AISL Workshop Series: Understanding the Challenges to Achieving Best Practice in Afterschool Science

教育发展中心公司（EDC）将在新泽西州、堪萨斯州和加利福尼亚州举办为期两天的研讨会，为20多个州的地区和州级课后科学教育领导人举办研讨会，这些领导人与国家课后科学合作伙伴关系（NPASS）、Design It！探索它！课后科学活动。这些研讨会的目的是加强NPASS网络现有成员和潜在成员之间的联系，并为课后领域的未来研究确定问题，旨在增加对课后科学项目如何成功或失败的理解。尽管目前缺乏维护或扩展该网络的集中支持，但其许多成员继续在其所在州提供NPASS和类似NPASS的编程。这些研讨会将汇集NPASS网络中一些最有经验的领导者，以及网络之外经验丰富的课后科学倡导者和领导者。该项目建立在EDC之前15年的工作基础上，该工作开发了课后科学和工程课程，通过NPASS网络和培训师讲习班在全国范围内传播。该项目将支持推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划的总体战略，通过在各种环境中资助创新资源，加强非正式环境中的学习。这包括提供多种途径，扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深度学习的理解。区域讲习班将旨在：(1)使NPASS网络的领导人能够重新建立联系，更新他们对最佳做法和课后科学关键要素的理解和承诺；(2)收集关于实施这些实践的常见障碍的信息，以及何时、何地、为什么会发生对这些最佳实践的适应，以及他们（实践者）认为对项目质量的影响；(3)确定需要进一步研究的问题。这些讲习班的研究成果将通过一份报告向该领域广泛传播，该报告总结了讲习班的会议记录和研究成果，其中包括一份经修订的NPASS关于成功的课后科学规划实践的关键结构和教学要素的声明。

Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), will hold three two-day workshops (in New Jersey, Kansas, and California) for regional and state-level leaders in afterschool science education in more than 20 states who have been associated with the National Partnerships for After School Science (NPASS), Design It! and Explore It! afterschool science initiatives. The workshops will be designed to strengthen ties among current and prospective members of the NPASS network and to identify issues for future research for the after school field at large aimed at increasing understanding of how afterschool science programs succeed or fail. Despite the current absence of centralized support to maintain or expand this network, many of its members continue to offer NPASS and NPASS-like programming in their states. The workshops will bring together some of the most experienced leaders in the NPASS network as well as experienced advocates and leaders of afterschool science from beyond the network. The project builds on 15 years of prior work conducted by EDC that developed afterschool science and engineering curricula that was nationally disseminated via the NPASS network and train-the-trainer workshops. The project will support the overall strategy of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program to enhance learning in informal environments through the funding of innovative resources through a variety of settings. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.The regional workshops will be designed to: (1) enable leaders of the NPASS network to re-establish ties and renew their understanding of and commitment to best practices and critical elements of afterschool science; (2) gather information about common obstacles to implementation of these practices and about when, where, and why adaptations to these best practices occur, and what they (the practitioners) believe to be the impact on program quality; and (3) identify questions for further research. The findings from these workshops will be broadly disseminated to the field via a report summarizing the proceedings and findings from the workshop, including a revised NPASS statement of critical structural and pedagogical elements on practices critical to successful afterschool science programming.