Informal Science
Our goal is to support the informal science community to develop work that addresses the gaps that exist in outcomes measurement, research and evaluation, program scale up, leadership development, policy issues, and pathways or pipeline design.

MAJOR GRANTS

Afterschool Alliance (STEM Policy Director)
Washington, DC

Support to establish a Director of STEM Policy position to encourage greater investment in and support for science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning in afterschool.

Visit their site: www.afterschoolalliance.org

The Exploratorium (Museums Afterschool: Principles, Data, and Design) San Francisco, CA

The MAPDD project works with partnerships of science museum educators and afterschool programs to develop a set of design principles for high quality informal STEM activities in afterschool, program standards, and assessments, and outcome evidence for what such programming can achieve in the afterschool context, all to be shared with the field.

Visit their site: cils.exploratorium.edu

Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair (Teacher Training in Inquiry-Based Instruction) Cambridge, MA

The Curious Minds Initiative aims to engage more teachers and students in inquiry-based learning and science fair projects.

Visit their site: www.scifair.com

National 4-H Council (4-H Science Initiative) Washington, DC

The 4-H Science Initiative will bring science programming to a million new youth by 2013. Support includes professional development, curriculum development, program implementation, evaluation and development of marketing and publicity plan.

Visit their site: www.fourhcouncil.edu

New York Hall of Science (Building the Human Infrastructure of Informal Science) Queens, NY

Support to identify, reflect upon, and disseminate the best practices for human-facilitated museum visits across the country and internationally.

Visit their site: www.nyhallsci.org

Program in Education, Afterschool & Resiliency (Assessment Tools in Informal Science) Belmont, MA

PEAR’s Assessment Tools in Informal Science website is an online resource designed to help practitioners, evaluators, researchers, and policymakers select instruments to assess science learning and child outcomes in out-of-school programs. The site includes reviews and ratings by practitioners who are using these tools.

Visit their site: www.pearweb.org/atis

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Missouri AfterSchool Network (Project LIFTOFF) Columbia, MO

Project LIFTOFF aims to develop a statewide system in support of afterschool STEM education in Missouri and surrounding Midwestern states, including disseminating excellent STEM curriculum materials, professional development, building a state afterschool web portal, and conducting formative and summative evaluations.

Visit their site: www.moasn.org

Science Friday (Sustaining and Expanding Science Friday Radio and Web Programming) New York, NY

Expanding the reach of interesting science programming beyond radio to schools and underserved communities.

Visit their site: www.sciencefriday.com

SRI International (Scaling Build IT within the Girls Inc. Network) Menlo Park, CA

Support to scale the Build IT program within the Girls Inc. network. Build IT is a technology design program for middle school girls originally supported by the National Science Foundation.

Visit their site: www.ctl.sri.com

The After-School Corporation (Afterschool Science Programming in NYC and Nationally) New York, NY

Support for the Frontiers in Urban Science Education Initiative to deliver STEM activities in over 100 publicly-funded afterschool programs in New York City, including trainings for program leaders and line staff on research-based STEM curricula, online videos and other web-based support, and program evaluation. The model is being disseminated through the CBASS (Collaborative for Building After-School Systems) network of intermediaries nationally.

Visit their site: www.tascorp.org

Techbridge (Scaling Girls Go Techbridge within the Girl Scouts Network) Oakland, CA

Support to scale the Girls Go Techbridge curriculum within the Girl Scouts network nationally. Techbridge, a program of the Chabot Space & Science Center, is a science and engineering program for middle school girls.

Visit their site: www.techbridgegirls.org

WGBH (Design Squad) Boston, MA

Support for the educational outreach and web components of Design Squad, an educational reality TV program for children designed to increase students’ knowledge of engineering and the design process.

Visit their site: pbskids.org/designsquad