See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Geoscience Diversity 2008: Status, Strategies, and Successful Models II
Abstract:
During each of the school years 2005-06 & 2006-07, a "Junior Geoscientist" program was hosted at the Museum of the Earth in which about a dozen 5th grade students attended the Museum twice weekly through most of the school year. Younger peers also received occasional programming. Since fall 2007, PRI educators have continued to visit GIAC twice monthly to build and maintain relationships with K-5 students. Meeting learning and relationship goals in afterschool contexts requires taking into account emotional and energy states of students at the end of school days, student interests, group social dynamics, irregular attendance or transience of a portion of afterschool populations, and variation in each of these factors through the school year. Examples of programming consistently engaging to students in this context included relatively open-ended social activities such as searching for fossils, science art activities using museum exhibits and fossils, educational games, and student focus-group style evaluations of new museum activities and exhibits. This work has been supported by NSF grant GEO-0503583.
See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Geoscience Diversity 2008: Status, Strategies, and Successful Models II