What U.S. industry sees more than 55 million K-12 students come through its doors every year?  MUSEUMS! 

According to the American Alliance of Museums, 55 million students visit museums each year through school-trips alone.  In addition, more than 75% of museum educational budgeting is spent on K-12 education (American Alliance of Museums 2024).  This captive audience can be capitalized on through collaborations with colleges and universities, specifically with a focus on promoting public health.  Beyond K-12 education, museums offer a large value to public health, including awareness around disease prevention and surveying the public about their perceptions and concerns surrounding healthcare (Behera and Roy 2018).  

Children’s museums, specifically, are dynamic spaces that are designed to engage young people, promote critical thinking and creativity through hands-on activities and interactive exhibits.  Since the Covid-19 pandemic, children’s museums have begun new partnerships with a variety of community partners including, government agencies, and social and health organizations.  Surprisingly, one underutilized collaborator is colleges and universities.  In a 2023 trend report by the Association of Children’s Museums, museums reported their frequency with various collaborators and universities were named less than 50 times, with the highest ranked category garnering a total of 150 times (Association of Children’s Museums 2023).

In the 2023 Understanding Museums’ Collaboration Goals ACM Trends Report, museum leaders reported the goals for collaboration, these goals were then grouped into three primary categories: healing, learning and community.  This report indicated that universities were only identified in the learning category as collaborators (Association of Children’s Museums 2023).  Partnerships with college and universities offer a unique opportunity to leverage the expertise of researchers, educators and students to support the development of programs that emphasize health and wellness across all three primary goals. 

Healing
Increasing Community Health & Wellbeing

Focusing on public health, these collaborations can educate young people, their schools, families, and communities on a variety of topics tailored to their community’s needs. Through exhibits and collaborative educational programs, young people can learn about healthy eating, nutrition, exercise, proper hygiene, disease spread and prevention.  Public health and other health related faculty can work alongside museum leaders to identify the issues facing the community in an effort to ensure programs are meeting the needs to the community at large.

Tackling Community or Social Issues

College students and educators can serve as mentors and offer support groups for a variety of issues.  Peer support groups and mentor-mentee meet ups held at the museum can break down communication barriers while providing children with a consistent support system.  Peer support programs focused on children with chronic illnesses or disabilities, children with autism-spectrum disorder, children of military families, or even those interested in a certain career field, can serve as a professional development tool for the college students while also supporting the goals of the museum and the children.

Addressing Traumatic and Tragic Event

Youth mental health and wellbeing is a major public health concern for the United States.  According to the CDC (2024), homicide and suicide are the #2 and #3 leading cause of death among adolescents in the United States.  Creating safe spaces for children is not something that can be developed by a single entity.  Museums can work with college and universities to offer educational sessions about recent events, which can be led by faculty and students who have experience in the area or stories to share.  In addition, students can host hands-on interactive sessions as a form of art therapy, where students can express themselves through a variety of mediums.

Learning

Enhancing Formal / Informal Education

Colleges and universities can utilize these partnerships to research and validate the effectiveness of educational programs being offered.  Through this data collection they can refine, improve and expand these programs over time, therefore furthering the reach and impact to the public.  This also ensures that the resources being allocated for projects are being maximized and evaluated regularly. 

Through offering training and professional development for museum staff and other local educators and hosting events which equip them with skills, knowledge and the confidence to deliver public health content, colleges and universities can empower museums to deliver high-quality programming to the students that visit daily.

Developing Virtual Programming

Colleges are no stranger to offering high level educational programs on virtual platforms.  Most institutions offer online courses or programs, especially in the wake of Covid-19.  In addition, ongoing advances in technology in healthcare presents a unique opportunity to educate children in virtual healthcare settings through the use of augmented reality and virtual reality.  Colleges and universities can offer professional development and provide guidance on moving programming to virtual spaces.  Students specializing in health science, computer programming, digital media and design and computer science can work alongside museum leadership to assist in the logistics needed to design user-friendly programming that is engaging to children. 

Developing In-Person Exhibits / Programs

Museum leaders can invite educators to provide professional insight into exhibits to ensure they are relevant and updated based on current trends and research.  College faculty can also work with students to develop and offer educational workshops or long-standing exhibits.  Students can work with museums leaders and faculty to tailor these workshops based on the needs of the community. 

Community
Reaching New Audiences

Colleges and universities partner with local schools to offer informational sessions and recruit students to attend their institutions.  By working collaboratively, museum and college leaders could expand their outreach by connecting schools and communities with each other.  Utilizing pre-existing relationships to promote museum programs, exhibits and educational offerings, will help drive traffic to the museum, as well as expanding partnerships with other community partners such as health systems and non-profit organizations.  In turn, promoting the college or university at the museum through programming and exhibits will also advertise their commitment to education, specifically around science and health.  It will also showcase the expertise and experiences that their students and faculty possess.

Reaching Traditionally Underserved Audiences

Museum leaders can work with college students to assist in outreach efforts to underserved audiences.  Through shared collaborations with local non-profit agencies, students can assist in letter-writing campaigns, community service events and community health fairs.  College faculty and students can partner with the museum to bring the museum to the classroom and offer educational programs at schools and community centers where transportation may be a barrier to access.    

Conclusion

As museum leaders begin to focus and develop their programming framework on the three primary areas of collaboration, I challenge them to work alongside colleges and universities to support these goals.  Colleges and universities around the country see record high interest in public health degrees, developing longstanding partnerships can prove to be mutually beneficial and have the potential to have long-term impacts on the community (Leider et al. 2023). 

By working together, universities and museums, have the potential to not only elevate their collaboration goals, but also educate young people and promote healthy habits and a public health mindset. If universities and museums strengthen their collaboration across all three goals and work to ensure learning is fun and accessible, we can empower children to take ownership of their health and the health of those around them. 

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About the Contributor

Trish Lemmerman, Ed.D, MPH
School of Pharmacy and Health Services, Fairleigh Dickinson University
www.linkedin.com/in/patricialemmerman | www.fdu.edu/fdu-health/

Trish Lemmerman, Ed.D, MPH has worked in higher education for over 17+ years.  Through her experience she has worked with both undergraduate and graduate students across all fields.  Over the past 8 years, she has worked alongside graduate students in the fields of pharmacy, physician assistant, occupational therapy, social work and public health.  For the past year, she has also been working collaboratively with a local children’s science museum, Liberty Science Center, to offer educational programming, mentorship opportunities, and bridge the gap between higher education and children’s museums.

Liberty Science Center is a 300,000 square foot learning center located in Jersey City, New Jersey,.  It is home to 12 exhibition halls, a live animal collection with 110 species, giant aquariums, a 3D theater, live simulcast surgeries, hurricane- and tornado-force wind simulators, K-12 classrooms and labs, teacher-development programs, and the Western Hemisphere’s biggest planetarium—the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium and LSC Giant Dome Theater.