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The Coalition applauds efforts to improve the quality of STEM education beyond the classroom. The following list of key national and regional projects is an excellent place to find opportunities to develop your programs.
The 4-H Youth Development Program is directly connected to the research and resources of the 106 landgrant universities and colleges of the Cooperative Extension System. This connection strategically positions 4-H to strengthen US global competitiveness and leadership. For more than a century, 4-H has engaged our country’s youth in the building blocks of economic success. This has meant a solid focus on agricultural science, electricity, mechanics, entrepreneurship, and natural sciences. Today, 4-H out-of-school opportunities also exist in subjects like rocketry, robotics, bio-fuels, renewable energy, and computer science. 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology programs reach more than 5 million youth with hands-on learning experiences to encourage young minds and to fill the pipeline of young leaders proficient in science. These experiences are supported by more than a half million dedicated adult volunteers who are placing 4-H youth on a path towards successful careers. The 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology Program must be part of the long-term solution for improving science literacy and aptitude of America’s youth. 4-H will address our nation’s critical challenge by preparing 1 million new young people to excel in science, engineering, and technology by 2013. As a public-private partnership, 4-H can focus a variety of resources and expertise to strengthen young people’s discovery and exploration of science. We believe fostering passion in science today will shape education and career decisions tomorrow.
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Girls Incorporated developed Girls Inc. Operation SMART in the mid 1980s in response to their growing concern regarding the shortage of women entering careers in science, math, engineering, and technology. Since then, Girls Inc. Operation SMART has reached over 500,000 girls across the country, boosting their interest in studying science and math, as well opening their eyes to the existence and importance of these subjects in all aspects of their lives. Girls Inc. Operation SMART is the most popular and widely implemented Girls Inc. program.
Girls Inc. Operation SMART is an approach to engaging girls and young women in inquiry-based science, technology, engineering and math through hands-on, minds-on experiences. Publications and staff training help after-school programs empower girls to pursue science, math and technology careers. It is a program without walls, where girls interact with STEM professionals as well as after-school professionals and volunteers to discover that math, science and technology are all around them. Program guides for all ages incorporate the four elements of the SMART philosophy: exploration, equity, empowerment, and fun. Through Operation SMART, girls: 1. Engage in participatory experiences where they discover that math and science are fun 2. Inquire, predict, and take risks that make math and science an adventure 3. Build things, take them apart, and build them better 4. Ask questions, collaborate on ideas, and pursue their own answers 5. Interact with professional women in the field get motivated to pursue both math and science courses and extracurricular activities before, during and after school.
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Girl Scouts of the USA has worked with NASA for more than 15 years to promote interest and engagement in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). With a shared common goal to enable more youth and adults to embrace the value of STEM, NASA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with GSUSA in January 2005. Strengthening this comprehensive partnership has provided adult development training opportunities, materials development, career exposure, research sharing, mentors, community outreach exhibits, summer internships for girls, field trips relating to earth and solar exploration.
Currently, more than one-third of Girl Scout councils have attended one or more trainings by NASA science experts. These councils have engaged over 100,000 girls in NASA missions, research and centers across the United States and International locations.
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Great Science for Girls: Extension Services for Gender Equity in Science through After-School Programs (GSG) is building the capacity of after-school centers to deliver programming that will broaden and sustain girls’ interest and persistence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). To reach a large national audience, GSG is working with 16 regional intermediary organizations -- four in the Northeast, four in the Midwest, four in the Southwest/West and four in the South -- that provide services to networks of after-school centers to build the capacity of after-school centers to deliver evidence-based programming that will broaden and sustain girls’ interest and persistence in STEM. Go to the website to find out if Great Science for Girls is active in your region and how you can participate.
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The SEDL National Center for Quality Afterschool helps state education agencies and local practitioners develop high-quality, balanced programs that provide a safe and fun environment for academic enrichment as well as youth development activities.
The toolkit is designed to give after-school program directors and instructors the resources they need to build fun, innovative, and academically enriching activities that not only engage students, but extend their knowledge in new ways and increase academic achievement.
The toolkit includes promising practices and sample lessons in Arts, Literacy, Math, Science, Technology, and Homework Help. Each subject area contains standards-based multi-media resources including: research-based practices, sample lessons, interactive activities, and video segments taken from after-school programs across the country. The toolkit can be used to build an after-school program, in professional development settings, for activities and ideas, and as a research base in effective after-school programming.
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The goal of the Exploratorium Digital Library Afterschool Project is to bring more science and math enrichment into out-of-school time using resources from the Exploratorium’s Digital Library (www.exploratorium.edu/library), one of the many collections from the National Science Digital Library (nsdl.org).
Educators visiting the site will learn different after-school activities through digital videos, concept maps, links to science explanations, educator tips, and related activities. Portable media in the form of a DVD is also available upon request.
Through a partnership with the California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC.org), professional development workshops and outreach materials have been designed and offered to both professional development providers and after-school educators to build their capacity to deliver STEM content-rich after-school activities to learners in the 4th through 12th grades.
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Through a grant from the Noyce Foundation, YouthLearn and Foundations Inc. have been working together to develop and pilot a professional development strategy aimed at facilitating the integration of STEM into typical afterschool programs nationwide, and to broaden reach through partnerships with statewide professional development systems. The sessions provide directors and afterschool leaders with strategies for building program capacity for STEM including planning, staff development, core techniques, content selection, linking with schools and community resources, and sustained quality improvement in the face of high staff turnover. With pilot state-level system building targeted to Georgia and California, the project intends to offer a replicable, scalable model of professional development that promotes greater commitment to STEM learning overall and a readiness on the part of no-specialist staff to launch and sustain STEM programs.
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The Center for Science Education at the Education Development Center will support out-of-school time leaders in California, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Ohio, in recruiting and training a new cadre of NPASS Science Trainers who will provide ongoing and intensive professional development and support to afterschool sites in their region of the country to improve the quality and quantity of STEM projects available to kids in afterschool programs.
Science Trainers will attend twice annual institutes in their state and will follow the NPASS model for training afterschool sites.
For more information, contact Martha Davis at mdavis@edc.org or 617-618-2851.
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The 21st Century Afterschool Science Project (21st CASP) project team provides training and technical assistance to after-school and out-of-school time (OST) staff on the 21st CASP model for integrating science into after-school and OST settings, as well as on use of the 21st CASP hands-on science curriculum.
The goal of 21st CASP is to create and implement a replicable model to build the capacity of after-school programs and bring exciting science to the children and youth of New Jersey. The 21st CASP seeks to enrich student learning and engagement through inquiry-based, informal science education experiences. The project combined direct-service and macro-level approaches to ensure that the unique challenges encountered by today’s after-school programs are addressed by producing a model for science enrichment. The project emphasizes and pursues the connections between the essential components of scientific inquiry and the skills of language and mathematical literacy through a multifaceted model. The focus is on children in grades 4 - 8 and after-school staff—including professional educators, youth workers and paraprofessionals. The 21st CASP model pays particular focus on underserved students and addresses equity issues as well as multiple learning styles.
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Chicago-area schools and community-based organizations are eligible to participate in this program. The Community Initiatives team from the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry provides training to informal educators (youth workers, parents, volunteers) in after-school programs so that they can organize, lead and facilitate science clubs after school at their program sites. The After School Science Minors Clubs project provides these educators with hands on engaging science curriculum and training that is relevant to them and the students they serve after school.
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The Frontiers in Urban Science Education initiative is a national model for delivering STEM activities in publicly-funded afterschool programs, being piloted in New York City. This model specifically aims at changing staff attitudes at community-based organizations that prevent them from undertaking STEM activities. Includes training of line staff on four different STEM curricula; engaging site coordinators, supervisors, and school leaders in orientations to STEM in afterschool; and a guidebook for afterschool science to support implementation.
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The Missouri AfterSchool Network is organizing the Midwest Afterschool Science Academy, December 2-4, 2009, in Kansas City, MO. This professional development opportunity will help school districts, community-based organizations and community leaders:
School’s Out Washington offers the Science is Cool! guidebook, which teaches staff to use children’s natural curiosity for the world and how things work to introduce science into their after-school environment. Science is Cool! embraces opportunities outside of traditional settings to create a fun, hand-on, culturally relevant approach which engages children’s wonderment and interest. Using inquiry-based methods, Science is Cool! can infuse any after-school program with a rich vein of activities which lead to improved critical thinking skills and understanding of scientific principles and knowledge for the kids and the staff.
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