This is a job for the Zula Patrol!

The Zula Patrol landed their spaceship at CMOR Central on Tuesday, September 13. Their mission: WEATHER.

“The Zula Patrol” is an animated children's show on PBS and in each episode the characters gather in their spaceship and set off to make discoveries about science and astronomy. The characters on the show demonstrate critical thinking skills while also modeling inquisitiveness, observation, collaboration and an excitement for scientific exploration and problem solving.

While parked at the museum, Bula, Zeeter, Multo, and Gorga will help visitors explore wind speed, cloud formation, temperature differences, and changes in weather conditions. Children visiting the museum are asked to help The Zula Patrol in their mission and make discoveries about the weather until Friday, October 21st. The Zula Patrol will then pack-up their spaceship and travel to CMOR Short Pump from Monday, October 24 until Saturday, December 31.

The museum Educators have developed a fun and exciting field trip program focused on the scienceStandards of Learning (SOLs) and Foundation Blocks for Early Learning for students in pre-kindergarten to 3rd grade that prompts students to explore the differing temperatures of the planets in our solar system, dance and sing about the water cycle, move their bodies like a natural disaster, make the three most common types of clouds, and experiment with different wind speeds by using an anemometer.

As a program educator, I wanted to experience all the fun for myself. I rallied the troops, and all of the Educators filed down the hallways like school children to go and play in the new exhibit. We laughed and smiled as we crawled through the temperature domes from freezing to toasty temperatures and were energized by making the sounds of wind, rain, and thunder. Most importantly, we watched a four year old boy become mesmerized while he changed the temperature, wind speed, and amount of precipitation and waited anxiously to see the resulting types of weather. Fun was certainly had by staff and guests alike.

Parents and caregivers can take lessons learned in the exhibit home and help their children observe and record weather conditions by going outside to feel the temperature at different times throughout the day and by drawing different cloud shapes. Children can also make a homemade thermometer and anemometer and pretend to be a meteorologist by predicting the temperature and wind speed.
Make sure you stop by CMoR Central or CMoR Short Pump and help Captain Bula and his crew before they fly back to the planet Zula.

- Ashley Mitchell - Museum Program Educator

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If you are an Educator, please be sure to contact our Education Program Coordinator, Alma Cheyne, at acheyne@c-mor.org or (804) 474-7012 to get the full Zula Patrol experience with a field trip program. We hope you join us for Zula Patrol: Mission Weather.