Thank you for watching our video about Leap into Science! This national initiative promotes collaboration between community partners who are committed to science and literacy. In what ways do you collaborate with libraries, museums and community-based organizations to engage audiences in science and literacy learning?

An excellent video! Clear, concise and interesting!

I really enjoyed all the children and families pictured in your video and it made we want to know more about the activities they're involved in - especially that fabulous girl doing a cartwheel at the end, with her braids flying behind her!  (Full disclosure: I developed a video analysis system years ago in which students could trace their motion while they did things like cartwheels...)

I was curious how you think about the relationship between literacy and science.  I could imagine your video being about engaging kids in fun science activities without the added literacy aspect, so I wondered what role books and narrative play in your approach.

Hello, Julia, Tara, and Scott! It's good to see you here. As you know, the My Sky Tonight team is very interested in your work! Through our program, we have developed a set of engaging, age-appropriate, science-rich astronomy activities for 3- to 5-year-old children. One of our most popular activities, Bear's Shadow, incorporates a storybook, and we have recently been exploring the role that books can play in supporting children's engagement in science skills, thanks to some supplemental funding from the NSF.

I am interested to learn more about how you measure the impact of your program. What indicators do you look for related to increased interested and skills? What specific science skills are you aiming to support?

I hope you'll also have a chance to check out our video about My Sky Tonight! Looking forward to future discussions about how we might connect our respective work!

Very nice video! Are families allowed to take books home or are all the activities offered in the museums, libraries, and after school programs?

Hi Doris!

Many of our partners provide families with books to take home after they participate in the hands-on workshop. Usually these books correspond to the science theme just explored so that learning can be extended at home.

Thanks for your question!

What a wonderful project and video! It looks like you've been really successful in bringing together young children, their families, and informal communities -- what were some of the challenges you came across as you were building these partnerships and how did you overcome them?

Thank you for sharing the story about your project! I liked how you described the initial partnership, and how you think about success in terms of sharing the program with new partners. Its exciting work!

I had a couple of questions about the project:

1) I noticed that the Philadelphia schools were not mentioned in the original partnership. Did you think about getting school-based educators involved? How would the initiatlve change, in your view, if the program was located in schools as well?

2) Museum and library programs reach a large audience, but often with a limited window of opportunity to interact with individual learners. How do you think about this issue of a transient audience - especially given your mission of connecting literacy and science learning for underserved communities?

Good luck on the next stages of your work!

- Erica 

Hi Erica, 

Thank you for your kind words.  Leap into Science is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) division of NSF so our primary audience is institutions that promote informal learning. In 2011, we expanded to 10 pilot sites across the country, each with unique partnerships. One of these partnerships was between a department of education and state-wide afterschool network, so we have been able to study how Leap into Science is integrated into a moral formal system. Additionally, many of our educators are classroom teachers that also serve as afterschool leaders. 

To address your second question, many of our partners across the country have found that hosting monthly Leap into Science events works well for reaching families on an ongoing basis. Often partners will post the calendar of events months in advance so that families can plan around their busy schedules. 

Hi Julia, Tara, and Team,

Thanks for a great video - it is exciting to see this program scaling across the nation, and involving different kinds of community organizations. I especially appreciate the inclusion of caregivers and families in your work. I wonder are there other family-based research programs that you are watching to help inform your practice in this direction?

Hi Margaret,

Thanks for your interest in our project. As a member the research team, I would say that one of the strengths of the Leap into Science scale-up project is the past experience that each of the partners (The Franklin, National Girls Collaborative Project, Institute for Learning Innovation, EDC) brings related to family learning. At the Institute for Learning Innovation, we have been leading a project called Head Start on Engineering (http://csl.nsta.org/2017/10/head-start-engineering/) that focuses on parents and family learning. It’s been great to find connections and share lessons learned across these projects. We’ve also connected with other efforts, such as My Sky Tonight (http://stemforall2018.videohall.com/presentations/1296) and Storytelling Math (https://www.terc.edu/display/Projects/Storytelling+Math). Personally, I’ve been inspired by other family engagement models outside the STEM education field, such as Head Start (https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/family-engagement) and Metropolitan Family Services (https://www.metfamily.org/readysetgo/).

I know The Franklin has also learned a lot about how to engage families from their partnerships with The Free Library of Philadelphia and other museum, library, and nonprofit organizations about different models for family engagement. For example, Elise Brimhall at KUED in Salt Lake City used Leap into Science through parent outreach workshops to educate them on how to engage with books and science activities at home with their children. Maggie Kempel at Rockford School District used Leap into Science as a way for students in an afterschool program to lead a STEM family night for their parents and siblings.

We welcome other ideas about similar family engagement projects we should connect with!

Thanks,

Scott

Thank you for sharing your program with us.  I am excited about the family partnerships.  As one of the chief asks from our young people family involvement is a big barrier to STEM participation.  Have you done any work around math competency by age 8?  Our partners are very interested in early Math. 

Hi Christine, 

Thank you for your comments and questions! We have had a lot of success engaging families in science and literacy learning in part because our program is designed to be implemented in accessible, community settings like libraries, parks and community centers. In essence, we are meeting families where they are and bringing the science to them! Additionally, all of our workshops feature approachable science concepts like wind & air, structures, balance, light & shadows and sound. Families have an easier time connecting to concepts that can be experienced in everyday life. We also find that children's books are a great entry point into science exploration. 

Regarding math competency, we have a few themes in which math concepts can be used while children explore the science, like in our balance, measurement, and structures workshops. While math is not explicitly focused on, children are naturally using it when balancing a teeter-totter, measuring objects, or counting blocks, for example.