Scott Family Amazeum Hosts Successful Inaugural Unfield Trip Year
BENTONVILLE, Ark. (June 7, 2016) The Scott Family Amazeum launched Unfield Trips for school groups in October 2015. The last group of the school year visited on May 22, 2016. In between, the Amazeum hosted slightly more than 350 visits and 25,674 students.
While the number of students who visited the Amazeum through Unfield Trips is impressive, knowing that it was the only way for some of these kids to visit is more important, said Mindy Porter, director of education at the Scott Family Amazeum. We are an educational institution at our core so it is our responsibility to share this resource and to inspire young learners.
As part of the Unfield Trip program, students were able to share reflections from their visit with the Amazeum education team. Many of those post cards talk about curiosity piqued, or a wider perspective on the world, or even dreams of a future career.
The years of hard work and pushing to offer Unfield Trips in our first year are worth it when you read those post cards, said Porter.
Because the Scott Family Amazeum wants all members of the community to feel welcome in its space, the education team pushed to begin offering school group visits within months of opening the museums doors in July. Porter adds that the team learned a lot about how students and teachers use the building, and how that affects other museum guests.
Now, we get to take the summer to implement some of that learning and to fine tune what were doing to ensure that were delivering a quality experience for everyone at the museum.
A major grant from the Walmart Foundation also allowed the jump-start of school visits. The foundation granted the Amazeum more than $327,000 to offset admission costs for students in Benton and Washington counties and to develop the programs curriculum.
Walmart Foundation supported our efforts to get Unfield Trips running in our inaugural year. Their financial support made it possible for us to focus on the experience, said Molly Rawn, director of development and communications. That kind of freedom allowed the team room to be creative and innovative.
While more than 80% of the students on Unfield Trip visits were from Benton and Washington counties, students traveled from as far away as Kansas and Oklahoma for the experience.
Unfield Trips will return for the 2016-17 school year. An announcement will be made in the summer for the opening day of reservations.
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About the Scott Family Amazeum
The Scott Family Amazeum is a hands-on, interactive museum for children and families in Northwest Arkansas. Located at the intersection of J Street and Museum Way in Bentonville, the Amazeum experiences include a climbable tree canopy, indoor cave, and nearly one acre of outdoor space. For more information about the museum, visit amazeum.org.
