About 

The Virginia Museum of Natural History serves as a service provider for the MHC After 3 Program for seven after-school providers: the Boys and Girls Club of Martinsville, the YMCA of Martinsville and Collinsville, The Bassett Community Center, Fieldale Community Center, the Spencer Penn Center, and the VMNH after school site.

In addition, the Virginia Museum of Natural History now serves as an after school site which operates Monday - Friday.  Students from Martinsville Middle School come to the museum from 3:30 - 6 p.m.

MHC After 3 began in the spring of ’07 with two programs designed to improve math skills, After-school Math Plus (Art and Built Environment) and Edventures©. At the end of each After-school Math Plus session, the museum hosted a culminating event displaying the students’ work.  The museum continues to expand the number of educational programs offered to the after-school providers.

Check out the MHC After 3 at VMNH blog!

Some of the Exciting Programs Offered Through MHC After 3

After-school Math Plus©

After-school Math Plus© is a program designed to find the math in everyday experiences and create awareness about the importance of math skills for future career options.  Students participate interactively in art, music, social consciousness, and physical education activities while simultaneously improving their math skills. Each section of the program will culminate in an exhibit or presentation at a local museum.

Exploring our Watershed

The Exploring our Watershed program takes the students into the water to learn about their local watershed system through hands-on, outdoor activities. The group works as a team to investigate local streams, gain and use high-tech monitoring skills, and observe the ecology in and around the water.  Students help to plan and participate in a restoration activity, and will be encouraged to reflect on the importance of the health of our watershed.

Orienteering

The Orienteering program teaches kids how to find their way through unfamiliar territory. They learn to use a map and compass to navigate in the outdoors. Students participate in activities to help them to master orienteering skills and get basic GPS experience. At the end of the program, teams use their newly learned skills to compete in an orienteering scavenger hunt race.

Outdoor Adventures

While in the Outdoor Adventure program, students go outside to explore various plants and animals that live in our local environment. The activities give students fun, active, hands-on field experience in various natural history and science topics. The students will learn to look more closely at the natural world around them and to understand the intricate systems of our local ecology.

Edventures©

Edventures© uses fun, hands-on materials like Legos© to involve students in project based learning labs that introduce robotics, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Robotics

Explore the basic principles and applications of Robotics in your day-to-day life. Build, design, and solve problems with hands-on projects that result in knowable, touchable, and observable real-world outcomes.

Weather or Not

In this program, students explore different weather phenomena. Each day, students do activities to help them understand barometric pressure, humidity, cloud formation, and the water cycle. They also record daily weather data and attempt to predict the weather.

Youth Volunteer Program

Would you like to go behind the scenes at the Virginia Museum of Natural History?

The museum offers many volunteer opportunities throughout the school year and during the summer for youth ages 13 to 18. Volunteers can help museum staff with exhibits, education, special events, and in other areas of the museum. You’ll have fun while gaining useful skills for the future. Volunteer daily, weekly, monthly- whatever fits your schedule.

To learn more about the Martinsville-Henry County After 3 Initiative, including partner agencies and additional resources, please click here.