The story of Noah’s Ark transcends religions and culture. One of the oldest stories in history, it preaches lessons of weathering the storm, hope, community and peace. Its lasting values are why the Skirball Cultural Center wanted to reimagine its beloved Noah’s Ark exhibit virtually.
Since opening to the public in 2007, Noah’s Ark at the Skirball — the 8,000-foot gallery featuring a floor-to-ceiling wooden ark and more than 300 life-sized animal puppets and sculptures made from recycled materials — has welcomed hundreds of thousands of students to take part in the play-based, interactive gallery.
Since the Skirball Center launched the digital Noah’s Ark: Art of Imagination content on Jan. 26, 135 classrooms and after-school groups in Los Angeles have booked tours, with more than 40 on a waitlist.
Centered on themes of resilience and hope, Rachel Stark, director of education at Skirball, said the pandemic wasn’t going to stop their team from finding ways for teachers and students to utilize the exhibit safely.
“We as a community are experiencing this huge storm,” Stark said. “To come together in this virtual classroom space and take a breath together, learn how to be centered and calm and then dive into the learning is really foundational to our pedagogy and was a need from our students and teachers.”
Stark, along with Anna Schwarz, head of school and teacher programs at the Skirball, asked teachers across the country how the Skirball could best support them during the pandemic. With social and emotional learning at the forefront, they developed virtual lesson plans, a series of videos and virtual field trips for students, along with teacher professional development sessions and open houses. Most of the lessons are meant for grades pre-K through fifth and sixth grade.
Throughout the year, Skirball has been using Noah’s Ark to educated teachers, nurses and parents on how to incorporate mindfulness and movement into their new schedules at home. Schwarz said the lessons and videos in the virtual classroom work in sequence or out of order. It’s all flexible depending on what works for the teachers.
Since students, especially younger elementary students, are reliant on screens more than normal due to virtual learning, the Skirball wanted to utilize the colors, imagery and movement of Noah’s Ark so kids can be active while learning. The Noah’s Ark storytellers are essential to the lessons and engage with the students in a multitude of ways. During the virtual tours, the storytellers are live and direct students to move and share thoughts during certain parts of the flood story.
During the virtual tours, the storytellers are live and direct students to move and share thoughts during certain parts of the flood story.
There have been a huge wave of positive comments since its 2021 launch, but the best response Stark hears is when students who normally wouldn’t turn their camera on during class felt comfortable and engaged enough to turn it on for the virtual tour. “For some students who are more shy, through the virtual experience, they are turning on their camera,” Stark said. “We are seeing a lot of success for the young ones. This means the translation worked.”
“The main point of these resources is to bring the joy and the playfulness that happens on the Ark naturally [to the screen] and figuring out… which elements of the ark they remember or associate with the flood story and building on that to give them something useful,” Schwarz said. “Students can feel they have a moment of fun.”
Thematically, Schwarz said, the flood story is associated with building a better community. Teaching students and their families that they are like Noah and can also shape the world to be a more just place is embedded in the Skirball’s mission.
Ximena, a student from Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), said that the virtual tour was amazing and inspiring to her and her family. “[The storytellers] appreciate what we say,” she said. “They want us to participate and to feel welcome… They really got us to use our voice, to speak up.”
Jayden, a fellow LAUSD student, also told the Journal in a statement that the virtual Noah’s Ark experience taught him that “with perseverance and strength you can always get through [challenges], no matter what challenge it is. And if you never give up, you’ll always be able to persevere and get through it.”
Jane Fung, who is in her 34th year of teaching at Belvedere Elementary School in East Los Angeles, has been taking her students to Skirball for more than two decades. Since she teaches at a Title 1 school, many of her kids didn’t have access to computers at the start of the pandemic. In addition to overcoming technological challenges, she wanted to make learning was still fun and accessible for her entire classroom, which also includes students with varying learning and non-learning disabilities.
“Noah’s Ark has always focused on the themes of storytelling, imagination, inclusion and teamwork, and those are the most amazing themes you can use to teach early childhood education,” Fung said.
The pre-K teacher also joined the Skirball education advisory board this year so she could learn new ways to incorporate motion and meaning into virtual learning. She said she’s all for anything that can make her students want to return to school every day. Noah’s Ark’s virtual storytellers especially helped shake things up in her virtual classroom.
“Anybody who comes into your Zoom class that isn’t you will stir up interest,” Fung said. “When they bring in really wonderful stories with animals and rainbows and they bring in motion, it’s something I really really like. [Skirball] knows kids need to move and be a part of the story to understand the story. They tell [the flood story] with their whole bodies. Especially at this age, imagination helps build their social and emotional skills that they need right now.”
Schwarz added that while they are very pleased with the response to Noah’s Ark, the support they were able to provide to teachers was also significant.
“We are grateful for teachers for being our partners; we can only do what we do because of them,” Schwarz said. “That’s the only way we can grow. This virtual content is here to stay. We are glad that teachers are still wanting the messages of the Ark in their classroom.”
For more information about Noah’s Ark at the Skirball: The Art of Imagination, visit their website.
