JAMES NELSON AND ANNA LOUISE RAYMOND 

 FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL AND 

 CHILDREN'S LECTURES 



The year showed a marked increase in use of the Museum and its 

 educational programs by organized groups, most of which were school 

 groups. In 1957, 4,158 organized groups with 178,810 students vis- 

 ited the Museum. Of these, Raymond Foundation assisted 108,484 

 with group tours and programs. These groups came mainly on 

 regular school-days to study specific subjects. Programs, tours, 

 workshops, and participation programs for the lower grades were 

 offered at the times the school children would be studying these 

 materials. For 5th through 8th grades, the programs were the kind 

 to help students help themselves in studying the exhibits. These 

 programs varied from workshops with their necessary smaller num- 

 bers ("From Cave Man to Civilization," 15 programs with 539 

 students attending, and "Rocks and Minerals," 14 programs with 

 533 students attending) to programs such as "Ancient Egypt" where 

 as many as 100 students worked together in the exhibition hall. 



In the lower grades (1st through 4th) there was a great need for 

 something with more individual participation than a regular tour 

 gives. Thus three new programs were planned to allow such par- 

 ticipation: (1) "Learning about Insects," a round-table program on 

 observing common insects — 16 programs with 557 students; (2) 

 "How Living Things Survive Weather Changes," a program using 

 an artificial tree to show how plants and animals prepare for winter 

 (the tree was patterned after one exhibited in the small museum at 

 the Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois) — 32 programs with 1,368 stu- 

 dents; (3) "Christmas for the Birds," a program introducing the 

 children to our common winter birds and presenting ideas about 

 using the family Christmas tree as a feeding place for birds — 8 pro- 

 grams with 341 students. In all, 216 special school-programs were 

 given, with a registration of 11,684 students from 65 suburban 

 schools and 200 Chicago schools. In addition to programs and tours 

 for school groups, other organized groups included Camp Fire Girls, 

 Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and YMCA groups. "Expedition Cave 

 Man" was taken in the spring by 2,041 Girl Scouts and 83 Camp 

 Fire Girls, while "Expedition to Indian Country" was taken in the 

 fall by 803 Camp Fire Girls. "Seal Hunt," a summer program offered 

 to YMCA groups, was given 11 times to a total of 663 children. 



Museum Journeys were continued as a program for individual 

 children alone or with family groups. Journeys during the year, 

 each available for two months, were: winter Journey (No. 8) of 



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