Children's Museum of Maine

Purpose: Supporting Lifelong Learning The children's Museum of Maine is engaged in initiatives in multicultural education, a high-priority area. The Global Learning Center is an innovative, interactive exhibit that supports and enhances the museum's initiatives. The Learning Center employs state-of-the-art technology to provide a broad range of opportunities for children and families to learn from each other about diverse cultures and traditions around the world. The central component is the Global Explorer, a seven-foot-diameter globe that hosts multimedia presentations featuring members of 20 local ethnic communities sharing stories about their homelands. The two other main components of the Learning Center are the Storytelling Kiosk, which invites visitors to tell their own stories, and the Geo-Explorer Station, which transports visitors to locations with different geography and climates. The goals of the project include fostering understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences among people and practices in the museum's changing communities; expanding the museum's vision and model of partnerships with outside resources; and reaching a wider audience.