A Watershed Moment

Museum educators, youth workers, teachers and others interested in science beyond the classroom are seizing after-school, weekend, and summer opportunities to engage young people’s sense of wonder and curiosity. The first National Conference for Science and Technology in Out-of-School Time, held in Chicago September 17-19, 2008, brought together more than 300 practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and funders. Convened by the Coalition for Science After School and Project Exploration, the sold-out conference provided in-depth, interactive sessions on research-based best practices, curriculum development, and evaluation, with a particular focus on equity and access issues for underrepresented populations.

A Watershed Moment: The First National Conference on Science and Technology in Out-of-School Time documents the conference and offers a series of essays and reports from conference participants. The resulting publication provides a snapshot of the ideas, issues, and themes emerging from this new field.

A Watershed Moment includes an article by Project Exploration cofounder Gabrielle Lyon, “The Onus Is On Us.” In her article, Lyon details Project Exploration’s work and argues that the burgeoning field of science in out-of-school time must continue to remove barriers and make science accessible to all students.

Read more of Gabrielle Lyon’s article—and others from conference presenters—in A Watershed Moment (PDF ~3mb).