Post written by Heidi Fuhrman, Discovery Camps Coordinator.

Daily Discovery: My Museum

Become a curator and create your very own at home museum! Will your museum be a history museum, science museum, art museum, or a little bit of everything? What will you discover and teach to your visitors?

Supplies:

  • Your museum objects
  • Paper & markers (optional)

Instructions:

What is a museum, anyway?

A museum is a place where collections of objects are stored and displayed for people from all over the world to learn from. Many museums focus on one area like science, history, or art. Some museums focus on a single topic like baseball, or cowboys, or modern art. The Fort Collins Museum of Discovery focuses on many different areas—science, history, music, animals—but we have one big topic… discovery!

What kinds of museums have you been to? Which museum is your favorite? Why?

When you visit a museum, you see exhibits. These are created by many different people who work at a museum. They are made so that you can see and learn about some of the many amazing objects and specimens a museum stores and takes care of. But did you know that you’re only seeing a teeny tiny glimpse into a museum? Most museums have thousands to millions of objects that aren’t on display! Curators— people who take care of museum objects—carefully store them so that someday they can be displayed. But they don’t just put the objects on a shelf and leave them. Nope! They use those objects and specimens to learn more about history, art, and science so they can teach people through exhibits! Today your challenge is to become a curator and create your very own at home museum!

Decide what kind of museum you’re going to create. Is it going to be a history museum? A science museum? An art museum? A topical museum (maybe sports or superheroes or legos or a museum about you)? Maybe you’re going to make a museum like FCMoD and it will have a little bit of everything!

Next Steps:

In the linked PDF below, discover how to approach creating your museum depending on the type! From there, follow instructions for how to make your exhibit. Ready, set, go!