, that’s part of our job too. And look, if that means letting kids getting a little bit messy, that’s totally fine. Hey, just build it into the lesson that they’ve got to clean up afterwards and that’s certainly a good thing.

[00:34:15]
Ben Newsome: And number three, and this is really just doesn’t matter where you are. Go to as many conferences as possible and if you can, if you just can, sneak out to the ISTE conference, the International Society for Technology in Education conference. It’s well worth your time. Now I know for a lot of the listeners, it’s a bit of a trek next year it is off to Chicago, but I can tell you what, you will learn so much when it comes to working in STEM. It’s not just quote-unquote a technology conference, it is science, technology, engineering, maths, literacy, the works. You’ve got all these people from librarians to museum educators all talking science and tech and a lot, and trying to get the most for their respective audiences and classrooms and all that type of thing. So they are my top three learnings. I’d love to know what yours are next.

[00:35:03]
Announcer: Thanks for listening to the FizzicsEd podcast. Love your science? We do too. Here’s this episode’s education tip of the week. Grab your pencil and get ready to make some notes.

[00:35:13]
Ben Newsome: Yes it is time for another ed tip of the week. Before we jump into that, I thought I might mention you would have heard just the slightest of echoes when it came to that interview with Corrina Strecker. And the reason why is that we were doing a web conference between Australia and the USA. So between Sydney and Michigan. And it’s just the slightest delays is caused simply just sending information halfway around the globe. Especially when it came to the audio, coming through the speakers on Corrina’s end was just, the sound was just bouncing just a little bit back to the mic and so you could hear my voice echoing a little bit. So it actually explains what’s going on though I know that our audio guys certainly tried to clean it up a little bit, but it’s sort of a little bit unavoidable when you look at it post-production when there’s a little bit of an audio delay. But hey, we got through it and I’m sure we’re okay.

[00:35:59]
Ben Newsome: Anyway, we need to talk about what is thinking, well what’s our thinking this week when it comes to an education tip that you can certainly apply in your classroom or wherever you might be teaching. And in this case, I’d like you to consider pairing kids and teachers in professional development.

[00:36:17]
Ben Newsome: This is certainly, certainly will grab Corrina’s attention. I mean definitely working in the Hands-On Museum she’s very much into kids working wherever they could be. But tell you what, professional development where students are involved at the same time really, really works.

[00:36:32]
Ben Newsome: Only recently we were doing a TPL session, so Teacher Professional Learning session, with Condell Park Public School in the southern part of Sydney. And in this case we were doing Lego robotics with students from a number of schools all in their school hall. And I’ll tell you what, it really, really, really works.

[00:36:50]
Ben Newsome: The ability to be able to watch students engage with a topic, in this case it was Lego robotics, is fantastic because you know, rather than just learning the software then having to go back to your school and try and work out how you’re going to then teach that software to your student or it could be a science lesson to those students, being able to get involved with students learning at the same time as you is fantastic because you can really see how the kids interact with the lesson itself.

[00:37:19]
Ben Newsome: So not only about how they’re engaging but what sort of questions are being raised. And where are the problems, where are the issues lying because that means that you can really, really craft a great lesson back in your own school after you’ve seen students go through the challenges themselves.

[00:37:37]
Ben Newsome: And having multiple teachers around in a TPL environment like that is great because you can watch each other teach. I mean, how often are we stuck in a classroom by ourselves and we’re sort of making the best of it. And yes we of course we get people come in to help us out and give advice and there’s all these recording things around and yeah that certainly exists. But when we’re all in the same boat and all learning together with students, it’s really really handy to watch how multiple students and teachers work on the same challenge in different ways.

[00:38:07]
Ben Newsome: Now let’s be honest, working together in a group like that is also cool because you now get a social opportunity to come up with your own shared challenges, your own shared collaborations. And tell you what, it certainly is awesome. And I must say after running professional development sessions for many, many, many years with teachers, having students involved as well really, really grabbed my attention and so much so you can find a whole blog on that.

[00:38:33]
Ben Newsome: So jump on our website, you’ll see just in our blog just type in pairing students or type in TPL on our search box of our website. So fizzicseducation.com.au. You’ll find a blog about what we did at that particular session and why it certainly might be worth considering next time you’re doing some professional development. So there you go, pair students with teachers when you’re doing some TPL. It’s really, really worth your time.

[00:38:59]
Announcer: This is the FizzicsEd podcast. We’re excited about science. Grab a copy of our new book, Be Amazing: How to Teach Science the Way Primary Kids Love, from our website. Just search Be Amazing book. It’s available in hard copy and ebook. Go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S.

[00:39:21]
Ben Newsome: One of the things that Corrina mentioned was the importance of allowing kids to explore and get messy. And there was a past episode only the last week where [Guest] from [Organization] talked about the importance of letting kids do exactly the same thing. Have a listen.

[00:39:35]
[Speaker]: I hate the idea of the old empty vessel, I must fill you up with lots of facts and knowledge. It doesn’t work for anyone and I just see students get so frustrated with that sort of approach because that’s not how the better learning is, if you know what I’m trying to say. I mean everyone needs to talk and explain the project and the process, but there is a time where you actually just need to be quiet and let the students go for it and just be there more as a mentor or a coach and then bring them back in and explain their learning and things. I hate the whole idea of the you must sit and listen to me for 45 minutes and then you have two minutes to do your activity and then that’s it. I’m not a big believer in that.

[00:40:19]
Ben Newsome: Yes, absolutely. Please be a mentor, please be a coach. Don’t just be that sage on the stage who just bangs on and on and on and just no one gets a chance to do anything themselves. No one likes that. I know that eventually you won’t like doing that as well because the kids will be turned off, then you get behaviour issues and everyone has a bad time. So yeah, definitely be that mentor, allow the kids a chance to explore. That’s exactly what Corrina was talking about, that’s what Jan Zanetis talked about, that’s what Isabelle Kingsley and Adam Selinger and all these people who have been on the FizzicsEd podcast. There’s very much a theme. Let kids explore, and you’re there to be their guide.

[00:40:57]
Announcer: Thanks for listening to the FizzicsEd podcast. Sign up now for our fortnightly email newsletter. It’s loaded with details on new experiments you can do, STEM teaching articles, new gadgets, exclusive offers and upcoming events. Go to fizzicseducation.com.au, scroll to the bottom and add your email.

[00:41:15]
Ben Newsome: And that just about brings us to the end of yet another FizzicsEd podcast. Hey, jump on our website, there’s so much more you can be doing. There are free experiments, there are articles on all sorts of ways of teaching science. There is a mountain of things to do there. And hey, if there’s an area that you’d like us to write about, please let us know. Throw us a comment on Facebook, flick us a quick email, do whatever you need to do to get in touch. We’ll certainly write it up, because hey we get a lot of fun out of writing it up ourselves, it’s really good for sharing information amongst our own staff, let alone sharing it out right across the world, and we’re really enjoying it.

[00:41:48]
Ben Newsome: And hey, if you are enjoying this podcast, please leave a review. It’ll let people know that hey, this might be worth their time. And it’ll also give us a bit of a, I suppose a bit of a pat on the back, but also more importantly, let us know what you’re liking, and we’ll certainly keep on doing that.

[00:42:03]
Ben Newsome: Hey, next week, Mary Bell drops by. Mary Bell is from the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney. And she, being part of a botanic garden, loves her plants and boy does she love them. And so do I actually, I have a background in environmental biology and did a lot of work with plant ecology back in my time as a scientist. And Mary very much is a practicing scientist who teaches kids, and I had a lot of fun interviewing her.

[00:42:27]
Ben Newsome: So yeah, that’s next week’s episode, certainly check that out. And until then, keep on making your science lessons fun, keep on making them as informative as possible, and make sure that no matter what, you’re grabbing your students’ imagination. You’ve been listening to me, my name is Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education, and of course you’ve been listening to the FizzicsEd podcast. Bye for now.

[00:42:47]
Announcer: You’ve been listening to another Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re excited about science. Subscribe to us on iTunes to download the next episode as soon as it’s released. And don’t forget, for hundreds of ideas, free experiments, our new Be Amazing book and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Does a science educator need a formal science degree to be effective in a museum or outreach setting?
Not necessarily. Corrina Strecker highlights that her background is in theatre rather than science or education. While scientific knowledge is important, the ability to communicate, hold an audience’s attention, and translate complex concepts into relatable, creative performances is often just as vital for engaging young learners.

Question: How does the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum manage the logistics of distance learning?
The museum uses video conferencing technology to connect with classrooms globally. To ensure the “hands-on” aspect is maintained, they often send physical kits containing all necessary materials to the schools in advance. This allows the museum educator to lead the lesson virtually while the classroom teacher facilitates the physical activity on-site.

Question: Why is “Slime” such a popular tool for teaching science?
Slime serves as an excellent gateway into the scientific method and the states of matter. It allows students to use all their senses—smell, touch, and even sound—to make observations. Because it behaves like both a solid and a liquid, it encourages deep inquiry and keeps students highly engaged due to its “messy” and fun nature.

Question: What is the “duck on water” analogy in the context of teaching?
This refers to the educator’s ability to remain calm, smiling, and professional on the surface (the “performance”) while “paddling” furiously underneath to manage technical glitches, unexpected student questions, or sudden changes in the programme or curriculum. Flexibility and quick thinking are essential traits for any educator.

Question: How can educators handle a situation where they don’t know the answer to a student’s question?
Corrina suggests that educators should feel comfortable saying, “I have no idea.” Being honest fosters a better relationship with students and provides an opportunity to model the learning process by steering the conversation back to how the answer might be discovered or by focusing on the intended learning outcomes of the session.

Extra thought ideas to consider

The Integration of STEAM: Consider how the “A” in STEAM (Arts) acts as a bridge for students who may feel intimidated by pure science. By using theatre, kinaesthetic movement (like the “molecule dance”), or musical parodies, educators can lower the barrier to entry and foster science literacy in children who might not otherwise see themselves as future scientists.

The Value of Shared Professional Development: Reflect on the idea of pairing students and teachers together during professional development sessions. Observing how children naturally interact with new technology or scientific concepts can provide teachers with immediate, real-world insights into classroom management and lesson delivery that a theoretical lecture cannot provide.

The Power of Collaboration between Institutions: Corrina discusses merging museum expertise with nature centres and aviation museums. Think about how local organisations—even those with vastly different focuses—can pool their resources and “remits” to create more comprehensive and diverse educational offerings for their communities.