Summer events and outreach
It’s been a fun-filled summer at the Wyoming State Museum. From onsite events to outreach across the region, we spent time with 3,548 people from around the world!
It all started with Civic Season from June 16-27. With five events, first a festival at Westby Edge Brewery and then four additional events at the State Museum and Laramie County Library, we encouraged 197 people to get more involved in their community. We discovered our Civic Season Superpowers, learned about the history of our state flag, and explored the many ways that any one can become more civically active.
Just 16 days later we hosted our largest Family Day of the year, Dino Day! Over 1000 kids and adults roared onto the museum groups and into the building to learn everything they could about dinosaurs. Groups could take their picture with an apatosaurus femur, meet tons of living reptiles, go on a dinosaur scavenger hunt, and try to eat marshmallows like a t.rex! If you didn’t join us this year, you won’t want to miss out next time. Dino Day 2025 is scheduled for July 12th!
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Once Dino Day was over we switched gears and taught about modern Wyoming Wildlife for 5 days at Cheyenne Frontier Days. Our daily education programs and our information booth reached 2,253 people, most of whom live nowhere near Wyoming and know very little about the animals that live here.
We wrapped it all up with two more outreach events, one in Johnstown, CO and one in Gillette, WY. Our curator of education, Jeremy, went to the Johnstown SCHEELS Back to School event, where 229 people eagerly learned about Wyoming animals and made their own beaver puppets. Then, our curator of community engagement and our supervisor of exhibits and programs, Melisa and Elisabeth, headed north for the International Pathfinder Camporee in Gillette to teach 393 people about the bears, canines, and felines of our state.
We had a blast meeting so many people and sharing the amazing resources that the Wyoming State Museum has. Now we have a short period of time to catch up before our busy fall begins! We hope we’ll see you at Archaeology Fair on Sept 7, Creepy Crawly Critters on Oct 5, Indigenous People’s Day on Oct 14, Halloween at the Museum on Oct 27, and Día de los Muertos on Nov 2!
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Fall field trips are available now
Book early to reserve your spot
FREE for all schools and homeschools!
Education at the Wyoming State Museum has changed immensely since we were founded in 1895. Since the early 1910s, when we put up our first true exhibit in the Capitol, school groups have been visiting and exploring our exhibits through school tours. According to our records, the first real change to how we impact schools came in the 1980s. Instead of just offering tours, the museum created field trip programs for Wyoming schools. With the popularity of these programs, the first Curator of Education was hired in the late 1980s. Our first education trunks rolled out to schools in 1996, letting students experience the museum from their classrooms. The way we reached students evolved yet again in 2014 when we taught our very first virtual field trip. This change meant that the Wyoming State Museum could reach students from anywhere in the world, and we continue to do so today.
This last school year saw us growing our impact in all of our longstanding educational avenues, but we also added a new one–virtual education trunks. We took two of our most popular education trunks (the Mountain Man trunk and the Native Americans of the Great Plains trunk) and 3D scanned every item within them. These scans are housed on our website for any teacher in Wyoming, or anywhere else in the world, to access. These virtual education trunks were also the first two physical education trunks that were created in 1996, with many of the original items still included.
With all these tools available to teachers, the Wyoming State Museum impacted 27,694 students during the last school year, more than we ever have before! That is 192% of the students we taught in the 2023/2024 school year.
This school year, we hope to grow this number even more! We are adding new field trips, new physical education trunks, and we’re scanning more of our trunks to make virtual education trunks. If you know a teacher, not just in Wyoming but anywhere, please let them know about our free education programs. They can find more information about our programs on our website.
Looking back, the Wyoming State Museum has reached hundreds of thousands of school students over our first 129 years. We can’t wait to see how many we can reach during our next 129 years!
Jeremy Thornbrugh, Curator of Education
A Brand New Tipi is on Display
Now through the end of Summer
Thanks to the generosity of fellow Wyomingites, we’ve acquired a number of Barbie items as well as a medallion for our permanent collection. They will now be taken care of in perpetuity for future generations. If you want to check them out, we will have them on display in the galleries September-October!
Medallion:
Francis E Warren, Wyoming’s first governor, founded one of Wyoming’s oldest corporations, Warren Livestock Company, in 1874. His family operation flourished through careful land selection and innovative management techniques carried out by his son Frederick. Frederick and the University of Wyoming created the Warhill breed of sheep, which is still raised on the ranch today.
Thank you to Tara and Maci Wilson of Eclectic Estates in Cheyenne for the generous donation of this medallion.
Barbie and Friends:
Mattel introduced the iconic Barbie doll in 1959 and has sold over a billion dolls. Barbie’s brand expanded to include video games, animated films, and the famous 2023 live-action film. These are Fashion Queen Barbie, Barbie’s sisters Skipper and Tutti, and her friends Francie and Ricky. We also accessioned some of Barbie’s accouterments.
Sponsor Spotlight
Bluepeak
Did you know that Bluepeak has been our Digital Skills for Seniors sponsor since October 2023? Through the ongoing digital literacy sponsorship, Bluepeak has helped empower seniors in Wyoming to navigate the devices and apps with confidence and proficiency.
The training and support from Bluepeak address a significant need among older populations in Cheyenne. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), digital fraud is among the most common and most effective forms of scams perpetrated on the elderly.
- On average, seniors over 65 lose more than $1,000 per year to scams, according to the FTC research.
- For those over 80 years old, that amount climbs to more than $1,700, on average.
- Altogether, seniors were swindled for $159 million in tech support scams in 2022, a 117% increase over 2021.
“We at Bluepeak are very proud to support our community through the Wyoming State Museum’s program and we’re inspired by the growth in digital literacy and confidence among the participants,” said Lana Frank, Bluepeak Chief Commercial Officer. “By empowering individuals with essential digital skills and expanding access to high-speed internet, we are committed to fostering greater inclusion, connectivity, and opportunity for all.”
And we at the Wyoming State Museum are grateful that organizations like Bluepeak are doing their part to help close the digital education gap.
Bluepeak is a new kind of internet provider bringing fast, reliable, affordable internet to places that have needed better options for too long. They are earning the trust of customers and businesses through simple, affordable offerings, responsive, reliable customer service and transparent pricing. The company’s unique approach to delivering internet service has earned Bluepeak accolades for customer satisfaction, network performance, workplace culture and meaningful community partnerships.
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