Science Firsthand: Partners in Discovery
In 2005, First Hand Learning, Inc., partnered with the St. Louis Science Center, the National Wildlife Federation, and eNature to create a unique collaborative program that enables young people to participate in long-term scientific investigations in life, earth and physical sciences, and technology. Supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (DRL-0452246), Science Firsthand has provided hundreds of urban, underserved youth (10 – 15 year olds) with opportunities to explore the world around them in afterschool settings. Adult mentors have been weekly co-investigators, participating in a wide range of youth-directed explorations: comparing snow samples under microscopes; dismantling simple appliances; blowing bubbles; dissecting root systems; and collecting insects. Through a carefully designed support system, this project has made individual and small group mentoring the catalyst for youth doing science in afterschool, community-based settings including museums, community centers, churches, and Boys & Girls Clubs in Buffalo, NY, St. Louis, MO, and Albuquerque, NM.
Science Firsthand has identified a set of support strategies that, taken together, they find provide the necessary infrastructure for a science-focused afterschool program to flourish. This infrastructure includes a dedicated space where mentors and youth can meet and work, managers who train volunteer mentors, and relationships with local colleges to provide a continuing supply of mentors from service-learning and work-study programs. Science Firsthand also equips “science labs” in the community-based organizations with everyday materials and simple tools -- microscopes, plant presses, collection jars, sweep nets, and hand lenses -- which are essential to support a variety of youth-initiated investigations. Participants record their findings in an online science journal. A set of “Trial Pursuits” offers mentors and mentees activities to initiate and stimulate firsthand inquiry.
As a result of Science Firsthand, community-based organizations in participating regions have access to training, staffing, and a support system to provide youth-driven science experiences in informal afterschool learning environments. Science Firsthand's participating organizations report a growing interest in learning and in science among at-risk youth as a result of their relationships with mentors and the opportunity to pursue topics of their own choosing. This engagement with self-selected learning contrasts with the sometimes scripted and tested teaching environments of the classroom. Responding to this enthusiasm, many community organizations have pledged to support the continuation of the program from their own limited resources when funding from the National Science Foundation ends.
Photo by Ben O'Brien, First Hand Learning, Inc., March, 2010.