A City Council grant will fund free field trips to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum for thousands of students at local Title I schools.
The $350,000 funding, allocated by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Council Member Chi Ossé, aims to provide hands-on, immersive learning opportunities that complement the lessons kids are learning in the classroom.
“Field trips are a vital part of our students’ education, sparking curiosity and expanding their learning beyond the classroom,” Adams said in a statement. “With this investment, the Council is ensuring that more Brooklyn public school students, especially those from low-income families, have free access to the hands-on educational opportunities that Brooklyn Children’s Museum provides.”
Students who take field trips often have better grades and graduation rates, according to the National Education Association, and students say school trips made them more interested and engaged in school and out in the world. One study found that students who visited an art museum learned and retained specific details about the works they saw and had better critical thinking skills and “historical empathy” than students who didn’t visit the museum.
Officials at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum said field trips give kids “full access” to the museum’s exhibits on art, STEM, culture and civic engagement. The permanent “Neighborhood Nature” exhibit, for example, gives kids a chance to learn about local flora and fauna in diorama habitats and a greenhouse; the “World Brooklyn” room lets kids step into real-life roles as bakers, grocers, shoppers and more in a miniature Brooklyn neighborhood.
“We are tremendously grateful to Council Speaker Adams and Council Member Ossé for their continued commitment to Brooklyn’s education and the next generation of Brooklynites,” said Atiba T. Edwards, President and CEO of Brooklyn Children’s Museum, in a statement. “This generous grant will allow us to reach more Title I school children than ever before, expanding our impact and ensuring that all students can benefit from the kind of hands-on learning that strengthens academic foundations and builds critical social skills.”
The grant funding totals $350,000, which should fund free trips for 35,000 students. Last year, the museum won a similar $100,000 grant, which supported trips for 10,000 students.
Brooklyn has the highest number of Title I schools — or schools with high numbers of low-income students — in the city, according to BCM.
This investment expands free field trips and opens the doors of one of our district’s most cherished cultural institutions to even more young people,” Ossé said in a statement. “We so hard fought for this funding because every child deserves the opportunity to learn and be inspired by the cultural experiences that make Brooklyn such an extraordinary place to grow up.”
