An electronic newsletter for the science education
community
January/February
2005
Science Literacy Campaign
Connects Informal Science Learning to Educational Goals
With a “Science. It’s Everywhere” theme,
the Partnership
for Science Literacy (PSL) has
been reaching out to families about the importance of
science, mathematics, and technology literacy for all students.
Public service announcements in English and Spanish, community
science events in sites around the country, and Family
Guide to Science booklets have all aimed to engage
parents in the science learning opportunities in their
communities and everyday lives. Now, the PSL’s public
outreach campaign is looking to show parents how informal
science education experiences can contribute to their children’s
formal education.
With funds from the National Science Foundation, Project
2061 and the AAAS Education and Human Resources Directorate
established the PSL and signed on science centers in
five sites as the chief partners: the Austin Children's
Museum; the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa; the
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; the Discovery
Center of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania’s
Lehigh Valley; and Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. These
sites created the first versions of the Family Guide
to Science to
give parents educational tips and suggestions as well
as detailed information on local science resources.
The Partnership now involves a total of 26 communities.
Unique online versions of the Family Guide to Science are
available for 20 of these communities on the PSL Web
site at www.ScienceEverywhere.org,
with the rest coming soon. As the campaign has expanded,
the message has remained simple and easy to comprehend:
science education is for every child, science is around
you in your life everyday, parents can play a key role
in their children’s learning, and science is fun!
The campaign plans to take its message one step further,
by outlining how local science centers can help students
achieve their school’s learning goals. While the Family
Guides were created to inspire parents to become involved,
ask questions, and seek information, a new brochure for
each center will serve to answer parent questions—specifically,
how science resources in their community can help children
meet their school’s science standards.
As standards take on a bigger role in schooling and parents
become better informed about their children’s science
learning goals, it will be helpful for families to make
connections between educational activities outside of
school and what takes place in the classroom. The new standards-based
brochures—to be created
by the partner sites for public distribution this summer—will
help make these connections. A science center or museum,
for example, can show how a particular exhibit or activity
it offers addresses a specific, identified learning goal
set forth by the state or local school district.
Award-Winning Outreach
These new brochures
will build on the success of the previously produced Family
Guides, TV, radio, and print ads,
and other outreach materials, all of which are available
at www.ScienceEverywhere.org,
hosted by TryScience.org. In 2004, the Washington, DC,
chapter of the Public Relations Society of America awarded
a certificate of excellence to AAAS and the Element Agency
for crafting the PSL’s message, its bilingual (English/Spanish)
Web site, and its outreach campaign.
As the Partnership’s work expands, it aims to demystify
a subject that many parents appreciate but few feel confident
about. As the research foundation of the Partnership
showed, parents recognize the importance of a good science
education, but often feel powerless to help their children
(view
presentation highlighting the findings of research conducted
by Global Strategy Group, Inc.). This public
outreach campaign is showing families that doing science
with kids is not only possible, but also accessible and
fun.
# # #
For more information about the Partnership for Science
Literacy and its collaborations with informal science
education institutions, please contact:
Communications Director, AAAS Project 2061:
Mary Koppal, (202)
326-6643
Senior Project Director, AAAS Education and Human
Resources Programs: Judy Kass, (202)
326-6667
Principal
Investigator: Dr. Jo Ellen Roseman, (202)
326-6666
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