What is the Museum Youth Club?

• View complete Family Fun Days flyer

The San Bernardino County Museum Youth Club is a group of seventh and eighth graders who get together at the Museum each week to learn more about the world and their place in it. They explore new ideas, do activities, make new friends, and have fun together while learning more about the Museum and all that it holds. MYC members attend weekly meetings, go on field trips, have sleepovers, and volunteer at the Museum.

We Attend

• Weekly meetings (Wednesday or Thursday) from 3:15 – 6:00 p.m.
• Sleepovers
• Field Trips
• Special Activities

We Learn

• In 2006 – 07, we learned about really, really old people when we explored anthropology and archaeology. We experienced what their lives might have been like by making and using some of the tools, musical instruments, clothing, and games they used long ago. We took a special field trip to the Calico Early Man Site, a real archaeological excavation, to try to discover some prehistoric artifacts ourselves.
• In the spring of 2007, we learned about living things, like plants and animals and the environment they live in. We spent a lot of time in the Exploration Station, our live animal gallery, learning about the animals that live here at the Museum. Lots of MYC volunteers helped run the Insectival family activities. We took a day-long biology field trip in the spring to The Living Desert.
• In 2007 – 08, we will first focus on geology and paleontology. We will visit the Geology Division of the Museum and talk to the curators of geology and paleontology. We will try earthquake experiments on buildings we construct. We’ll collect rocks and minerals, make crystals, see the San Andreas Fault, and much more. We plan to go to the La Brea Tar Pits to see some Ice Age fossils.
• In history, we will learn about people and their lives in the “old days” of San Bernardino County. We’ll explore a cemetery, create pictures of old houses, make adobe bricks, dip candles, take some “historic” mini-field trips in the Redlands area, and other fun activities. In the spring, we will have an all-day field trip to get a taste of old California.
• At the end of the year, we will invite our parents and families to our annual MYC Family Party, where we will share some of the activities and games we learned while in geology and history.

We Volunteer

• All MYC members volunteer at the Museum at least 10 hours each year.
• We help kids learn while they enjoy cool, hands-on activities at the Museum’s Family Fun Days throughout the year.
• We talk with Museum visitors after we have been trained as Junior Interpreters.
• We help kids create art using the wonderful supplies that nature provides during the Wildlife Art Festival in November.
• We introduce young children to Santa at our Santa’s Pajama Party in December.
• We teach people more about trains during our All Aboard! Train Days in January.
• We go buggy at the Insectival in March!

How Can You Join the Museum Youth Club?

MYC adds new seventh grade members to join returning eighth graders in the fall of each year. Seventh graders who are interested in joining MYC must complete an application. The completed application must be turned in to the Museum on or before the due date, which is Tuesday, September 19, at 5:00 pm. Since the Museum Youth Club is limited in size, the Museum staff will evaluate the applications and all students will be notified of the results by September 26, 2007. At this time, they will also be informed of the day of the week that their group will meet. The first meeting for all new seventh grade Museum Youth Club members will be either Oct. 3rd or 4th.

To apply, just print the four-page application, and then mail it to the Museum at:

San Bernardino County Museum Youth Club
2024 Orange Tree Lane
Redlands, California 92374

New MYC Member and Parent Orientation:

Seventh grade students, their parents, and teachers are invited to a special orientation. This is a time to meet MYC staff, talk to some current members, and find out more about the Museum Youth Club.

• Location – Education Center
  San Bernardino County Museum
  2024 Orange Tree Lane
  Redlands, California
• Date & Time – Tuesday, September 18, 2007
  6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Questions ???

For more information about our program, please contact Nancy Kirkwood, Museum Youth Club Coordinator, at 909-307-2669, ext. 271, or e-mail us at: nkirkwood@sbcm.sbcounty.gov