The impact of early math literacy is crucial for supporting children’s development and setting them up for a bright future. By starting early, making math fun, and including parents/caregivers—all areas in which children’s museums excel—we can create a world where everyone feels confidence in their abilities to do math.
Nurturing Numeracy Skills and Math Literacy through Children’s Museums aims to support caregivers and children in their math confidence and math skills through experiences at children’s museums. ACM, through a grant from Simons Foundation International administered by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture division, is pleased to announce the cohort of twenty museums to participate in this program and develop engaging and effective interventions to achieve this goal.
“The innovation and unique perspectives of small children’s museums serve as inclusive models for building experiences and building relationships to the communities we serve.”
Arthur G. Affleck, III, President & CEO, ACM
Adventure! Children’s Museum, Eugene, OR
Central Wisconsin Children’s Museum, Stevens Point, WI
Children’s Museum of South Bend, South Bend, IN
Discovery Playhouse, Cape Girardea, MO
Exploration Station, Lumberton, NC
Hands-On House Children’s Museum, Lancaster, PA
Huntington Children’s Museum, Huntington, WV
Kearney Area Children’s Museum, Kearney, NE
LaunchPAD Children’s Museum, Sioux City, IA
Longview World of Wonders, Longview, TX
Pottstown Children’s Discovery Center, Pottstown, PA
Quincy Children’s Museum, Quincy, IL
Sacramento Children’s Museum, Rancho Cordova, CA
Savannah Children’s Museum, Savannah, GA
Spark! Imagination and Science Center, Morgantown, WV
Wonder Works Children’s Museum, Oak Park, IL
The Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River, Fall River, MA
The Children’s Playhouse, Boone, NC
Treehouse Children’s Museum, Alexandria, LA
Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum, Marquette, MI
Implementing Effective Math Experiences in Children’s Museums: Outcomes and Lessons
Wednesday, August 26 2026
Are you wondering how to bring out the ‘M’ in ‘STEM’ in your museum? Hear from a panel of children’s museums educators and learn about their experiences supporting their museum guests – including children and their caregivers – in developing math skills and confidence. Join us for the last installment of webinars resulting from the work of Cohort 1 from our strategic initiative, Nurturing Numeracy Skills & Math Literacy through Children’s Museums, as we discuss successful approaches and outcomes and learn about the math engagement experiences that museums in this cohort have created and implemented. This cohort spent the last two years developing and evaluating their math activations and are eager to share helpful tips, thoughts, and takeaways. These panelists are from smaller children’s museums, meaning their insights and strategies have relevant, applicable, and adaptable aspects that can work in any museum environment – big or small!
Amplifying Math Engagement Experiences in Children’s Museums
Monday, March 16 2026
Join us as we share progress on our strategic initiative, Nurturing Numeracy Skills & Math Literacy through Children’s Museums, and learn about math engagement experiences that museums in this cohort have been creating. Attendees will hear from a panel of Project Leads who have been prototyping, developing, and evaluating a range of approaches as a response to listening sessions conducted with parents and caregivers from their communities. This panel will share helpful insights and successful tactics for boosting math engagement and building confidence among children and their caregivers.
Creating Math Engagement Experiences in Children’s Museums
Thursday, September 25 2025
Join us as we share progress on our special initiative, Nurturing Numeracy Skills & Math Literacy through Children’s Museums, and learn about some math engagement ideas and experiences that members of this cohort have been developing. Attendees will hear from a panel of Project Leads who have been prototyping ideas as a response to listening sessions conducted with parents and caregivers from their communities. This panel will share helpful insights to planning, creating, and evaluating math engagement and confidence-building approaches.
Conducting Listening Sessions: Assessing Caregiver Confidence in Math
This webinar provided an overview of our special initiative, Nurturing Numeracy Skills & Math Literacy through Children’s Museums, as well as a deep dive into the processes and experiences of this cohort in conducting listening sessions with parents and caregivers from their communities. Attendees heard from members of this inaugural cohort and learned about helpful insights to planning and evaluating listening sessions, through a lens of math engagement and confidence-building practices.
