Center for Children's Learning

Portland Children's Museum's Center for Children's Learning was created to formally continue and expand the research of the Museum's Opal School staff who have listened, observed and documented the natural learning strategies of children for the last decade.

The goal of the Center is to make visible to local, national and international educators the way children imagine, design, invent and create using tools of the arts and sciences. Yearly workshops including visitation days, Opal School Summer Symposium and an education curriculum are at the heart of the Center's work. We are inspired by these questions:

• What provokes curiosity in a child?
• How does playful inquiry support children to wonder, imagine and create?
• How do we strengthen the connection between literacy and the arts?
• How can environments support the creative capacity of children?

The work of the Center is supported in part by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation, Chase and Qwest.

The 2010-11 Center for Children's Learning Professional Development Resource Guide is in development and will be published by Sept. 1, 2010.

Order publications and DVDs produced by the Center from our store.