Faculty and Students Access Unique offerings at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum

Faculty and students are finding ways to access the unique resources found at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, including the Digistar 4 equipped Planetarium, recently updated Mary Jane Stryker Theater, and the three floors of interactive and collection rich exhibits. The Museum, part of the downtown campus, has been very intentional in making its resources more accessible to both Kalamazoo Valley students and faculty. In fact, the Museum’s recently adopted Strategic Plan 2012-2017 includes a goal of strengthening ties and developing more opportunities to enhance the college’s educational mission.

Students and instructors in four different classes, ART 221, GEO 109, PHY 120 and PHY 124, made use of the theater this fall. Deborah Coates, Geo Science Faculty, found that her students benefit in several ways when the class is held in the Museum’s planetarium. “I bring my teacher prep classes to the museum for two reasons. First and foremost is to expand learning,” Coates said. “The planetarium experience is unlike anything I can duplicate in the classroom. Eric Schreur, the planetarium coordinator, created a sky program specifically for my classes using the course objectives. We are able to experience a learning environment which adds richness to our discussions of very complex earth relationships. The other reason I bring classes to the museum is because these students plan to be teachers and they should see first-hand that real learning can take place in an informal setting.”

Scott Myers, Humanities Faculty, found that the Museum’s Mary Jane Stryker Theater “is a great alternative classroom for my art history class.” By design, the state-of-the-art audio and video projection systems works seamlessly with the technology found on the media carts found in all the other KVCC classrooms. He notes, “It's especially nice to be able to show movies or slides on the cinema-sized big screen. The museum staff has been very helpful, checking in and working with me when I have a special request. The students seem to enjoy having class in the theater. It has worked well for lecture, discussion, and even group work.”

Other instructors are having their students work on projects that will be of benefit to the Museum. Linda Rzoska’s Integrated Portfolio Practicum students at the Center for New Media are working on a design and animation project for the Museum, creating new self-guide booklets for children and their teachers or parents. A highly innovative program designed by Deborah Coates as part of her doctoral work at Ferris State University will enable this team of students to do graphic design, story-boarding, and animation, introducing KVM patrons and staff to a little bit of Augmented Reality (AR). Three objects – a portrait of Titus “Potato” Bronson, the squirrel-tail fire pumper, and the mummy’s coffin, cartonnage and sarcophagus will be animated. Each animation will help visitors understand a little more about the subject than museum exhibit labels can explain. The fire-pumper, for instance will be animated to show how it worked; the mummy’s various coffins will be shown front and back with a quick demonstration of how they all fit together. Titus Bronson will welcome and introduce the history gallery to visitors. In order to create historically accurate animations, Linda’s team will need to do some research with the help of KVM staff; they also need to learn AR parameters and help KVM staff understand what outcomes to expect. Their final project will be juried, in part, by Museum staff. According to Bill McElhone, Museum Director, “The students gain invaluable real world experience and a tangible project for their portfolios. They can also be proud that their work will serve an annual audience of well over 100,000 visitors.”

Students in instructor Tom Schurino's Principles of Marketing class also are developing survey tools to get a better understanding of the KVM visitor experience.

Faculty interested in additional information about scheduling class visits or taking advantage of the Museum’s resources should contact Bill McElhone, Museum Director.