NE Florida News

Bolles Assistant Head of Upper School Piper Moyer-Shad ’91 and science teacher Andres Buitrago enlisted the help of administrators from Jacksonville’s Museum of Science & History for their Anatomy students’ alternative assessment at the end of the second quarter this winter.

The students were broken into small teams and asked to create a museum exhibit based on a portion of one of the units they learned in Anatomy class during the first semester. Each team was responsible for creating the following:

• The conceptual design or theme of the exhibit
• The exhibit’s storyline or script
• The floor plan or a map of the exhibit
• The content covered by the exhibit
• The lessons provided by the exhibit
• An exhibit prototype

Before the teams developed their projects, MOSH administrators visited the San Jose Campus to give these students real-world insight about producing a museum exhibit, from brainstorming and development to funding and long-term maintenance. Students also asked engaging questions to help them better understand the roles they took on during the creative assessment: curator, designer, fabricator and educator.

The panel from MOSH included CEO Bruce Fafard, CFO Kathryn Amason, Vice President of Education and Exhibits Anthony Mortimer, Vice President of Visitor Engagement Laroe Adams and Vice President of Support Services Jordan Greenlee.

Moyer-Shad said Bolles alum and MOSH board member Matt Stupski ’09 played a pivotal role in connecting the Bolles students with MOSH for the initiative. Stupski joined the MOSH administrators when they returned to the San Jose Campus a few weeks later to serve as judges for the teams’ final pitches as they attempted to “win” the bid for MOSH’s next exhibit.  

“We are so grateful to the MOSH team for taking the time to engage with our students,” Moyer-Shad said. “Their involvement took this assessment to the next level and challenged our students to be inventive, thorough and detail-oriented throughout the process.”

During the final presentations, students pitched exhibits that ranged from an immersive walk through a giant circulatory system to an interactive look at how bones break and heal. All projects focused on ensuring theoretical exhibit visitors used all their senses to heighten the experience and reinforce the knowledge they would glean after walking away from the exhibit.

Original source can be found here.