Off-beat Freebies: Traveling Trunks

 I love freebies!  Who doesn’t?   In another life, I taught in small, private schools with shoe-string budgets and in WV.  Does your Co-op like exhibits?  Consider borrowing traveling trunks.  Now, if you can combine the trunks with a group field trip, all the better!  I’ve borrowed many, many trunks and other outreach materials for specific events.  Plan ahead!  Create a family event around the trunk.  Ask if a docent from the lab, museum, or center can come along and spearhead the presentation.  Below are a few ideas.  

1. The Smithsonian Libraries offers traveling trunks.  Be warned!  Anything associated with the Smithsonian is going to be a pain to procure.  If you live near Washington, D.C. it’s often easier to make arrangements in person at a specific museum. Did you know there is a hands-on lab, Spark!Lab in the basement of the National Museum of American History?

2. Whale Traveling Trunk, Colorado Springs, Glacier, Florida Keys, Texas Wildlife, and the like are free.  Some trunks are only available for pick-up or exploration at the museum.  In other cases, the Park Services will ship the trunk and absorb the cost.  You may need to pay to have the trunk shipped back.

3. Trunks go under the names of Teaching Trunks, Discovery Trunks, Loaner Trunks, Educator Loan Trunks, Discover Nature Education Trunk, and Traveling Trunks.

4. Contact the local Soil and water Conservation District to schedule an educator.  Ask for a Watershed presentation with an Enviroscape Watershed model or a Groundwater Model.  The groundwater presentation is usually less political.

5.  NASA has District Stem Engagement offices. When I taught in WV, the Fairmont office had loaner bins for a host of initiatives, especially for robotics and rocketry.  Ask if your regional office hosts GLOBE.  Your Co-op might borrow IR thermometers.  The office in WV actively supports home-schoolers and their families.  NASA educators do a tremendous about of outreach, too.  NASA did a number of training workshops, lent bins, and support—free!  I tested hydroponics kits before I bought one for my classroom.  

6. Does your Co-op have a parent who is a biologist or biological technician?  You might want to make inquiries about Virginia Tech’s program, Biotech in a Box.  (Virginia Tech offers professional development, too.) 

7.  Does your Co-op have a chemist?  The NISE Network has a Let’s Do Chemistry Kit.  I’ve done outreach programs with teens.  Consider creating a chemistry outreach event for kiddos, hosted by teens in your Co-op.