Making the most of a museum day
A great museum visit doesn’t end when you walk out the door, but how can you make sure your family remembers the highlights of their experience?. We don’t always know which moments will make a lasting impression, but making sure the memories stick only takes a few extra moments.
The Museumazing Museum Memory Journal is a free, simple way to capture your museum experiences and build a record of your discoveries. Each page gives you a place to record where you went plus three playful prompts to help you remember what you noticed, what surprised you, and what you’re still wondering about.
Curiosity helps memories stick
There’s some fascinating science behind this idea.
Neuroscience research suggests that curiosity does more than motivate us to find an answer. When we’re genuinely curious—when there’s a gap between what we know and what we want to know—our brains become more receptive to learning. Research has found that people in a state of curiosity can even remember other things they encounter along the way more effectively.
Neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff recently described curiosity as being like opening a window: while that window is open, we’re primed to notice, connect, discover, and remember more of what’s around us.
That’s one reason museums are such extraordinary places to practice curiosity. And it’s exactly what the Museumazing Discovery Deck is designed to encourage. Instead of racing through a museum looking for the things you’re “supposed” to see or the facts you’re supposed to learn, the Deck invites you to slow down, follow your own questions, make unexpected connections, and see where your curiosity takes you.
You may walk into a museum expecting to remember the big dinosaur skeletons or the famous painting you’ve only seen in books.
You may walk out remembering something you never knew to look for.
Keep a record of what you discover and share
Use your Museum Memory Journal after a museum adventure—or bring it along and fill it out before you leave. The journal is designed to be easy to print and staple, or you can punch holes and put it into a three-ring binder. You can print individual copies or work together on one shared journal. If you fill up all the pages, just print more to add.
Over time, you’ll create a collection not just of the museums you’ve visited, but of the things that made you stop, wonder, laugh, notice, question, and connect.
You’ll be making a map of your own curiosity and where it’s led you over time.
Download Your Free Museum Memory Journal
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