Since it opened in 1965, the Iron Hill Museum has been loved as a place where you can see a snakeskin up close, hold a fossil, touch a hissing cockroach or follow a nature trail in Iron Hill Park. Over 7,000 program participants each year take part in field trips, educational visits, scout programs, and festivals, as well as preschool and summer camps offered at Iron Hill Museum. This learning will continue, but in a new and much expanded space. With the encouragement and support of the County and benefactors like you, the museum’s sponsor, the Delaware Academy of Sciences, is building a center for learning on Iron Hill and taking on a new challenge: expanding K-12 social studies and science education in the tri-state region. Teacher training (in coordination with the University of Delaware and the State Department of Education) is another essential component of the plan.

The New Learning Center’s 5,000 square-foot space will have new classrooms and space for hands-on programs and exhibits. The current museum building is being restored to its original 1920s identity as a one-room schoolhouse for African American children. The rich oral history of the school’s alumni is being recorded and will help to tell the story of the African-American community that called Iron Hill “home.”

The New Learning Center will tell a cohesive story of the land, its people and their interaction over the millennia. Native American heritage is the beginning of mankind in the Iron Hill area. The archeological evidence of Native Americans dates from before 6,000 BC through the arrival of the European settlers.

In addition to the history of mankind on the land, the education program will complement Statewide Smithsonian Science programs. The New Learning Center will provide formal and informal learning opportunities for schools and communities, with a hands-on focus designed to put students into the science they are studying.