When you think about the purpose of a camera tripod, you probably think of words like stability or support. The Museum’s Tripod program, funded by the MetLife Foundation, lives up to that description as well. Recognizing the reality of family life today, which involves challenges that are unique to each family, it provides an expanded support network that helps parents get more involved in their child’s science education. How does it work? Tripod staff work with mentoring institutions like Big Brothers Big Sisters to provide strategies to help single parents get involved in science activities with their children. Bi-monthly workshops are held at the Musuem to help the “Bigs” prepare to lead their “Littles” in cool science experiences, and then events are held at science organizations throughout the community for Bigs and Littles. Recently, the Tripod staff and participants attended one of these Learning Expedition to the Miami Seaquarium. The idea of the trip was to use the real world outdoor environment of south Florida as a living classroom. For the 50 participants, including Bigs, Littles, and parents, being able to share their “classroom” with dolphins, whales, and stingrays was definitively something special.
