Applications for Science Adventure Lab visits in the 2013/14 school year will be available to principals and teachers on Monday, March 4th.
Email adventurelab@seattlechildrens.org to request an application or visit http://www.seattlechildrens.org/adventurelab/ for more information.
Over the past three years, more than 23,000 students at 135 schools in Washington State have participated in the Science Adventure Lab (SAL) program. We are thrilled with the numbers of students we have been able to provide hands-on laboratory experiences for in such a short time. Even more exciting is its impact; students who participate in the SAL program report an increase in excitement about science and more enthusiasm about the possibility of a career in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) fields.
In order to further enhance science education for students, we have also held informal Family Science Nights (FSN) at a small number of elementary and middle schools throughout the state. FSNs provide an opportunity to increase science knowledge among family members so they are better able to foster their child’s interest in science. Feedback from participating teachers and families has been uniformly positive and each event was well attended by families, often exceeding our expectations.
Now, thanks to a $1.1 million five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA), the SAL program will be able to expand to include two new curriculum modules, and add two structured, family-based activities that will encourage and support student learning and interest in science careers. Families will be invited to attend a FSN onboard the SAL at the school, and a Field Trip to Seattle Children’s Research Institute where families will have the opportunity to interact with scientists and see the real world possibilities of a future career in science. In addition this project will provide professional development for participating teachers to increase their knowledge of the topics addressed in the curriculum modules, so they can incorporate this knowledge and skills into their classroom practices. It is our hope that by adding these structured activities for families we’ll be able to augment the gains that we already see from the SAL program.
To learn more about this exciting new project please visit http://www.seattlechildrens.org/SEPA.
Dr. Becky Howsmon, Senior Scientist joined the Science Adventure Lab team in 2012 and has quickly become an invaluable instructor. Becky received her Bachelor’s Degree in biology from Seattle Central Community College and the University of Washington, and then spent two years working at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center before moving to Berkeley, California for graduate school. She received her Ph.D. in Infectious Diseases and Immunity from the University of California at Berkeley, before returning to Seattle to continue her research at our very own Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
In addition to Becky’s science research background, she also brings to the program many years of teaching experience. She has taught science classes at UC Berkeley and has been a tutor for various programs that serve underrepresented youth. For the past three years she has also lead science activities for kids attending the Arthritis Foundation’s summer KAT-FISH camp.
Becky is passionate about sharing her enthusiasm for science, and loves teaching kids about how our bodies help us stay healthy.
John M. Daniel, Mobile Lab Scientist joined the team in September, 2012. He attended the University of Washington where he worked as a Laboratory Assistant and received his Bachelors of Science degree in Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology. Since graduation, John has worked for several years assisting children and adults in physical therapy clinics. John’s job experience also includes working at Cedar Heights Middle School in Kent, where he worked with children with disabilities and developed a passion for education.
As our new Mobile Lab Scientist, John is responsible for preparing materials and equipment for our school visits and has recently begun instructing some of the classes onboard the Science Adventure Lab. He is also fluent in Spanish, which is a great resource for us due to the large number of Spanish speaking communities we visit.
John enjoys the enthusiastic responses from the kids after they have completed their science experiments onboard the Science Adventure Lab; a few of his favorites can be seen on the previous page!
David Moise, Mobile Lab Scientist/Driver also joined the team in September. His primary job is to maintain the Science Adventure Lab and to drive the lab to the schools we visit all around Washington state. He also assists students with their experiments while onboard the Science Adventure Lab.
David has a Masters Degree in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles and technology teaching degrees from Laney College and California State University, Los Angeles. His background includes many years of teaching photography and graphics technology and production at the high school and community college levels, along with several years driving buses for King County Metro.
As a new member of the team, David is thrilled to combine his love of teaching and working with people of all ages, with his experience driving large vehicles. One of David’s greatest joys is seeing the look of excitement and awe on the students’ faces when they climb aboard the Science Adventure Lab for the first time.
Community Health Nurse Ann Wahl RN visits schools, camps and childcare centers to give presentations on Food Allergies and training on Epinephrine Auto Injectors. The program is funded by the Food Allergy Initiative.
Ann recently received first prize at the National Association of School Nurse Meeting for her research poster entitled “The Evaluation of a Food Allergy and Epinephrine Auto Injector Training Program for Personnel Who Care for Children in Schools and Community Sites.” The poster highlighted the results of a 4 year study in which 4,984 individuals at 262 schools and community sites received food allergy education and epinephrine pen training. The study showed that in-person training can increase knowledge and self-confidence in preventing, recognizing and treating allergic reactions.
To request a presentation from Nurse Wahl, email her at foodallergy@seattlechildrens.org or call 206-884-1012. Visit http://www.seattlechildrens.org/foodallergy/ for more information.
We accept applications for Science Adventure Lab visits from principals and teachers throughout the school year. Applications are reviewed by our selection committee, which meets regularly. We receive many more requests for visits than we can accommodate, so unfortunately, we are unable to visit every eligible school that applies. All applicants will be notified of the decision of the selection committee as soon as possible.
To learn more about the application process, or to request an application, please visit the Science Adventure Lab Visit Information page.
Launching this June, Seattle Science Festival is the region’s first large-scale community-wide celebration of science and technology that will bring hands-on exhibits, shows, demonstrations and performances to venues throughout the Pacific Northwest. All events will provide experiences that educate, engage and inspire an interest in science and technology and stimulate imagination and innovation. The Science Adventure Lab will be a featured partner at the Science Expo Day on June 2, and is an organizer of the June 8 South Lake Union Science Trek, a Festival Week highlight.
Science festivals are large-scale, community-wide celebrations of science and technology spread across many days and diverse venues. They are proven to affect awareness of and interest in science, and often serve as a defining moment in a year-round educational effort. Such festivals are now more visible than ever, with over 100 celebrations planned worldwide in 2012. Each festival is a unique platform for science, and scientists, often presenting science in unusual venues and in unexpected ways, upending stereotypes and expectations. Festival events break down traditional representations of science, transforming the way the public perceives and participates in science. Festivals build relationships directly with underserved communities, inspiring youth to consider science career paths.
The inaugural Seattle Science Festival will be held in June 2012 coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. The World’s Fair, also known as the Century 21 Exposition, celebrated advances in science and space travel and laid out a bold vision for an inspired future. Fifty years later, this spirit of exploration and imagination sets the stage for a community-wide celebration of our region’s unique position as a hub for creativity, innovation and discovery. A broad swath of Seattle cultural institutions are actively preparing to observe this milestone and considerable community and institutional infrastructure are already in place to participate in, and support, the event.
The Science Adventure Lab is an important part of this year’s Festival’s main event, the Science Expo Day, taking place at Seattle Center on June 2. This will be a large-scale, family-friendly event at Seattle Center featuring more than 150 interactive exhibits, stage performances, and demonstrations. We will be parked at Seattle Center, near the International Fountain and will be open for tours and fun science activities.
The South Lake Union Science Trek features a group of organizations that will take participants on a journey through the diverse science behind global health, modern biology, cancer research, health and wellness, and even sailing. Activities are geared toward K-12 students and align with Washington State educational standards for science and math. Please explore the Science Trek site to learn more about the fun activities we have planned.
For full event details visit:
http://seattlesciencefestival.org
https://www.systemsbiology.org/ssf2012/index.html
The Science Adventure Lab is a member of the Mobile Laboratory Coalition, a national partnership of traveling laboratory and other dynamic education programs committed to providing equal access opportunities to science and technology education, and workforce preparation for all populations. Each year, the group meets to learn about advances in informal science education, share best practices, and collaborate with industry thought leaders. This year’s conference will held June 25-27 at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
The conference will include plenary sessions, poster presentations and workshops that address key topics such as: collecting meaningful evaluation data, incorporating next generation science standards, securing funding, and preparing students for an evolving job market.
The conference will kick off with the keynote presentation by Dr. Dimitri Christakis, Director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and an attending pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Dr. Christakis will present his research on the effects of fast-paced programming on children’s attentional capacity. Dr. Christakis’ research has been featured on the Today Show, major television networks, NPR news and many major national and international newspapers.
A plenary session presented by Theresa Britschgi, MS, Director of BioQuest (an education program hosted by Seattle BioMed http://www.seattlebioquest.org/) and Mary Margaret Welch, MS, Science Coach for the Seattle School District, will address Next Generation STEM Success Through Partnership. The speakers will present case studies of students engaged in authentic curriculum, crafted by educators and mentored by global health professionals. Research shows that students and teachers alike benefit from the opportunity to witness and participate in visual and hands-on experiences that illuminate authentic practice in STEM fields—with the greatest gains made when industry partners are cognizant of the instructional goals of their education colleagues.
Dr. Michelle Garrison, Principal Investigator at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the University of Washington, will present a plenary session on Collecting Meaningful Evaluation Data. Dr. Garrison will address how to use the scientific method to evaluate informal science education programs in order to achieve accurate, actionable results.
Conference attendees from across the continental United States and Hawaii will also give poster and workshop presentations on their programs and curricula.
Sponsors of the Conference include Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Veca Electric, and Farber Specialty Vehicles.
For more information about the conference, please visit:
http://www.adventurelab.org/MLCConference.htm
Schools have long known the value of involving families in a child’s education. Studies performed over the past thirty years have consistently found that parental involvement improves student achievement, motivation, and attitudes about school regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or educational background.
The Science Adventure Lab team has been exploring ways to increase family involvement in our program. We know that this is particularly important, as supporting science education can pose a special challenge for families. Many parents and caregivers find that communicating the relevance and importance of science in our daily lives is difficult, or they may not understand it themselves. So, one strategy we have been using to encourage this involvement is to work with teachers to hold Family Science Nights at a school following the Adventure Lab visit. The goal of these events is to provide families with an opportunity to explore, experience and talk about science together with their children. Our hope is that engaging the families of our students will reinforce the positive impact of the Science Adventure Lab visits.
During a Family Science Night event, entire families are invited onboard the Science Adventure Lab to do some extensions of the experiments their children completed earlier that day. The event includes a presentation that emphasizes the importance of science literacy in today’s world, describes other science enrichment programs, and highlights career options in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields.
Over the past two years, we’ve worked with many teachers to offer Family Science Nights. Events have been held at schools across the state, including: Hockinson Middle School in Vancouver, Clark College in southwest WA (for families of middle school students), Neah Bay (for families of elementary and middle school students), and at the administrative offices of ESD 101 in Spokane (for families of students at elementary schools in the Spokane area). Frequently, the number of attendees far exceeded our expectations and we had to distribute the groups into multiple sessions onboard the Science Adventure Lab or add a second night in order to accommodate the demand.
More and more teachers are asking for family science nights, so we are planning to offer an increased number in the 2011/12 school year. We also plan to expand our offerings with a Family Science Day here at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. Stay tuned for more information.
By Dr. Amanda Jones
After the last school visit in June, you might expect that the Science Adventure Lab team pauses to take a collective breath following a fast-paced season of travel across Washington. However, summer is actually the time when everything except school visits jumps into high gear: conferences, curriculum development, fundraising, vehicle maintenance and a variety of student and teacher visits to the Research Institute.
The “summer” started quickly this year, with the national Mobile Laboratory Coalition annual meeting in Rockville, MD barely two weeks after the last school visit. We demonstrated our unique respiration/asthma module at the conference, and showed off the new ‘clicker’ remote evaluation tool that was piloted this year (to find out more about the clickers, check out the Spring 2011 newsletter). After learning about new developments in other programs, we came back re-energized and excited about progress in the field, but also with the knowledge that we remain on the cutting-edge of mobile science education.
Just days after returning from the conference, our season of special events began. First, we took the Science Adventure Lab to the races as part of the SOVREN Guild’s annual Pacific Northwest Historics Vintage Car Race. Next, a steady stream of students, teachers and representatives from other local outreach programs visited Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the Science Adventure Lab for education, enrichment, professional development and collaboration.
In between these events, we have been working tirelessly to develop a new module, create three videos, fine-tune some post-visit activity material, launch a new web-based interactive tool, formalize evaluation assessments, perform major maintenance on the mobile lab, and apply for numerous grants.
And of course, we have been getting ready for the new school year by scheduling over 80 visits across the state. So, as you can see, the summer is actually one of the most productive times for the Science Adventure Lab team.
By Dr. Mark Ruffo
