OWL/SCM History
September 22 2009
How did the Oklahoma WONDERtorium get started?
Discouraged about driving 100 miles to participate in children's educational and entertaining activities, two average Stillwater families began to ask, "Why don't we have something here?" Thus began a grassroots effort to quantify the need, educate the community and surrounding region, and then build a premier, state of the art, interactive science and discovery Museum. We were soon called Stillwater Children's Museum (SCM) because the founder families live in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Our "Seed" Stage*
From 2001 to 2006, SCM's all-volunteer organization designed, built and presented educational displays at community and social events. In 2006, our Museum Without Walls (MWW) education program was formalized with the hiring of an executive director and the formation of a MWW committee composed of educators. In three years of operation, MWW has reached over 11,000 area children through five unique inquiry-based programs focused on science and literacy.
Museum Without Walls programs fulfill Oklahoma PASS (Priority Academic Student Skills) objectives, can be easily integrated into a classroom teacher’s lesson plans, and are provided to schools and child care facilities at no charge. The museum staff pursues funding for the continuation of MWW on an on-going basis through grant proposals and private donations.
Our "Seedling" Stage
With the enthusiastic response to Museum Without Walls programming and the realization that our community lacked affordable, family-friendly and youth-oriented educational and recreational activities, the museum staff, the Board of Directors and our committees recognized the need to establish a permanent facility. Late in 2007, these same groups worked to define and refine their vision recognizing the abundance of academic resources in Stillwater, and the potential of utilizing these resources in a facility design.
The Board of Directors engaged an exhibit design company to create renderings of the future exhibits and learning environments housed in a permanent facility. Currently, we are working in the "silent phase" of our capital campaign to raise half of our projected, final construction and exhibit estimates of $6 million.
Our "Thriving Plant" Stage – the Oklahoma WONDERtorium's Goals
Oklahoma WONDERtorium’s vision of a successful and impactful operation means hosting groups of children every day that eagerly explore and interact with the exhibits and activities encountered during their visit. Bursts of energy, noise, chatter and laughter will be a welcome condition and partial evidence that the programming of the museum is having a positive effect on the lives of visiting children. We will continue, and expand, our Museum Without Walls program so that we can impact the lives of children who may not have the ability to travel to OWL.
* why are we using plant terminology to identify our stages of development? Because we believe learning is a lifelong activity and we grow and learn – like a seed grows into a tree – as we mature.
