Guest Blogger: Bay Area Discovery Museum

This week's guest blogger is Heather Posner of the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, CA.  One widely understood theory of learning today is that children, indeed learners of any age, build meaning through a process of interacting with others, objects and the environment.  Heather's post highlights how out-of-school time educators are in an ideal position to support this meaning-making, even when it at first glance it appears that children are 'only playing'.

Encouraging Young Children’s Scientific Inquiry

Written and photographed by Heather Posner

At the Bay Area Discovery Museum we are dedicated to nurturing childhood creativity.  One of the most distilled experiences we offer is our Not-A-School Creative Enrichment program, for children ages two-year nine months – 5 years old, which runs throughout the school year. I have the great pleasure of leading children through inquiry based learning experiences which builds a foundation for science learning later on, and supports children’s natural curiosity.  

We are blessed with not only 7.5 acres within the boundaries of our museum, but all of Fort Baker (at the foot on the Golden Gate Bridge in Sausalito) outside our fence to explore and discover.  A particularly rich learning environment is the little beach adjacent to our site.  In good weather we visit this place nearly every week and find an abundance of life and natural materials to view and experiment with.

One day we arrived to find a large piece of wood near the rivulet that runs down from the hillside:

One little boy put it in the water to see what would happen.  He was able to see how the wood floated downstream and tried other ways of moving the wood from place to place:

Soon enough other children became interested in his experiment.  They worked together to try to steer what they had come to think of as a boat.  They tested out whether the boat could carry passengers such as rocks and sticks:

Eventually they realized that by working together they could keep the ship afloat and the passengers safe on board:

Although some adults may wonder about the value of this type of play, it is clear that these children have in fact gone through a simplified and age appropriate version of the scientific method:

• Formulate a question

• Hypothesis

• Test

• Analysis

• Retest

One very important outcome, in addition to their process, is their use of collaboration to test theories and try new things.  This is one of the ways we in informal science education can facilitate creative thinking, by supporting children's curiosity and asking questions that inspire them to continue exploring.

Oil Spill! Connecting STEM activities to real world problems

I recently had another opportunity to observe a science program in an after school setting, this time at Greenleaf Elementary School in Oakland, CA.  The rising fifth graders have an hour and a half of STEM programming after lunch every afternoon, and the day I visited they did an activity about cleaning up oil in the ocean.  They worked with trays filled a few inches with water, feathers, straws, cotton balls and sponges.

I think it's especially challenging to lead activities like this, where the materials you have to work with are analogies of what really happens in the real world.  I was impressed with the ways the facilitator drew connections between the activity they were doing and what happens in the real world.

The facilitator started the activity by asking the kids what they already knew about oil spills.  I was struck by how many hands went in the air, and details the kids knew including the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

The group discussed what kinds of engineers help solve the environmental problems caused by oil spills - chemical and environmental engineers.

In groups, the kids examined their 'oceans' of water, with oil floating on top.  They discussed and wrote observations in their science notebooks.

The facilitator introduced some terms and definitions and then passed out materials the kids would use to try to clean up the oil.

As kids formulated their plans for working together to get the oil off the feathers and out of the 'ocean', the facilitator passed around photos of actual oil spills and the effects they have on wildlife.  Then it was time to work together to figure out how to use materials to clean up the oil.

During the discussion after the activity, the kids all said that they enjoyed this activity even though it was very difficult to get all the oil out of the water and off of the feathers.  

In order to help kids make connections between the science activities we do after school and science in the real world, here are some things we see quality programs doing:

• Ask kids what they already know about related issues
• Show kids pictures, news articles or videos
• Introduce kids to a scientist who works on the problem in the field
• Take a field trip
• Participate in a citizen science project to help a scientist conduct a study on a related issue

Let us know some ways that your after school science program connects kids to real world science!

Bringing Science to Creative Writing

Earlier this month we were proud to announce our partnership with 826 National and Time Warner Cable's Connect A Million Minds to help bring science content to the stellar 826 National creative writing programs in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York!

Last week, Coalition Director Dr. Carol Tang presented a taste of what science in a creative writing program can look like at the 826 National Staff Development Conference with Dr. Rebecca Smith, Co-Director of the Science & Health Education Partnership at University of California, San Francisco.  What they presented yesterday was a small piece of the pilot curriculum they have written for 826 National that incorporates science concepts into creative writing.

Rebecca started the session by asking participants to imagine that they are space explorers and they have just received samples from a new planet.  Carol passed out samples of a gooey, sticky, interesting substance, and encouraged everyone to explore.  With toothpicks, knives, cookie cutters and of course their hands, everyone started poking, observing and testing the stuff.  The room was full of laughter and conversation as people compared and discussed the mysterious sample from another planet.

If you are familiar with oobleck, then you know exactly what was happening in the room!  People were discovering the strange properties of this non-Newtonian fluid, which sometimes acts like a solid, and sometimes acts like a liquid.  But instead of telling us what this stuff was, Carol and Rebecca just continued to let everyone explore and experiment.  This is one of the most important parts of informal science education - resisting giving away the answers extends and prolongs exploration and deepens the experience for the learner.

Then Carol and Rebecca challenged everyone to work together to think about how they would go about building a spaceship that could land on a planet made of this stuff.  The tables were full of more conversation.  At my table, someone noticed that the goo becomes instantly loose and liquid when water is added.  This gave someone else the idea that the spaceship should have a way to suck up moisture from the planet through the bottom of the spacecraft, retain it, and then recycle that liquid back to the planet to release the ship when it's time to take off again.

Rebecca reminded us that an important part of being a scientist is sharing what you've discovered.  As we shared out our ideas with the other groups we learned what other people had observed and tested.  Then Carol shared some facts about oobleck and states of matter.  When we stepped back to debrief about the activity, the 826 staff thought of some creative writing skills are supported by a science based activity like this, including observation, brainstorming, experimentation and summarizing.


The pilot program that the Coalition for Science After School helped create for 826 National incorporates hands-on explorations that inspires writing, builds inquiry and hypothesis-testing skills, fosters identity with scientific endeavors, creates relevance for scientific principles in youth's lives and makes science fun.  

Rebecca talked about how these messy explorations can inspire writing for kids.  "If you think your writing packets look messy, you should see a real scientist's journal!" she joked.  We are so pleased to have been able to collaborate with her on this project, and to bring science activities specifically designed for out-of-school time to 826 National.  We can't wait to hear how this pilot program goes and we look forward to more opportunities to partner with outstanding after school programs to deliver high quality science experiences!

Student-Centered Learning

Students learn better when they are directly involved in problem solving, scientific experiments, or following their own lines of inquiry. However, achieving this type of learning is difficult even for experienced science teachers. These comments won't come as new or innovative to those who have worked in science education for a while. Yet, they continue to be central to achieving high quality learning.

A new study on physics education finds that students engaged in interactive courses outperform their peers who received traditional, instructor-led lessons. ASCD Research Brief / Study

In my own experience visiting after-school programs where youth workers are trying to lead inquiry activities, there is a difficult balancing act between student-centered activity and science content. If you asked them to teach drama or basketball, these experienced and trained after-school leaders would presumably put the students at the center - letting them play and experience the activities. Yet, with science, the staff revert to their own experience with science, attempting to spew facts or take the children through programmed experiment steps.

Overcoming the preconceptions about science education as lecture-led starts with the staff. NSTA and others have been helping teachers with this for many years. Now we have to reach a new group of science education staff in after-school programs, camps, and other informal settings.