Wonder Clubs - DuPage Children's Museum

DCM Wonder Clubs

Spark children’s curiosity and open up a world of wonder! DuPage Children’s Museum will collaborate with your organization to provide the tools and training to help you facilitate hands-on STEAM learning experiences for your school-aged children with easy-to-implement lessons.

Research shows that out-of-school time is a critical space for children to explore their curiosities (Children spend 95% of their lives outside of school!), but not all children have access to high quality STEAM learning opportunities. Through partnership, DCM can support organizations in building their own internal capacity to reach students where they are (at organizations!) through hands-on, student-driven learning, providing children with an opportunity to wonder and explore.

At A Glance

Who: Wonder Clubs are for any organization that provides programming for school-aged children, PreK – Grade 5, outside of school hours.

Where: Wonder Clubs take place at your organization.

When: These clubs are intended to take place anytime outside of school hours including after school, weekends, and summer.

How: DuPage Children’s Museum provides the materials and trains your organization to lead engaging hands-on curriculum.

Your Role

Partners will Provide:

General support including recruitment, record keeping, and communication with families
Dedicated time to run the program
Space to facilitate the program
Staff

Explore Curiosity

Wonder Club Curriculum

Support children in wondering about the world of STEAM as they discover their inner superhero! Wonder Clubs learning experiences will center around the theme of STEAM Superheroes through the exploration of science, art, and engineering and social emotional practices like teamwork and problem solving.

STEAM Superheroes unite as children develop their own superhero identity, conduct experiments around superhero forces like lightning and wind, discover comic book art styles to create their own superhero stories, and work as a team to solve challenges and save the day.

Wonder Clubs lessons are created for three grade-bands (PreK-K, Grades 1-3, and Grades 4-5) with developmentally appropriate learning experiences that build on similar STEAM concepts across the grades. Each Wonder Club grade-band consists of eight 45-minute lessons with suggested mini-challenges and learning extensions to provide additional opportunities for children to discover, explore, and wonder.