Bay View Observatory Points to Brighter Future

For a country thatpledged to leave no child behind, America continues to do so at an alarmingrate. According to Stanford University professor emeritus of psychology PhilipZimbardo, on average one child drops out of school every nine seconds. Amongthe shortcomings of elementary and secondary education is the fact that manyadults don’t realize that today’s kids are different. In many cases, by thetime a U.S. boy is 21 years old, he has spent 10,000 hours playing video games.In spending so much time in a world they create, kids are digitally rewiringtheir brains, and moving further away from learning “reading, writing andarithmetic” in a traditional analog classroom. Discovery World’s executivedirector, Paul Krajniak, understands that America’s method of educating youngpeople needs to evolve to keep pace with a new generation, and so created aprogressive partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools called “The Art andArchaeology of Me.”

Designed to help BayView High School students learn to communicate the science of archaeologythrough visual art, “The Art and Archaeology of Me” academic program bridgeshigh-school students with Discovery World staff, local professionals fromvarious fields, and paid student interns who took part in last year’s programto explore the past in new ways. Over the course of 10 weeks, the program’s 25students learned concepts such as ancient art and archaeology, urbanarchaeology, genetics and genealogy, as well as skills such as interviewing andstorytelling, Photoshop, Marantz audio recording, 2-D and 3-D design andmapmaking.

“When we reached the endof the program, the students had so much content that they wanted to dosomething with it,” explains Heidi Heistad, staff member and video producer atDiscovery World. “We sat down and brainstormed and we heard their ideas, weshared our ideas, and we brought them together.”

The result is the BayView Observatory, an extraordinary public art installation and educationalexperience located on the lawn of the Beulah Brinton House, the headquartersfor the Bay View Historical Society. The temporary installation is based on theidea of a compass, with four 12-foot-tall banners representing the fourcardinal directions. The colorful, unique banners designed by the studentsinclude a montage of personal and historic photographs, quotes, maps andpersonal markers the students invented. Between the banners are 30 historicalmarkers that point to and explain historically significant sites within theneighborhood.

The Bay View Observatoryis free and accessible to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughSept. 12. Three of the Bay View High School students created the first and onlyaudio walking tour of Bay View. By going towww.discoveryworld.org/bayview/walkingtour, visitors can download a map and the90-minute walking tour audio file for the journey to 12 of Bay View’s mostinteresting historic sites.

On Saturday, Sept. 11,from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “The Art and Archaeology of Me” students and DiscoveryWorld staff will be at the Observatory’s community table to document their BayView neighbors’ stories and historic photographs, papers and artifacts. Inturn, the community can witness how these American high-school students are notonly “not left behind,” but are leading the way to a brighter future.