UAF Museum of the North shows gratitude to educators

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - On Wednesday, Sept. 28, the University of Alaska Museum of the North hosted an educators night. During the event local teachers, administrators, and education staff received free admission into the museum and a chance to explore programs available through the museum.

“Educators night at the museum is a chance to thank educators for all the hard work that they do,” said Jennifer Arseneau, the director of education and public programs at the museum. “It’s a time for us to invite those folks that are working hard in our schools, in our local schools, to come to the museum to celebrate them as well as to showcase the offerings the museum has and then to invite partners from UAF that also have outreach opportunities so they can showcase that as well.”

During the event, educators were provided free food and beverages as well as an array of booths and programs to visit.

Among the various programs were virtual reality, music, cultural arts and history, physical sciences, drone technology and more. There was a booth for the School of Education at the university with plenty of examples of tools local educators can use to help teach kids.

“We partner with the schools in a lot of different ways we obviously offer the opportunity for kids to come here for field trips,” said Arseneau. “We also work closely with after school programs, we work closely with teachers and administrators for science nights and other kinds of activities that happen at schools as well as those things that happen here in the museum.”

While visiting educators were able to learn more about available resources via the many programs on display, they were also able to interact with various classroom kits the university has, to help provide hands on learning for young students.

In addition to those kits and the various programs, educators were able to learn about current research being done at the university which will allow them to provide lessons that integrate the latest in scientific advances.

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