Staff Writer Zac Ezzone wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. The event includes a bicycle ride with the city’s mayor, as well as community walks with local physicians. The Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau and Healthy Lompoc Coalition are hosting Healthy Lompoc Night on Aug.All animals have been spayed or neutered and are microchipped and up to date on all vaccines. 17 through 18, during the National Clear the Shelters Event. The Santa Maria Valley Humane Society is running a no-cost adoption event from Aug.“A children’s museum is learning through play … and so they’re learning about their own community as they’re playing, and it helps teach them the value of the community within which they live,” Gastelum said. These future exhibits, much like the museum’s existing attractions, are based on local experiences that reflect the Central Coast and teach children about the world right outside their door, Gastelum said. Tickets for the event can be purchased on the museum’s website. Gastelum said the museum began raising money for this exhibit at its annual fundraiser last year and will continue to do so at its fundraiser in September. The exhibit would highlight the importance and history of farming in the Santa Maria Valley. The museum is also working on raising $275,000 to fund a new farm-to-table exhibit to teach children about where the food they eat comes from. “It’ll kind of be like a little mini planetarium … in as much as they’ll get to see things that they don’t normally get to see.” “Children will be able to learn about planets and constellations,” Gastelum said. Late this fall, the museum is adding a celestial ceiling above the terminals, which will show rockets being launched into outer space. The exhibit will also include a 3-foot-tall pier children can catch fake fish off of, as well as an interactive tidal zone.Īdditionally, the museum is adding to its Vandenberg Air Force Base launch exhibit, which includes terminals that teach children about rocket launches. On top of these changes, the museum is developing new exhibits.īy the end of this year, Gastelum hopes to unveil a coastal pier exhibit with a large mural depicting the Central Coast based on photos of Jalama Beach. “The easiest way to teach is when don’t realize they’re learning,” Toepfer said. McClelland St.

The priority, she said, is creating a fun experience that sparks a child’s imagination. Best Learning Center/Museum Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum 705 S. Since joining the museum, Toepfer has begun analyzing each exhibit and coming up with activities for museum staff and teachers to incorporate into the attraction. Part of enhancing the museum’s educational capabilities included creating an educational director position, which Gastelum filled in July with the hiring of Ilsa Toepfer, who has years of experience in teaching and early child development. “Children were engaged, but I knew they could be further engaged,” Gastelum said. EXHIBIT FUNDING: The Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum is raising money to turn this space of the museum into an interactive farm-to-table exhibit.

Discovery museum santa maria