Museo Institute

Museo Institute

MUSEO INSTITUTE

Dinosaurs, hippos, and Monet, oh my! Museums and zoos are more than galleries and things—they are laboratories for learning and research. Join the education and curatorial staff at The DoSeum, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio Zoo, and the Witte Museum for an immersive, year-long professional development opportunity like no other in San Antonio: Museo Institute!

Participating Organizations
 


Cultural organizations like museums and zoos can be an endless resource for educators. From field trips to afterschool programs, they offer hands-on and minds-on educational experiences. And they can further serve schools as laboratories, art studios, and design workshops via true collaboration.

The DoSeum, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio Zoo, and the Witte Museum have come together to offer this exciting new opportunity for educators.

Museo Institute is a year-long professional development program that invites formal educators to explore informal learning and teaching approaches, discover opportunities for collaboration, and create lessons and activities that merge the best practices of informal and formal education to the benefit of students. Upon successful completion of the program, educators will receive up to 85 CPE credit hours, research-based curriculum resources from leading institutions, and new methods for teaching STEM/STEAM in each educator’s unique setting.

CURRICULUM

Participants transform their method of teaching STEM/STEAM by implementing approaches and methods learned from the informal educators at each cultural organization. The cohort learns through virtual and on-site training. Fall training will cover topics including:

  • STEAM & Art Conservation - The McNay

  • Using Art & Thinking Routines for Interdisciplinary Content Learning - SAMA 

  • Unlocking Classroom Exploration through Citizen Science & Service Learning - San Antonio Zoo

  • Maker-Centered Learning, Constructivism, and Digital Literacy - The DoSeum

  • Integrating STEAM Learning into Other Content Areas - The Witte

The spring practicum will be a hands-on/minds project during which each educator receives more training along with coaching from educators at the cultural organization with which they are placed.

By engaging with each organization’s education staff and a cohort of peers from across the San Antonio area, participants will design and implement projects to pilot new pedagogy and lesson/activity plans. By the end of the experience, these select teachers will implement the new curriculum and pedagogy to students in their local learning environments. Each cultural organization will provide a separate syllabus covering the details of their practicum.

GOALS AND OUTCOMES

Our intent is to provide professional development that creates eager agents, thoughtful, reflective practitioners, and confident designers and practitioners of educational content.

Our goal is to train Educators in methods that empower students to inquire, investigate, solve problems, and think critically.

Our aim is to spark these positive outcomes for teachers through knowledge sharing, collaboration, reflection, and creativity inspired by each of our cultural organization’s educational offerings.

SCHEDULE AND IMPORTANT DATES

  • March 2021: Applications Open for 2021 Museo Institute Cohort

  • April 30, 2021: Museo Institute Applications Due

    • Museo Institute is open to all educators (formal & informal) within the San Antonio region.  

  • May 24, 2021: Educators will be selected and notified of acceptance into Museo Institute. 

    • Museum partners will seek a diverse group, representative of educators across age/grade range and across academic content areas

  • July 2021:  Kick-off Celebration to welcome the new Museo Institute Cohort and complete orientation. 

  • August 2021 - October 2021: One-day training sessions, one per museum scheduled on Saturdays

  • November 2021: Cohort divided into five sub-groups, Practicum Orientation at an assigned museum.  

    • Educators will give their preferred top three choices for the practicum and Museum partners will select the cohort sub-groups.  

  • December 2021 - May 2022: Spring practicum 

    • Pre-work may begin in late fall

    • Practicum begins in earnest in January

  • January 2022 - May 2022: Open House events, Open-office hours

    • One Open House hosted by each museum within the spring

    • Regular Open Office hours will be available to each sub-cohort from the assigned Museum.  

  • May 2022 - June 2022: Showcase Celebration

    • Museo Institute Cohort gathers to show what they have learned and celebrate their achievements

Registration for the full, year-long Museo Institute program is $250.00 per educator, due June 01, 2021.

For any additional questions please reach out to Chris Navarro, Director, School & Community Programs at CNavarro@TheDoSeum.org.  

Educators who are looking for past session resources, please visit our Museo Institute Resource Center.