The purpose of this blog is to serve as a means to share educational opportunities and scholarships that I have discovered over the years and that has been shared with me through others.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
New York and Los Angeles - Science and Technology through Iridescent Learning
We aim to help children and their parents develop the following changes in attitude and behavior:
A persistent curiosity in the world around. This would be represented by a desire to understand how and why the world works the way it does, to take things apart, to take “pleasure in finding things out” and finally to have the courage to step out of one’s comfort zone, to learn and to transfer learning to new situations.
Ability to solve problems. This skill would consist of being able to break a problem down into manageable chunks, transferring principles of the scientific method (as learned in the formal school curriculum) to real-world problems and designing and redesigning.
An increased interest in creating, designing, building and inventing.
Development of a growth mindset and increased persistence. This would be represented by an understanding that failure is part of success, intelligence is not a fixed capacity and one can increase intelligence by working harder.
Engineers trained in the Engineers As Teachers Program create lesson plans to share their knowledge and education with under-served elementary and middle school students and their families through the Family Science Program.
What does a Family Science Session look like?
Each Family Science Course consists of five sessions of two hours each. Topics are science or engineering based. Sessions are conducted once a week at the school site in the evening from 6:00-8:00 P.M. Families are invited (including younger brothers and sisters). A teacher or school administrator is usually present. Food is provided during the first 15 minutes of the session. A Spanish-speaking instructor is present to translate instruction for non-English speaking families. Formative assessments are conducted in every session, along with pre and post assessments conducted before and after the course, to ensure knowledge transfer.
The first 10 minutes are spent in direct instruction, where the engineers introduce the science and engineering concepts. The engineers then guide the families through conducting their experiments. Each family gets materials to conduct their own experiment. The last 20 minutes of the session are spent on reflection and filling out the Exit Slip questions that check for participant understanding. All instruction is ALIGNED WITH THE STATE SCIENCE OR MATH STANDARDS so that parents are empowered to better support their child’s education.
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