Walls are going up!

Phase I of renovation continues.

Remember, we are STILL OPEN to the public! 

For more information about the Museum's renovations, including artist renderings of the new areas, visit www.anewMOD.org  You can be part of this new plan by donating to our capital campaign, either by buying a brick or making a donation.

The Door

Here is the door that the construction (or rather, demolition) crew built to shield the museum from dust. It is located downstairs near the Native American exhibit. See the new museum plans at www.anewMOD.org and remember, we're open through April 2, 2011, so come visit!

December 8, 2010

December 16, 2010

December 22, 2010

Santa's demolition elves have been busy...

The (former) program staff offices have come a long way in a week.  More walls down...lighting fixtures coming down...flooring being removed...demo, demo, demo! More walls come down!
Remember, we're still open through April 2, 2011 so come visit us. http://www.anewmod.org/ has more info about our renovations, including artist renderings!

Mrs. Brown's Kindergarten Class

The Museum of Discovery received a wonderful set of thank you notes

 from Mrs. Brown's Kindergarten Class at Williams Magnet School.

Here is a sample!

 

Do you have a picture you'd like us to post?  Send it to marketing@amod.org!

More demolition

More walls come down!
Remember, we're still open through April 2, 2011 so come visit us. The demolition is in our "back office" area--there's plenty to see in the Museum. www.anewMOD.org has more info about our renovations, including artist renderings!

Lively Science

Did you know that the Museum of Discovery can bring the Museum to you? 

We have many live animals in our animal collection that we would love to show you in person. Our specially trained Museum educators will teach science using these live animals...and some animals you can touch and hold! 

Have your school, day care, church, community group, etc. contact Beth Nelsen to book your "Lively Science" visit!  bnelsen@amod.org or (501) 396-7061

And the walls...come tumbling down...

The refrain to a John Cougar Mellencamp song came to mind when we saw the result of today's demolition work in what used to be some of our staff offices. For a live construction cam of our outdoor renovations, visit http://www.anewmod.org/. Remember, we're still open until April 2, 2011, so come visit!

Arkansas Women Bloggers @ MOD: A Recap, Fawn Warner-Rechkemmer

EDITOR'S NOTE: MOD VOICES is thrilled to present Fawn Rechkemmer. Fawn has been a long-time friend of the Museum of Discovery and we're happy to have her present a recap of the December 11 Arkansas Women Blogger event at the Museum of Discovery.


As an event planner, it’s always hard to come to grips with the idea that nothing is definite when you pull together a first-time event. So, when Stephanie Buckley (aka The Park Wife) called and told me that we had been offered the opportunity to have a meetup for the Arkansas Women Bloggers at the Museum of Discovery, I was excited, a little nervous, and very curious about what the end result would be.

Luckily, putting the event together seemed to evolve fairly easily. The Park Wife lead the charge, along with Katie McManners from Museum of Discovery and Julie Kohl from WillowTreeCreek Farm.


Our advertising spread via word of mouth and our Facebook page for the most part, but we also had the added bonuses of a nice preview article in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, and an excellent early morning appearance by the lovely LaTonya Richardson on KATV channel 7. We ended up with 44 bloggers and bloggers-to-be in attendance at the meetup.

A Chatty Crowd

Stephanie was a champ at approaching businesses for support, but many of our sponsors came to us, which was very exciting. Misty Willbanks and Petit Jean Meats provided turkey, ham, and summer sausage for our lunch, plus a whole ham to give away. Boulevard Bread provided 5 different kinds of bread, Kroger provided fruit and vegetable trays, and Cupcake Crazy provided 120 beautiful, yummy cupcakes. We also had a lot of great support from our member bloggers, who provided great door prizes including locally grown food, gourmet dog biscuits, eco-friendly candles and soaps, and a signed cookbook from The Pioneer Wife.


The meetup started off with blogger speed dating, led by Julie. This gave everyone a chance to get to know several people in the room. It was so fun to watch everyone match faces with blogs. Several times I introduced myself: "Hi, I'm Fawn." The response was, "Oh! you're Instead of the Dishes!" It was like attending a secret society meeting where everyone had code names. It was also interesting to see different types of bloggers mixing. The author-blogger chatting with the fitness blogger, the surgeon blogger with the mommy blogger, and the foodie blogger with the lifestyle blogger, all chatting it up. Overall, it was an incredible group of women, many of whom were brave enough to come out to our meetup despite the fact that they didn't know anyone else there!

Speed-Dating Bloggers

 
 
 

 
 
Next on the docket was lunch.  While we munched, we were treated to two mini-talks by seasoned bloggers (see pictures in post below).  The first talk was from LaTonya Richardson on finding your blog niche. She made us all laugh as she invited us all to work hard at just being ourselves, because no one else can do that better.  So, so true. Kyran Pittman finished out the "formal" part of our program with a chat about avoiding the numbers game for blogging.  Turns out Kyran speaks just as well as she writes, and certainly she is the poster child for making HUGE things happen as a result of a small blog. Huge Thanks to both of these ladies, who added so much value to our afternoon.
 
 

 
 
Finally, our elegant hostess, Katie McManners, let us all in on future plans for the Museum and touted MOD Voices guest blogger perks such as behind-the-scenes hard-hat tours of the upcoming expansion project.  Museum of Discovery will be completely re-doing their "You" over the next year, and I'm sure they'll be paying attention to their numbers. That's ok, though, because their enthusiasm for being an integral part of the community is outstanding, as is evidenced by their invitation to host our inaugural meetup.  Either that, or Katie didn't realize what an unruly bunch us bloggers can be.

==============================

Fawn Rechkemmer is a freelance writer/editor with a love for learning new things and a hatred for all things domestic. She has mastered the skills of reading book club novels while playing hide and go seek, convincing other women to cook her husband dinner, and saving money by swapping therapist fees for a YMCA membership.  Fawn blogs at http://insteadofthedishes.com.

Rome wasn't built in a day...nor was a construction wall

As you may know, we start construction to transform the Museum of Discovery into a premier science center! We're still open to the public, so East Harding, our construction company, is building a temporary wall to protect our visitors. Check out this short video for the last look of this area of downstairs as it once was...the next time you see it, the area will have new exhibits!

Arkansas Women Blogger event

The Museum of Discovery was delighted to host the first ever meetup of the Arkansas Women Bloggers!  Over 50 women bloggers attended.  As a science & technology center, the Museum of Discovery wants to encourage the use of technology in everyday life--and bloggers do exactly that! A full wrap up of event will follow next week by our next MOD VOICES guest blogger. For now, here are a few pictures.


A light lunch was provided thanks to many sponsors



LaTonya Richardson talked about "finding your voice"

Kyran Pittman talked about "the pros and cons of the numbers game"

Good enough to tell Granny!

Editor's Note: MOD Voices is pleased to welcome one of our favorite 'behind the scenes of radio' guys, Chuck Gatlin! 

Until last Wednesday, my kids and I had never been to the Museum of Discovery together. My kids have both been with school groups or daycare field trips, but Wednesday was the first time I was able to see them enjoy the museum.

Our visit started on a high note. I was able to find a great parking spot with 25 minutes left on the meter. How cool is that?

Our first stop was Room To Grow. Emma, my 2 yr old, had a ball. As soon as she would get to one play area, she could hardly wait to get to the next. She especially liked the little stage and the barnyard.

Since Room To Grow is for kids 6 and under, my 8 yr old, Robert, and I left Emma with mom and we hit the big kid (and aren’t we all big kids?) stuff.

We weren’t in there two minutes before Robert ran into one his friends from school. And that was it. They ran from exhibit to exhibit…“Hey, come do this…come check this out…no, come do this…watch what this does.”


 

The cloud maker was the big hit. Robert was quick to correct me when I made the mistake of calling it smoke coming out. He said “dad, it’s not smoke, it’s steam.”

Another one of Robert’s favorite stops was the earthquake table. He built and destroyed a small city of wooden block buildings.

Eventually, we made it to Harry’s Big Adventure: My Bug World. Each display was approached with much trepidation. The kids wouldn’t open any of the flaps for fear that a bug would fly out at them. When we were in the kitchen area, Robert found the cockroaches in the "under the counter area" a bit disturbing. He kept a safe distance and didn’t spend any longer than necessary looking at them.

 

Before we left, we took on a family project.

We put together the large topographical puzzle of Arkansas. We were so proud of ourselves.

That evening, we made the 3 hour drive to my mom’s house in Paragould. After we got there, Annette and I were in the kitchen having a bite to eat and we could hear the conversation from the living room.


“Granny, we went to the Museum of Discovery today. They have this thing that you push down on and it makes clouds. And there’s a baton that’s straight and when you push it, it goes through a curved hole. And they have an earthquake table with blocks you can build with and then watch’em fall.”

I think any parent would agree that you know you have had a successful outing when it’s good enough to tell Granny about.

* * * * * * * * * * *

 

Chuck is the Promo Guy for the Point 94.1, husband to Annette, father to Robert and Emma, and drummer for Canvas and the Little Rock First Christian Church Praise Band.

BIG BANG event

Wednesday, December 1, we held a special event called "THE BIG BANG" where we announced plans for our upcoming renovations and construction!  For more information, visit http://www.anewmod.org/ .  Below are a few pictures from the event. 

Bylites Setup for Wonderful Audio Visual

Special seating awaits the VIPs

Demolition wall, thanks to East Harding!

Confetti stands ready to be used...

First Lady Beebe, MOD Board Chair Bob Childress, MOD Executive Director Nan Selz

Mayor Stodola welcomes Bob Childress

Kids from North Little Rock start the demolition!