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

教育发展中心(EDC)，将举行三个为期两天的研讨会（在新泽西，堪萨斯，和加州）的地区和国家一级的领导人在课外科学教育在20多个国家谁已与国家合作伙伴关系，为课外科学（NPASS），设计它！探索它！课外科学活动。研讨会将旨在加强NPASS网络的当前和未来成员之间的联系，并确定未来研究的问题，为课后领域在大的目的是增加对课后科学计划如何成功或失败的理解。 尽管目前缺乏中央支持来维持或扩大这一网络，但其许多成员继续在各自的州提供NPASS和类似NPASS的方案。研讨会将汇集一些最有经验的领导人在NPASS网络以及经验丰富的倡导者和领导人的课外科学从网络之外。 该项目建立在教育发展中心过去15年的工作基础上，该中心开发了课后科学和工程课程，并通过全国提高学生科学和工程学水平国家方案网络和培训培训员讲习班在全国传播。 该项目将支持推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划的总体战略，通过各种设置为创新资源提供资金，加强非正式环境中的学习。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获取和参与STEM学习经验的机会，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及提高参与者对深入学习的理解。（1）使NPASS网络的领导者能够重新--建立联系，并更新他们对课外科学的最佳实践和关键要素的理解和承诺;（2）收集关于实施这些做法的常见障碍以及何时、何地和为何对这些最佳做法进行调整的信息，以及他们（从业者）认为对程序质量的影响;（3）确定进一步研究的问题。 这些讲习班的结果将通过一份总结讲习班会议记录和结果的报告，包括一份关于成功制定课后科学计划的关键做法的关键结构和教学要素的修订版NPASS声明，广泛传播到实地。

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.