Week of Wonder Residency Program

The Bakken Museum also proposes to use our FY24/25 ACHF grant to pursue, enhance, and deliver high-impact educational programming throughout Minnesota, focusing on populations who have been traditionally under-resourced. The Bakken has extensive experience providing educational programming in the Twin Cities Metro and throughout the state with particular emphasis on cultural responsiveness, building core competencies, and aligning with state and local education standards. Our programming works well in both school and out-of-school environments and is adaptable to the various needs of our 150+ school, community center, library, and other partners.

We propose to deliver our Week of Wonder Residency Program to 8 schools throughout the state. Our Week of Wonder Residencies brings a high saturation of high-quality cultural and STEM experiences to an entire elementary school during a one-week period. In each school, each grade would receive programs specifically aligned with educational standards in terms of content while additionally centering on building student skills, engagement, confidence, and self-efficacy.

The program residency would be designed such that each grade has a unique set of experiences which scaffold on experiences from previous grades. Additionally, the Bakken Museum will provide introductory videos and leave-behind follow-up activities to expand the impact of the programming beyond the single week in which it is delivered. Leave behind activities will include a mixture of activities that can be done in the classroom and activities designed to be taken home and shared with family, allowing students to make connections to their learning outside the school environment.