Website Launch!

Over the past few months, we have been engaged in a fundamental redesign of the Coalition website. Now we are pleased to announce the official launch of our new site: http://afterschoolscience.org/

Come and check it out! We would love to hear your feedback.

Science and the Olympic Games

As the Olympic Games continue to unfold in Vancouver, children can learn more about the science behind the action thanks to a series of videos supported by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. High quality videos featuring Olympic athletes paired with related science lessons turn Olympic fever into a teachable moment on the mechanics behind the maneuvers we watch on TV.

Read the full article: http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_14392260?nclick_check=1&forced=true

Watch the videos: http://nbclearn.com/olympics/cuecard/%204727

Get the lessons: http://www.lessonopoly.org/svef/

President Proposes Increased Spending on Science

Another example of increasing emphasis being placed nationally on science and STEM education:

Demonstrating the administration’s commitment to science and STEM learning, in his Budget Message to Congress, President Obama proposed increased science-related spending. This came as a relief amidst growing concern over budget cuts given the current fiscal situation.

Read the article: http://spie.org/x38994.xml?highlight=x2404&ArticleID=x38994

Young Innovator

Li Boynton, a senior at Bellaire (TX) High School, embodies the charge set forth by President Obama in his Educate to Innovate initiative. She is an award- winning inventor and next fall will become a student at one of the nation’s most prestigious universities. Before Li left elementary school, she had already developed a passion for science and engineering, building a desalination device in the fifth grade. In 2009, she won the Young Scientist Award from the Intel foundation for her work on an inexpensive method of testing the potability of drinking water.

Tomorrow night Li will be seated next to First Lady Michelle Obama during the President’s State of the Union address, further highlighting her achievements as well as the intentions of this administration to put a primary focus on science education. She has already become an "inventor of things," and we are excited to see what is next for Li!

You can read more about Li here: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6835073.html

The White House Star Party Features Informal Learning Activities

If you missed the White House Star Party last night, you can still recreate the activities at home (or in your school or after-school programs). The activities came from the Lunar Planetary Institute's Explore! program, designed specifically for use in libraries and informal learning environments. Explore! has been used in 21st Century Community Learning Center and other after-school programs. Try one or more of these White House Star Party activities with your kids:

• Impact Crater Activity: The students dropped 4 different sized objects and measured the diameter of the objects and the depth and diameter of the craters.

• Size and distance in the Solar System: Size Activity and Scale Activity

• The other activities are harder to recreate. Your local science museum may have some of these. Inflatable planetarium dome presentations, "Rocks from Space" with a touchable moon rock, lunar sample disks, a Mars meteorite display and meteorites from the Smithsonian collection, and scientists to talk with the kids.

Thanks to the NASA JPL Museum Alliance for passing along the information!