The Ventura Gem & Mineral Society, Inc. (VGMS)
Community and Education 1998 Archive.
Table of Contents.
January.
EDUCATION FOR OUR HOBBY.
Just to share with you the part that our Museum and members play in the education of the children in our community, please note the following article "Community Education" by Barbara Foerster. This copy was sent to Bruno thanking him for sharing the casts and advising of the good use they are put to.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION - Barbara Foerster.
Nancy Karnoski has been especially busy this summer! Nancy and her Pebble Pup son Drew shared their rocks and fossils with a hands-on display at the Moorpark Library. There were about 20 people there for the 45 minute program.
Next Nancy visited the Camarillo Library. Nancy, Chole Lubell and Marilyn Varhadian gave 2 presentations, each one 45 minutes long, to a total of about 50 young people. At both libraries each child also received a take-home specimen from our club.
Nancy also taught a 3 week Earth Science Unit as part of the Creative Arts Workshop sponsored in Camarillo each year by the American Association of University Women. She had a total of 75 2nd-6th graders each day, so had to develop 15 different programs, presenting each one to 4 classes each day. She talked about layers of the earth, rocks and minerals, fossils, and dinosaurs (using the wonderful dinosaur casts on loan from the Ventura Club's Earth Science Museum) as a "Dinosaur Petting Zoo", among other things. The students made their own egg carton rock collections, with gift specimens from our Club. They had a "fossil dig", grew sugar crystals (that attracted ants!), made a volcano, made a fossil cast, panned for gold (actually pyrite), and had a wonderful lecture with video by geologists with Mineral Management. Feedback from both students and parents was very enthusiastic!!
Ray Meisenheimer led a group of children from the Patagonia Day Care Center through the Earth Science Museum in Ventura. Patagonia is one of the companies that has a Day Care Center for children of its employees. Twelve children and 4 adults enjoyed that tour.
If YOU would like to share the enthusiasm of young people, Scouts, or Seniors for the beauties of our world, please give me a call!
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Table of Contents.
February.
EDUCATION THROUGH SHARING.
Tuesday, January 20, Bruno Benson conducted a tour of the museum for a group of adults and children.
Wednesday, January 21, Ray Meisenheimer gave a program on rocks, fossils and minerals to a second grade class of about 28 students and teacher at Portola School in Ventura.
That afternoon he repeated the program to another second grade class of about the same number of students.
Thursday, January 22, Bruno and Ray were again at the museum, giving a program and tour for a home study class of children, instructors and parents, 20 children and 10 adults.
Saturday, January 24, the Orcutt Mineral Club visited the museum with Bruno as docent. Following that they went on a field trip to Coal Oil point for fossils.
Coming up - Ray has a group of home study students at the museum February 11. Also, a group of Cub Scouts on February 14.
Contributed by Florence Meisenheimer.
Table of Contents.
March.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION.
Feb. 11 Ray Meisenheimer conducted a tour of the museum for 12 children and 3 adults - a Home Study group.
February 14 Ray conducted a tour through the museum to Cub Scout Troop 3124. There were 6 young boys and 4 adults.
Later that same day Ray met with a teacher from Mission School. She selected about 10 items - skulls and related bones - for her science class.
March 3 two teachers from Juanamarie School in Ventura toured the museum with Ray. They were impressed with the displays and specimens and plan to bring two classes - 40 students - on a tour at a later date.
April 25 & 26 are the dates of Lancaster Annual show. It is a large show, the club is very friendly, and the weather is usually perfect.
Contributed by Florence Meisenheimer.
Table of Contents.
April.
"COMMUNITY EDUCATION".
Wednesday, March 25, Ray Meisenheimer participated in Science Night at Los Colinas School in Camarillo. This is his third year there. Attendance was reportedly 500 students and adults. Ray enjoyed showing his specimens and the kids and parents certainly enjoyed his program.
Friday, March 27, Ray and Bruno Benson gave a tour of the museum to 60 school children and 6 adults. Helping with the children were Red Jioras and Florence Meisenheimer. The busload of children were from Weatherfield School in Thousand Oaks.
Wednesday, April 1, Ray and Florence conducted a tour for 40 children and 10 adults from Juanamaria School in Ventura. After visiting the museum they all enjoyed collecting small gems from the rock pile outside.
Contributed by Florence Meisenheimer.
Table of Contents.
May.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION.
April 17th Ray Meisenheimer met Susanne Peterson at our club museum. Susanne has written a book on all of the museums in southern California, which includes our small Earth Science Museum. She is now updating her information for a revised edition of her book. She was impressed with the changes and new additions to the museum. She asked many questions, spending nearly two hours there. From there she went to Gull Wings Museum in Oxnard.
That same day Ray gave a program and tour of the museum to Cub Scout troop 3136 which included 10 boys and 5 adults. The program lasted about 1-3/4 hours.
On April 27th Bruno Benson gave a program and tour of the museum to a child care group of 7 children and 2 adults from Camarillo.
Contributed by Florence Meisenheimer.
Table of Contents.
June.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION.
Thursday, May 28, Ray Meisenheimer gave a program at Brookside Elementary School in Agoura. The program included four different classes of twenty students and two teachers in each class. The total time spent there was 4 1/2 hours.
Later on the same day Ray gave a one and a half hour program at Hathaway School in Oxnard. It was Family Science Night. Ray's program on fossils was visited by 150 students and 50 adults. The students enjoyed the hands on fossil specimens.
Friday, June 5, Ray Meisenheimer participated in Activities Day at Blance Reynold's School.
Along with Ray's program there were six other programs inside and many more out on the school grounds.
On one side of Ray was a display by Gull Wing's museum and the other side a gentleman with hundreds of hand carved working wooden models--wind mills, wagons, trains, engines, etc.
Taking part in all of this excitement were 500 students and over one hundred teachers, aides, parents and grandparents.
Monday, June 22, Ray Meisenheimer spent a very long day, 7 am to 4:30 pm, providing programs for Voyage in Time Cub Scout Day Camp, Conejo Valley. He was in the Science of Nature session, the theme for the day was "Age of Dinosaurs." Ray set up a number of skulls for the groups to view and discuss. There were 227 boys age 7 to 12 and more than 75 adults.
It is hard for young people to believe that there were no humans in the age of dinosaurs. With dinosaur parks, TV programs and movies they are very real to some young boys. One lad told Ray that if a dinosaur comes up out of the water at him he will "get his ray gun and kill him dead." Another boy told Ray how mistaken he was to believe that there are no live dinosaurs now.
Contributed by Florence Meisenheimer.
In addition to Ray's full day with the boy scouts on the 22nd, Steve Mulqueen gave four lectures to girl scouts on the same day! He had four groups of about 50 each and talked about oil seeps in the local area and the geological makeup of them.
Ed. Note: VGMS thanks these members for the time they spend sharing their expertise and enthusiasm with the Community. It is such an important part of our Society.
Table of Contents.
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