Unlocking Children's Potential through Innovative Science Centers

Neely Myers: 0:01

I am a continual learner. I'm still educating myself. So it's all of those opportunities that I had as a kid that sort of brought me here where I still want. I mean, am I a good critical thinker? Sure, am I creative? Sure, could I be better Always.

Porter: 0:18

Alrighty folks, welcome back to Transacting Value, where we're encouraging dialogue from different perspectives to unite over shared values. Our theme for season four is intrinsic values, so what your character is doing when you look yourself in the mirror. Now, if you're new to the podcast, welcome, and if you're a continuing listener, welcome back. Today we're talking our July core values of initiative, freedom and independence with the executive director of an emerging children's museum called the Creative Learning Alliance And her name is Nealey Myers. Folks, this is gonna be pretty cool. We're talking about independence and freedom, all from sort of a different kind of perspective, namely because it involves children, their perspective, and primarily through science and a few other aspects. So, without further ado, folks, on Porter, i'm your host and this is Transacting Value. All right, nealey, how you doing.

Neely Myers: 1:07

Doing. Great Thanks for asking, thanks for having me.

Porter: 1:09

Oh yeah, definitely. And this is kind of a treat for me, because normally what we talk about on Transacting Value is obviously with adults, but they're sort of isolated perspectives And in this case we're going to and I fully intend to but also how to convey that to kids in a formal environment, like I said, like a children's museum or emerging in this case. But I think it's super cool. So I really appreciate your time.

Neely Myers: 1:31

I'm really glad to be here And I think this is a fabulous perspective for a couple of reasons. First of all, as an adult who was obviously previously a child and have those perspectives of my childhood self and trying to access those when I'm engaging with the children that we engage in at our workshops and our labs and things. It's such a fascinating place to be because I think I remember but do I really? And I also get to see the world through their eyes, which is, for me, creatively, just the most amazing thing, and it resets me and takes me back to zero and says, okay, i thought it was going to go this way and it didn't, so now I get to see how it's going to go, because these children helped me see it.

Porter: 2:12

Yeah, i guess that is kind of a wild experience too to figure out. Maybe it's a bias, i guess. Right, like how I experienced childhood I assume all children experience it from the same perspective like you're sort of aloof and naive and just experiencing life, only because I don't remember much active interaction on my part. It was just happening to me and around me and I was just taking it all in. Do you see that?

Neely Myers: 2:35

I do. I do see that a lot And it's interesting because of how I got here. So I was raised in a small Southwestern Missouri town and there wasn't a lot of cultural or educational opportunity. Maybe we had our traditional education at our school, but in terms of outside of the box opportunity, there just wasn't a lot of that. However, i was raised by two parents who had a lot of value and put a lot of value in education, and so as we traveled we got to see a lot of things. We got to experience a lot of things. Also, my mom would seek out opportunities for my brother and I, whether it be summer programming in biology or a couple of trips to space camp as a child And I realized as an adult what an amazing place of privilege that comes from and that most children, or many children at the very least, don't get to experience that. So what we're doing now here in my region is giving access to all of those things that kids might not be able to do if their families don't travel or if their parents don't seek out those opportunities for them or, quite frankly, if they can't. I mean, not everybody has that privilege. So it's a privilege to be able to extend the invitation for this kind of learning to the kids in our region.

Porter: 3:46

Yeah, i'm sure it is, And I mean, ultimately, you guys have blogs on your website and there's all sorts of graphics and other links to things, even maybe some experiments down the road in the future also, that isn't just relegated to your region. So I mean, there's really is a broad potential for what you're trying to accomplish, and I think it's also important in saying that what we're trying to accomplish here is relatability with you and your perspective. So, before we get too far, let's just take a couple of minutes. Nily, who are you, where are you actually from and what sort of things have shaped your perspective?

Neely Myers: 4:17

Okay, so obviously my name is Nily Myers. I live in Southwest Missouri, in a small town called Joplin that not a lot of people had heard of until we had an EF5 tornado that hit our town in 2011. And that destroyed about I mean over a third of town, and so it sort of put Joplin on the map not in a good way. But what I like about where I am is I'm sort of equidistant from everything in the United States. You know, coast to coast and top to bottom, and real close to Arkansas, oklahoma, kansas, and it's a great place to be. So that's who I am, but that's not what I do, and so you know I'm not sure how you want to move on from that but I'm a mom. I am an educator, not in a formal sense. I did not get training to be a teacher, but through a series of oh, i don't want to say missteps, because they weren't missteps I spent the last until I took this job. I spent the last over a decade of my life working in the Chamber of Commerce Industry and doing small business support, and I really enjoyed that. But last year well, actually it was about a year and a half ago now my gosh, my position was eliminated and it put me in a position of, okay, what now? And so what do you do when you say, what now? First you cry and you get all that out of the way and you pull the sheets over your head for a week or two and then you pull your pants up and you figure out what really is next. And so, yeah, number one for me was what are my strengths? And one of the things that I think was a strength for me and not I think I know it's a strength for me is, from the past experience, that past job is being a convener, knowing how to bring different people together when your small business support and when your event management and so on. There are a lot of opportunities to be a convener, to be sort of the warehouse for people, and that was a really big strength of mine. And then I heard about I've always, as I said, been interested in education, opportunity and outside the box thinking And this job. I had a couple of friends recommend applying to this job and it works so perfectly because where we were when they hired me was not where we are now and it's definitely not where we're going to end. It was. The city supports this idea. We have this idea. We want to build a science center for kids. We need someone who's going to put all of the things in place to do that, and that's a perfect role for a convener.

Porter: 6:34

It sounds like it, and when you say science center, i think I was calling it a science museum or a children's museum, but it's not actually a museum.

Neely Myers: 6:42

There will be artifacts, there will be collections, but really it's a hands-on science center. I mean, museum is a word a lot of people are familiar with and when you travel, most science centers are called some sort of children's museum. So I think we could use them interchangeably and that would be just fine.

Porter: 6:58

Oh, okay, and to answer your really earliest point, not sure where to take it from there. I think there's two points One in interpreting and, maybe for the first time in anybody's life, thinking about how would you describe yourself right? Not necessarily for the sake of labels and identifiers, and I'm sure that carries some gravity. Obviously it carries some gravity. Now today That's a point of contention in some schools of thought. But in actuality, in practice, how would you introduce yourself to somebody? I think there's a relative degree of, maybe even social anxiety now, because it's not as necessary. You can text, you can do it in video games or not necessarily hide, but almost misrepresent your humanity as some sort of avatar in a game and be whoever you want, to be right. So the amount of authenticity and vulnerability you're bringing to the table right now, whether you know it or not, is refreshing and I appreciate it. Now, applying that to, in this case, creative learning alliance, especially from a director position, you're not just or maybe not at all, sweeping floors and arranging exhibits and trying to put these aspects and activities together for kids, right, i mean there's also a certain degree of, like you said, convening people together of different talents, modalities, experiences, insights, perspectives, all of the above. And so I think, at least in my experience, to be able to do something like that with a whole bunch of people and a whole bunch of inputs, like you said, you've got to identify what your strengths are, and you've got to be able to identify what you're bringing to the table before you can even attempt to work with anybody else, if for no other reason than to try to relate right.

Neely Myers: 8:34

Absolutely, yeah. So the way that I like to think of it is that I'm on bus and I'm the driver, right, and I've got to fill those seats. And not only do I have to fill those seats, i have to fill those seats with the right people. So I have to find the right educators, the right volunteers, the right program folks, the right accountant even, and get all of those people on the bus and make sure that they're working well together to sort of make the bus stay on the road and not lose a wheel and all of those things. So, yeah, absolutely.

Porter: 9:03

Sure, sure. Well, i mean that's problem solving at its core, right. I mean, for you, obviously, maybe it's a bit more staffing and structural than it is experiential, but even still, i mean that's what problem solving is right. And so how do you take those lessons, those experiences, your perspective, and then teach that to a six-year-old or recreate that to a third grader?

Neely Myers: 9:26

Yeah, that's a really good question, and the way is play. It's all about critical thinking. It's all about how we promote executive function. So what I mean by that is for children. There are lots of different ways of learning, right, they're visual learners. There are kiddos who learn by doing. There are kiddos and adults for that matter who learn by reading. But sort of the thread that leads through all of those is that creativity, it's that critical thinking, it's that being able to take the way that. it is that you learn and apply it to the world. And play is what is doing that for kids. It's promoting that executive function. It's the process of learning rather than the content. Does that make sense? Yeah, definitely It's how they learn versus what they're learning.

Porter: 10:13

I mean that's, I think, more important. Anyways, right, Especially in the beginning, just exposure and experience and identify how you best learn.

Neely Myers: 10:22

It is, absolutely it is, and for most kids they have a real formal learning structure in school. And I'm not at all dismissing the importance of school, that traditional learning, that formal learning. It's very important, but it is not how you learn what you love And it's not how you learn what you're good at. You're learning for a test, you're learning for. Teachers and administrations are kind of held in this box by state standards and testing standards and so on, and so there isn't a lot of opportunity to be creative And to put your hands on a project and to learn what you love. And you don't just pull what you want to be as a grownup out of the air. It's through learning, it's through that play, that process that you learn what you love, what you're good at and what you're going to maybe someday hope to be when you grow up.

Porter: 11:07

Well, that's, in my opinion, the perfect segue for this first segment of the show. It's called Developing, character Developing. Character, developing Character, and here's why, for everybody who's new to the show, this particular segment focuses specifically, nearly on your perspective and, more importantly, your personal values, and I don't think those are always teachable. I think a lot of those are caught maybe from your parents or friends or whoever, as you go through life, and since we're talking about from children's perspective, let's start there. So question number one what were some of your personal values growing up?

Neely Myers: 11:42

Well, i don't know that they've changed all that much, i've just sort of added to them. But some of the ones that were values for me as a little and even a teenage run in my 20s because, let's be honest, your 20s are so different from your 40s And I still remember thinking how grown up I was but you're just a kid and late teens are late 20s But knowledge and education were always values for in my home. For me personally, i wanted to learn. I wanted to know about the world around me and how things work and why they work the way they do, and I had some unique opportunities, which is great for me, because I don't know if you're familiar with the personality enneagram scale, the personality test, the enneagram But it's just one of the many ways that you can find out about yourself, and I also have a master's degree in psychology, so I've literally taken every personality test there is out there. But on the enneagram scale I lay at a four And that primary value in the enneagram four is uniqueness and authenticity, and that so describes me to a T, because God forbid that I have the same hearings as anyone else in the room or that I'm reading the same book as anyone else in the room. I want to be unique and I want to understand things in a different way And I think that gives me that place of knowing that every single child that I interact with because, yes, i'm the executive director but I still do interact with the kids Every single one of those kids is different and I'm not putting them in boxes, i'm letting them be who they are and meeting them where they are to best engage and educate those kiddos. So those are the values that have always been and I think will always be, because I think you're right, a lot of that it just always is who we are and it doesn't change. I mean, i've added to that. Of course I have some additional values as an adult.

Porter: 13:29

Okay. well then, let me ask you a second question What are some of your values now, as an adult?

Neely Myers: 13:34

Because of the platform that I have and the job that I have, i've definitely added responsibility to share with the world, with the region around me And, as you said, even on our website and some additional learning. I think we do have a YouTube channel. I do TV broadcasts with little science moments and things and service. I just wanna give back Because, in addition to this job, i also am the president of our local League of Women Voters and I sit on an Aspire Scholarship Board that gives scholarships to single parent households. It's important for me, that service element I always wanna be giving back. I've, in the past, been a youth and family ministry teacher at my church, and so I think it's so important, once you reach a point where you can do so, to give back in whatever ways that you can.

Porter: 14:22

So obviously free time is not on your list, then yeah.

Neely Myers: 14:24

Well, it's true I don't have a lot of free time, And the free time that I did have is completely taken up by my 11 year old's travel soccer team. So, yeah, this is just the season of busy in my life, but I embrace it because it won't always be.

Porter: 14:39

Alright, folks stay tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value, the growth of each generation, no matter the temptation at Huff and Cluck or Farm. that's just another Tuesday. Want to learn how to homestead or just more effectively develop your character for an unknown future? Follow or direct message on Instagram at Huff and Cluck or Farm. Watch it happen in real time. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. A foolish man learns from his own.

Neely Myers: 15:34

This is just the season of busy in my life, but I embrace it because it won't always be.

Porter: 15:39

Well, I mean that's true, but it's also time well spent And, frankly, how much free time do you really need when you're doing something you're passionate about regularly? So I think it's an even trade-off nonetheless.

Neely Myers: 15:50

Yeah, absolutely, and the primary thing that I need free time for is to read, because I am a continual learner, i'm still educating myself, so it's all of those opportunities that I had as a kid that sort of brought me here where I still want. I mean, am I a good critical thinker? Sure, am I creative? Sure, could I be better? Always.

Porter: 16:09

Right, and that's tough to say as an adult, it's harder to say as a kid. I mean one, the humility and other aspects aside. But, for example, to be as unique as you say you are, to be as creative as you say you are right in your own assessments, not to mock your position, but in your own assessments, to be as individual in your perspective as you say you are, and then still say, well, okay, if I walk into a room and I'm overhearing, for any number of reasons, a conversation about a topic let's say at the center, at Creative Learning Lines and you hear a conversation about a particular topic and you're like well, i really can't think of anything else to say about this topic that hasn't already been said. Is that a sticking point for you? Does that happen, or do you normally walk into these conversations and say I agree or disagree with everything I've heard? However, let's work to try to find another perspective in case we miss something, or another way to improve, what's more, your style.

Neely Myers: 17:03

I wouldn't call it a sticking point. I'd call it an opportunity. I think it's important to learn from the people around you. I think it's important to allow your circumstances, your environment, to help you better. I mean, if I knew that I was right about absolutely everything in my life, how boring would that be? If I never got the opportunity to have my perspectives shifted, what would be the point? Yeah, no, i think when I'm hearing a conversation and I sort of reached the end of my understanding about the conversation or ability to contribute, i'll just listen to learn or find out more. I hope I'm answering your question. I don't know that it's a sticking point. So much is just that moment of knowing that. That might be as much as you know, and that's okay.

Porter: 17:45

Well, so how do you convey that to children, because that's a hard lesson to learn.

Neely Myers: 17:50

Yeah, it is a hard lesson to learn. So one of the things that social media has made I say social media, the internet and the availability of information out there has, from what I see, shifted in kiddos a little bit is there is so much information out there And so one of the things that we can do is I think kids know, when they don't know the answer to something They're self aware enough to know, like, okay, i don't know the answer to this question, we can sit down and Google it together. We can use the technology in their comfort zone to find out and stretch our brains a little bit more together. Or we can find one of my educators who are absolutely amazing and very skilled in helping kids work through those moments where, those moments of frustration. Let me give you an example.

Porter: 18:37

Please.

Neely Myers: 18:37

When I was a kid so in the 70s and 80s and my mom was very involved, don't get me wrong, but they call Gen X feral for a reason. The idea of parenting was just different than it is now. Parenting was very hands off compared to what it is now. It's not the fault of an individual. I don't at all want to put anyone on blast, but what I've noticed about parents is that they are sometimes a little too hands on, and what I mean by that is when we have an experiment that we're doing together at the lab and a kiddo starts to get frustrated because they're not sure what to do next, how to proceed if they're doing it right, if there's something else they should be doing differently. And then the kiddos sort of shut down and say, well, can you just do it for me? Oh yeah or some version of that, and then I'll play with it once you've built it. And my answer to that is always I will absolutely not do that for you, but I will help you get to the end of what you're trying to do and work through it with you. It's a problem solving thing. Now the sticking point comes when we're having that conversation with the kiddo of I will not do it for you, but I will be right here with you while you're doing it and I will help you. The sticking point comes when mom or dad says well, let me just do it, because moms and dads are there in the lab playing with the kids, playing with their own kids. And that's when it's a very sensitive moment of that's okay, really really like to see how they do it. There are parents who don't like that answer and they step in anyway, but for the most part if we're kind and we say, well, no, that's okay, i'd really like to see how they do it, parents realize, okay, i don't need to be hands on in this moment and that's okay.

Porter: 20:17

Okay, so now I'm a little bit confused. I'm picturing like a, i guess a venue for lack of a better word where kids, families, whoever, can go in to this facility and see these exhibits and whatever applies food coloring and sand and fluids and evaporates and whatever they do right and do things with them. But then you said educators and working with parents so kids can learn, and now I'm picturing like a almost like a tutoring type facility. I feel like maybe I'm missing the mark and it's somewhere in between the two.

Neely Myers: 20:51

I'm missing the mark because it's both. So what we're building to is a science center. What we're building to is a science center with standalone exhibits where kids will come in and interact with those.

Porter: 21:01

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Neely Myers: 22:04

What we're building to is a science center with standalone exhibits where kids will come in and interact with those, but what we also have is an education lab and workshops and classroom experiences and educational opportunities, camps, those kinds of things, and so when we're doing those with the kiddos and the example that I'm talking about what we were doing was we were talking about the EF scale as pertains to wind and tornadic activity, and so we were having the children start with building a weather vane, and then we had several different kinds of fans set up so they could see the speed of wind and how it affected the weather vane. And this one particular little boy got frustrated in trying to make his weather vane and wanted us, the educators, to just do it for him. And that was the opportunity to step in, and mom wanted to then, because he was getting frustrated step in and help him, and so that was the opportunity to and there will always be, even once the science center is open there will always be opportunity for our staff to interact with the children And there will always be classes and program. I think in any science center across the United States you'll find that kind of programming, but just from a floor perspective. I mean you can see when a kid's getting ready to shut down.

Porter: 23:17

Oh, yeah, Yeah, definitely My son's nine now. And even if we're on a video call or because we're long distance, if we're on a video call or if we're not and it's audio, but we're playing video games together or something, you can hear it. Also If he's trying to type something in the chat for that game or whatever applies, he's figuring out how to spell words or getting frustrated with the gameplay of a certain game. Yeah, I think it is pretty apparent. But so then you almost have to focus on and Caribbean, if I'm wrong. You almost have to focus on teaching how to ask the right questions, not how to discover the appropriate answers, Right or wrong.

Neely Myers: 23:50

No, that is absolutely true. I think it's both to find the answer but to ask the right question. One of the things we're trying, through our programming, to do is set up that platform of critical thinking and problem solving and how to learn how to ask questions, how to work together and maybe most importantly, how to fail and keep going, because what we're really teaching is our scheme concept. So all that science, technology, engineering, arts, math, all of those sort of critical components of the hiring world out there, at its base level, at its lowest I don't want to say lowest, that's not, i'm sorry at its youngest, let me say it that way level of children, and start that early so that we don't have a bunch of. You know, my husband is an engineer and hiring innovative engineers isn't always an easy thing for him to do because there's not really, maybe, another place where that innovation is being taught. History is full of extremely talented thinkers that were safe thinkers, but we don't remember the safe thinkers right. We remember the ones who thought outside the box. We remember the ones who were innovative and who did things no one had ever done before and seen before, and we just want to give a platform to children to be that thinker. That is part of history, because they thought outside the box.

Porter: 25:04

Yeah, well, i mean, it's happening as we speak. We've got reusable booster rockets. We've got computers that are able to complement our thought deficiencies now and increase our ability to become more creative for the first time in history, as far as I'm aware.

Neely Myers: 25:22

As far as I'm aware as well, for the first time in history. Yeah, and it's a fascinating place where we're going societally and there will always be a need to fill those spots to make sure that the Elon Musk's of the world and the NASA's of the world have those innovative thinkers who can expand where we are. I mean, i'm a bit of a space net and that was sort of my always passionate entry into the world of science. And when I was a kid I was fascinated by the space program, fascinated by the moonwalk program, you know, the Apollo and the Challenger and that whole thing. I was fascinated by it. That's what made me go to space camp a couple of times. And then, of course, the Challenger exploded and my whole world was shattered because I was like, okay, well, i'm not going to be an astronaut, i know what you got.

Porter: 26:06

Changing that But right.

Neely Myers: 26:08

But when I was a kid, if you'd have asked me if I thought that walking on the moon was going to lead to us someday having the springboard to Mars, you know the moon as a layover, if you will like going to. I went to New Orleans for work a couple of months ago and had a layover in Dallas, and if you'd have told me when I was a kid that the moon was going to be a layover like that, i'd have told you you were crazy. If you'd have told me that 20 years ago, i'd have told you you were crazy. But here we are.

Porter: 26:33

Well, i know practically now, anyways, space tourism.

Neely Myers: 26:37

Space tourism. Absolutely, i mean it's coming. I don't know if it'll happen in my lifetime. It could, i don't know.

Porter: 26:43

Yeah, i don't know what commercial scale right, but I mean at the very least the cost is now attainable by a private citizen to go into orbit, or low earth orbit at least. And that's just saying science from a spatial perspective. I mean that doesn't even include health, medicine and biology, which obviously in the last two years has ridiculously enhanced itself in an exponentially short period of time. That doesn't even include social sciences, for that matter. right Tech and social media and digitization of reality has, i'm pretty convinced, never happened before, at least not in the manner it is now.

Neely Myers: 27:18

It hasn't, wasn't recorded or on this planet Right.

Porter: 27:22

And so there's all sorts of things when we're talking or at least nearly when you and I are talking science that I'm attributing this to. But for clarity, when you're talking science, what are you attributing science to? as an industry? Science, just biology, just nature and earth? science, all the above?

Neely Myers: 27:40

Oh, to me science is all of them. I mean, really, there are hard sciences, there are soft sciences, people are a science, animals are a science, space is a science, nature is a science. The cells in our body are a science. It's all science And science. Really, at the end of the day, science is something, in my opinion, that you can prove or disprove right, so we can prove that it is possible to orbit the earth safely, that's science. We can prove that leaves are green because of chlorophyll That's science. So really, it's all of those things, it could be any of those things. I mean, and I love that in the last few years we've added the arts to all of that, because there's a lot of evidence showing that when you access those right parts of the brain, it's so complementary to those left parts of the brain.

Porter: 28:26

All right, folks, stay tight. We'll be right back on Transacting Value And action.

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Neely Myers: 29:53

There's a lot of evidence showing that when you access those right parts of the brain, it's so complimentary to those left parts of the brain, and so you know people who have spatial awareness. As pertains to drawing, we had a young lady in the lab a few months ago who was able to solve our three most difficult puzzles in under 10 minutes, and one of which I've never solved without Google as an adult. Yeah, and so her ability to sort of spatially see those puzzles before she even started working on them, and we got started talking to her about some of the other things that she loves, and one of the things that she loves is drawing. So it's all connected, it's all science.

Porter: 30:29

I guess there's a reason. Arts is in steam curriculum now, right, and being able to develop imaginations is, i think, just as important as being able to do basic or complex math problems Or identify different chemicals or processes or anything else from any other kind of science. And it's sort of, like you said, outside the box thinkers, right. But I think there's a difficulty when you try to take that sort of initiative and pursue your creativity that doesn't actually match up to maybe a societal standard of what's going to be productive or what's going to help you provide a living for yourself and your family, and the starving actor type stereotype, for example. Is there a fix for that to push that level of creativity more to the forefront?

Neely Myers: 31:15

That's the million dollar question. Is there a fix for that? I don't know that I have an answer for that for you today. I don't know that there is a fix. There are, have always been, people who have found ways in there. I mean, i hate to say, you know, in their spare time or in their own time, because, you're right, there are, you know. I'm just going to say I don't have an answer for that question. I'm working through it in my brain and I think with some time I could develop an answer, but I don't have an answer to that question right now. There probably is a fix, or at least a, an evolution, if you will. that will get us there, but I don't I don't know that I have an answer for you today. I mean, i think it's like everything else, we just have to keep trying, and one of the things that is so critical in the STEM world and the STEAM world is that we highlight those things which might not be an immediate moneymaker, if you will, those ways of creative thinking and maybe some of the people who are at the tops of their fields. It doesn't take extra time and it is something that just happens. I don't really know.

Porter: 32:17

Okay then let me. let me try this to engage curiosity and develop imagination and I don't know if enhances the right word attract creativity into whatever environment you're trying to foster. What's the grounding mechanism? because you can go too far, you know two, three steps in deviation from any particular baseline of a process. What are the controls there to say, okay, well, now you've actually invalidated the exercise, whatever that exercise is right like, what grounds this creative developing and imagination concept?

Neely Myers: 32:48

I don't know what grounds it exactly, except that maybe it's like you know art you know when you see it, maybe you just know when you've gone too far when you see it. I don't really know what the grounding mechanism is, I think, as long as as it's contributing to something, even if that's your own satisfaction of you, know what happens if I. okay, here's a good example. When I was a kid, thermometers had mercury in them And I was curious, sometimes to a fault, And in this case I wanted to know what would happen if I put the thermometer in ice water. so I put in an ice water and watch the little red line tick down, And then I thought well, I wonder what happens if I put it really hot water. What happened? is it burst a little mercury tube at the end? So I knew I'd gone too far because I broke what I was trying to learn about. Now I don't want to suggest that we should break things to know when it's too far, but certainly our own morals, our own values, our own inner moral compasses. if you will sometimes go, maybe that's, maybe that's too far.

Porter: 33:50

Yeah, but I mean, isn't it also possible or even just realistic to say that that's? the only real way to start to understand risk is just to see what absolutely is to see what happens.

Neely Myers: 34:01

Yeah, i mean, i've done a lot of things in my life just to see what would happen, and sometimes the results were really positive and I always learned something from it. though, that's the thing, even if it was just the hot water was going to explode mercury and then I had to explain to my mom and then she had to call the police department or whoever the fire department, whoever she called, to see how to safely dispose of that. and learning opportunity like everything else.

Porter: 34:23

Yeah, yeah, you know. We had a guy on the show, Austin utter, last season, and he was telling a story about how he's got two boys Sorry, austin, i can't remember their ages now, but younger And he was talking about the importance of letting them make mistakes and take risk to learn. Only as long as he was able to establish controls first. And I think the story he talked about was, you know, sending his kids outside to play whatever they were going to play, and then it's okay if they break a window, because they're going to learn how to replace the window, as long as you've got cash in the account to buy a new window before you send them outside to play, and I think that's that's important to, which is ultimately, i guess, even conceptually, what you guys are doing at CLA. Right, like you're, you've got the cash in the bank, metaphorically, to establish controls and parameters for kids to see the impacts of their decisions and understand the risk and learn in a controlled environment without getting too crazy. Right, but you still have enough freedom to interpret.

Neely Myers: 35:24

And maybe that is the grounding mechanism. In this case, the grounding mechanism is the experience of the adults in the room to say, okay, this isn't safe anymore. Now we need to stop or we need to back up or we need to think of a new way to do this. Because if you attach streamers to a fan, you can see, you know what wind says, but if you put your fingers in the fan, that's, that's a place we can't go And I'm going to have to stop you there. So maybe that's the grounding mechanism, is just the experience In this case. Again, i don't want to speak for everybody, but in this case it's the knowledge of knowing what comes next and that that might not be acceptable or safe.

Porter: 36:01

So folks stay tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value. Alrighty, folks, here at Transacting Value, we write and produce all the material for our podcast and house game perspective alongside you, our listeners, and exchange vulnerability and dialogue with our contributors every Monday morning. But for distribution, buzzsprout's a platform to use. You want to know how popular you are in Europe or how Apple is a preferred platform to stream your interviews? Buzzsprout can do that. You want to stream on multiple players through an RSS or custom feed, or even have references and resources to take your podcast's professionalism, authenticity and presence to a wider audience. Buzzsprout can do that too. Here's how Start with some gear that you already have in a quiet space. If you want to upgrade, buzzsprout has tons of guides to help you find the right equipment at the right price. Buzzsprout gets your show listed in every major podcast platform. You'll get a great looking podcast website, audio players that you can drop into other websites, detailed analytics to see how people are listening, tools to promote your episodes and more. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. The team at Buzzsprout is passionate about helping you succeed. Join over 100,000 podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world Plus following the link in the show notes lets Buzzsprout know we sent you gets you a $20 credit if you sign up for a paid plan and helps support our show. You want more value for your values. How can do that too.

Neely Myers: 37:33

In this case. Again, i don't want to speak for everybody, but in this case it's the knowledge of knowing what comes next and that that might not be acceptable or safe.

Porter: 37:43

For everybody listening. Neal and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago before she came here on the show. I think one of the things that you had also mentioned is obviously trying to instill a family-oriented culture there at CLA also. This isn't always a family you're born into. You talked about parents and their kids coming through the center also, But I think some of that social experience, some of that societal relationship and sort of agreeance as to, okay, what's a safe threshold to learn, is also sort of a familial culture that you guys are building too right.

Neely Myers: 38:13

It is. It's a familial culture, but it's also a peer culture. When you are experimenting with different ways of engaging with other people in your peer group, they will let you know when you've gone too far. It's a cultural thing. It can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing We did. Our town just experienced its 250th birthday and we've been part of a Lego building where the kiddos built the. I say kiddos, these were teens, i'm sorry, i don't want to dismiss them. They built local landmarks out of Lego, so they had to research local landmarks and then figure out how to take traditional Lego pieces. They had an account where they could purchase a few extra pieces, but they in general had to take not kits, because kids are really used to Lego kits these days just traditional Legos and build these landmarks out of Lego And some of the innovation that I saw go into that was absolutely incredible And some of the kids had these really out there ideas. One of example that comes to mind is the team that built. We have some falls natural falls in my town, and one of the teams was building the natural falls and they had this idea of how to build the water out And some of their teammates said I don't think that's going to work, and they policed that situation for them. This child told a story at opening night. He went and tried to do it himself at home And in fact it did break. So it was that opportunity to it's again learning from the experience, but learning from your peers, learning from the culture. So I think that's a really good point, yeah.

Porter: 39:43

Yeah, i mean, ultimately exercising curiosity, i guess, in a positive and negative direction is just as important, you know, for the sake of balancing perspective. Saying that though, for the sake of time Now at this point, if anybody wants to reach out I mean we obviously talked about creative learning alliance, right, and we talked about Joplin, and we talked about your experience and growing into this director position, working with kids, psychology and all aspects of that and its influence on steam and the curriculum there But if anybody wants to reach out to you or to any of the educators for more questions, for clarity, for tours, for access to CLA or just find you on YouTube and watch some cool stuff where do people go and how do they do that?

Neely Myers: 40:26

The best place to find us is on our social media, which, across social media media, is at creative learning alliance. What you'll find there on the website is my cell phone number and the address of our lab, and one of the things that has been particularly helpful to me is, as an emerging museum, other people who've been where I am and starting and where my board is and starting something like this the advice that they've given us along the way has been invaluable. So if you're out there and you're thinking to yourself my community doesn't have this love to know how to get started, i'd love to help you.

Porter: 41:04

Oh, you mean in other communities.

Neely Myers: 41:06

Absolutely. If people are like I don't even know where to start, i feel like this is something my community needs as much as the people before me have been mentors for me. I don't want to say that I'm mentor status, but you know, if somebody just wants some advice of you, know I'm not really sure where to get started, but I feel like my community needs this. I'd be happy to help.

Porter: 41:24

What a cool idea. That's nice of you. Yeah, thanks for bringing that up, but we are basically out of time. So, on that note, i appreciate everything you brought to the table Nearly. I mean from talking through problem solving and obviously how to work that with kids, but also peers and parents, and establishing sort of complex considerations into simpler terms and experiments and conveying the importance of science and steam. And then I'll tell you I'm a little biased, but bringing in arts and humanities to a certain degree, to sort of a similarly leveled bar, is important too, and I frankly couldn't think of a better way to have tied all of this together. So I really appreciate your perspective. So thanks for coming on the show.

Neely Myers: 42:10

For having me.

Porter: 42:11

Yeah, no problem. And folks, thank you for tuning in and listening. I hope you guys got a lot out of it. It was a great talk, but I just want to thank you guys for tuning in and listening to our July core values of initiative, freedom and independence. I'd also like to thank everybody at creative learning alliance, all of the educators, all of the local schools, all the parents there in Joplin for giving nearly this opportunity to showcase some of this potential And, frankly, without it, like I said, this conversation wouldn't have been as cool as it was anyway. So I got to thank you guys to our show partners, keystone Farmers Market, huff and Clucker Farms obviously both sprout for your distribution guys. Thanks for that. But, folks, if you're interested in joining our conversation or you want to discover our other interviews, check out transactingvaluepodcastcom, follow along on social media, where we continue to stream new interviews every Monday at 9am Eastern Standard Time on all your favorite podcasting platforms and to find all of CLA's information. We'll put all that into the show notes for this conversation as well. Click, see more. Click, show more on whatever streaming platform you listen into this conversation And you'll see the links for social media and obviously their website as well, But until next time, folks. That was transactingvalue.