National
Partnerships for AfterSchool
Science
(NPASS)
Funder: National Science Foundation
Principal Investigator: Bernard
Zubrowski
co-Principal Investigator: Charles
Hutchison
Download the NPASS Chicago Meeting brochure [pdf]
Workshop: Building Professional Development Training Networks for Afterschool Science NPASS is hosting one-day seminars entitled “Building Professional Development Training Networks for Afterschool Science” as follows:
Representatives of local government, state, and county extension agencies, science and children’s museums, and regional afterschool agencies who wish to implement high-quality science programs for children in out-of-school settings should attend these free events. |
About the Project
CSE and the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, Calif. (LHS), are leading a national initiative to promote a model for long-term professional development for after-school program providers to help community-based organizations (CBOs) implement high-quality, hands-on science and engineering projects with their children.
Taking our cue from research in formal education, which indicates that occasional or one-shot training has little impact on the way teachers present science material to their students, NPASS focuses on long-term training and support of after-school agencies in order to ensure a lasting impact on the way these institutions contribute to the science education of the children they serve. Science museum and 4-H-affiliated professional trainers from across the country have begun offering monthly training sessions and regular follow-up support to a committed cadre of CBOs in their regions, preparing them to facilitate open-ended and guided explorations of science and engineering topics with children.
NPASS trainers and their CBO partners are divided into three “Mentor Groups” roughly separated along geographical lines (East Coast, Midwest and Western Region). Each group is lead by a science center that has previous experience of training CBO staff over extended periods of time. Mentors in Boston; St. Paul, Minn.; and Berkeley, Calif., provide ongoing support to the trainers in their region and will share findings and training materials with the NPASS project management team to inform the development of project-wide training guides and other training aides.
Staff at EDC and LHS are responsible for the overall management of the program, as well as providing annual training institutes for all trainers and mentors. EDC and LHS are also developing guidebooks and other resources that will help professional developers everywhere train after-school staff to do these (and similar) science projects with children.
Training Partners
Within each mentor group, professional developers (“trainers”) affiliated with either a science museum or a 4-H Cooperative extension agency, lead monthly workshops for five or more local CBO partners. Trainers are affiliated with the following institutions.
East Coast Mentor: Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, Mass. |
Midwest Mentor: Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn. |
Western Region Mentor: Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, Calif. |
|
Science Center Partners |
Providence Children’s Museum, Providence, R.I. Rochester Museum and Science Center, Rochester, N.Y. |
Headwaters Science Center, Bemidji, Minn. COSI Toledo, Toledo, Ohio |
River Legacy Living Science Center, Arlington, Texas Explora Science Center, Albuquerque, N.M. |
4-H Partners |
Equine Center, Durham, N.H. |
U. of Minnesota Extension Service, St. Paul, Minn. Regional Extension Education Office, Worthington, Minn. Regional Extension Education Office, Duluth, Minn. |
Cooperative Extension Service, Santa Cruz County, Calif. |
Also affiliated with the project are:
- National 4-H Council, Bethesda, MD (Liaison with 4-H partners)
- Goodman Research Group, Inc., Cambridge, MA (External Evaluators)
Monthly Training Sessions
Each month, from September until May, science center and 4-H professional developers in nine states will hold a three-hour training session for staff and administrators recruited from local CBOs at a site that is convenient to all. At each of these sessions, the professional developer will lead the after-school staff as learners through sections of a new hands-on project (drawn from the list of curriculum materials below). It is a very important aspect of this training model that those who will lead the activities with children first take the time to experience the projects as learners, under the guidance of an expert teacher. In this way, the after-school staff have firsthand experience with the materials (and can better understand how it is for children to explore the materials) and will observe how an expert facilitator guides learners though the process of exploration.
The Role of the Program Leader
Helping the children to talk about (and reflect on) what they are doing, and why, and what sense it all makes to them is as important to their overall learning in these hands-on projects as the physical manipulation of the materials themselves. NPASS professional developers will pay great attention to helping their after-school partners develop the skills and attitude necessary to facilitate good and safe sense-making discussions with and among children. Program leaders will learn that they are not called upon to “know all the science” involved in these projects, nor to be able to answer all the children’s questions. Rather, their role is to set up the guidelines for this exploration, keep the exploration safe and on track, and model for the children how they can communicate with each other as co-explorers.
Often, simply listening attentively to the children’s thinking is all that a program leader needs to do to keep them engaged as active explorers and sense makers. At other times, a hint, a word of advice, a provocative question (“what would happen if…..”) will break a log-jam or re-ignite interest. But beyond what the teacher does or does not say, there is an etiquette of exploration and discussion that makes it safe for everyone to take risks with their ideas. A large part of the program leader’s job in these projects is to set a tone of tolerance, patience and attention, insisting that the children listen to each other with respect and open-mindedness.
How It Works for the CBO Partners
Community Based Organizations (CBOs) who run after-school programs for children aged 8–11 years are invited by the projects science center and 4-H professional developers to participate in regular training sessions held once a month during the school year. CBOs must cover the salary and travel costs of their staff attending these workshops, but the training itself is free, and printed curriculum materials and certain consumable materials for the projects are given out free of charge at each training session.
Between training sessions, CBO staff will cooperate with their trainer to arrange site visits to the CBO while the children are working on the projects in order for the trainer to offer feedback and advice to CBO staff on their implementation of the program. By joining this program, CBOs commit to working with their NPASS professional developers over months and years to deepen their understanding of this approach to informal science exploration. The hope is that this approach becomes embedded in the institutional fabric of the CBO partners so that they take further initiative to keep science programming of this type in their center beyond the period of this grant.
Curriculum Materials
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the 4-H community have funded the development of high-quality, extended science and engineering activities for children that are ideally suited to the informal atmosphere of after-school programs. Many of these activities were developed or field tested in collaboration with science centers around the country. All the projects involve the manipulation of simple and inexpensive materials and all require multiple sessions to complete. Selected projects from the series listed below will be presented at training sessions throughout this program
- Explore It: Science Investigations in Out-of-School Programs. Developed by EDC, Newton, Mass.
- Design It: Design Engineering in After School Programs. Developed by EDC, Newton, Mass.
- GEMS (Great Explorations in Math and Science). Developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, Calif.
- Youth Experiences in Science Project. Developed by the University of California Cooperative Extension Service, Davis, Calif.
Materials required for the projects introduced in this program will generally be common or household items that are easily obtained at local grocery and hardware stores. Complete materials lists will be provided for each project and, in some cases, materials kits will also be distributed to CBO partners.
Contact Information
For more information on this project, contact:
Martha Davis mdavis@edc.org
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0515549.
