RSS | Go To: afterschoolalliance.org
Subscribe to the Afterschool Advocate newsletter
Afterschool Snack, the afterschool blog. The latest research, resources, funding and policy on expanding quality afterschool and summer learning programs for children and youth. An Afterschool Alliance resource.
Featured Afterschool Snacks
Afterschool on Facebook
Afterschool on Twitter
Blogs We Read Afterschool Snack Bloggers
Select blogger:
Recent Afterschool Snacks
OCT
22

STEM
email
print

Afterschool Programs and Science Centers: Natural Allies

By Anita Krishnamurthi

Children from the Godman Guild afterschool program in Columbus, OH learning about electricity during a demo at COSI.

Afterschool programs and science centers have a lot in common—we are both part of this large and loose field called “informal science education. ” We both struggle to get credit for our accomplishments in engaging children and youth in STEM topics and to be seen as partners in STEM education reform. So it makes a lot of sense for us to work more closely together. With that in mind, we partnered with the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) to have a strong afterschool presence at their recent annual conference in Columbus, OH.

The Afterschool Alliance organized a session on “Navigating the Afterschool Landscape,” where we talked about what the state of play is with afterschool STEM and how science centers can get more involved. You can read a great summary of the session on the ASTC blog. We had a full room of people who were extremely interested in what we had to say and several of them came up to say that they thought it was the best session of the conference! That was very flattering of course, but more importantly, it showed the enormous interest in the ASTC community to engage more with afterschool programs.
COSI hosted a Lights On Afterschool event during the ASTC conference. Children from the Godman Guild, COSI staff (including CEO David Chesebrough), ASTC conference attendees and staff (including CEO Bud Rock) participated in the event.

Many science centers and museums are already very engaged in their communities, including several who work closely with afterschool providers in their cities. Some science centers, like the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in Columbus, OH, are deeply involved with a couple of afterschool providers in Columbus. Others, like the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL, are working with community-based organizations in their city to offer afterschool STEM programs all over the city and are also offering professional development programs for afterschool providers.

As afterschool programs enthusiastically embrace STEM, they have a lot of unmet professional development needs. Science centers could expand their reach into their communities by partnering more with afterschool providers to help them offer quality STEM programming. Remember that there are 8.4 million children in afterschool programs around the nation, many of them from the very communities that are under-represented in STEM fields. Afterschool programs provide a great way to engage a diverse population of children and get them excited and ready to participate more in STEM fields and careers!
share this link: http://bit.ly/RPWguV
learn more about: Education Reform Science Academic Enrichment Community Partners
Comments: (0)