Midsouth Region Gets STEM Training

After-school leaders from the Southwest U.S. will get a healthy dose of the connection between STEM learning and youth development at next week's Midsouth Region Fall Afterschool Training Roundup, presented by the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning at SEDL.

At the opening plenary session, attendees will hear from Cathy Jordan of SEDL, who directs the Partnership - supporting development of high quality programs that balance academic enrichment and youth development, and Jane Quinn of the Children's Aid Society. Jane is a Coalition board member and an overall guru of youth development. Check out Jane's thoughts on community schools, science in after-school, and in Youth Today.

Among the relevant workshops, Patricia McClure from SERVE will present the after-school science toolkit, which contains resources to help after-school leaders build fun and educational enrichment activities.

At the closing session, attendees get to hear from Gretchen Walker of the American Museum of Natural History and author of the NASA and Afterschool report, and me. We plan to provide an engaging experience that shows how learning science in after-school can be fun as well as educational.