Cradle of Aviation brings museum programs online

Though it has closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cradle of Aviation museum is bringing its presentations online.

The museum’s educational series on TikTok, hosted by Educator Tom, attracted more than 1.5 million views in a week and features 50 videos on the history of ingenuity and innovation in aerospace. On its YouTube channel, the museum staff has created a video instruction on how to make a mission patch.

On its Facebook Watch Parties, the museum is replaying its evening lecture series, including the Apollo 50th Anniversary Dinner Panel featuring five Apollo astronauts and two Mission Control directors and an intimate look at life and art of Apollo astronaut Alan Bean with Leslie Bean and Shuttle astronaut and author Mike Massimino.

“During this time, when families are learning at home, we’ll be sharing content from astronauts talking about their time in outer space, to how to build paper airplanes for a family flight contest, to homework help with the Cradle’s Education Department,” Catherine Gonzalez, the museum’s director of education, said in a written statement. “We look forward to being a free resource for our community and to bring STEM to everyone.”

For more information about the Cradle of Aviation’s online resources visit cradleofaviation.org/virtualmuseum.