Reaching Out With Science

Carnegie Science Center recently received the nation’s highest honor for community outreach by a museum-proof that its many outreach programs are fun, educational, and among the country’s best.

Middle-school kids take pride in their models at Mission Discovery.

For middle-school children in at-risk neighborhoods, the hours between 3 and 6 p.m. can be a scary time. Parents aren’t home from work, the streets aren’t safe for playing a game of tag, and many schools are unable to provide after-school programming.

Carnegie Science Center saw in this problem a void it could help fill in its own backyard. Partnering with The Hill House in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, a team of four Science Center staff set up shop in a 1,500 square-foot space at one of The Hill House buildings and transformed it into a colorful science studio, calling it Mission Discovery. Today, Mission Discovery is a fun and educational stop for middle-school kids who wouldn’t otherwise have a safe place to go after school and might never have a chance to visit Carnegie Science Center.

Three reasons for educational success: (left to right) Aleina Smith, community affairs specialist; Ron Baillie, director of Education; Kenya Boswell, education coordinator.

“We recognized we had an opportunity to make a significant impact in one of our local communities,” says Ron Baillie, director of Education for Carnegie Science Center, “and the best way to do that was to bring the Science Center into that community.”

Programs like Mission Discovery are the reason why Carnegie Science Center was named one of three recipients of the 2003 National Awards for Museum & Library Service, chosen by the Institute of Museum Services (IMLS). The IMLS is a federal grant- making agency with a presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed advisory board of 20 people representing the museum and library communities and the general public. It honors museums annually on the basis of their proven success in and commitment to community service.

In January 2004, representatives from the Science Center will travel to Washington, D.C., for the official award presentation. The prize includes a $10,000 grant, which will be used to further enhance the Science Center’s outreach programs.

“Carnegie Science Center is truly living our vision of service to the community,” says Ellsworth Brown, president of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. “Through its creative outreach, the Science Center staff, board, and volunteers continue to recognize need, break down barriers, and positively impact the region’s quality of life.”

Something for Everyone

Thirteen-year-old Mareena, a student enrolled in Mission Discovery, knows she’s getting a second dose of education at the after-school program, but she doesn’t mind. “Even though it’s a lot like school, we have more fun because we get to take care of animals and plants, go on field trips, cook, and do different science projects,” Mareena says.

Making science education fun and turning kids of all ages into lifelong explorers is an integral part of the Science Center’s mission and, therefore, an integral part of its community outreach. Before its partnership with Hill House, however, the Science Center’s outreach programs weren’t reaching children in the middle- school grades.

“Through our Science on the Road program, we help teach more than 250,000 elementary-school children a year through an array of school- assembly and classroom programs,” says Baillie. “Our Science in Your Neighborhood program is designed specifically to interest high- school students. And now, with Mission Discovery reaching middle- school children, we have something for everyone. Our goal is to create a set of learning opportunities using the Science Center’s resources that are designed for underserved students, beginning at preschool and extending through high school and even college.”

Science in Your Neighborhood is a program that turns high-school students into science mentors. Funded by the Eden Hall Foundation, the Alcoa Foundation’s Allegheny Works Initiative, and the DSF Charitable Foundation, it employs 30 highschool “Youth Explorers” and 20 middle-school apprentices who are trained to mentor kids from disadvantaged neighborhoods in after-school programs. The teenagers learn skills and receive assistance with professional development, career exploration, and college preparation, and the young children they teach learn from a role model that science, math, and technology are subjects they can have fun with.

After school, children learn from mentors in Science in Your Neighborhood.

Seventeen-year-old Maurice (pictured on the cover of this issue of CARNEGIE magazine) has been a Youth Explorer with the program since the summer of 2002. “It’s given me a lot of confidence and taught me how to take complicated subjects and make them easy to understand,” Maurice says. “Best of all, I get to work with kids my own age.”

No doubt the extensive reach and creativity of the Science Center’s many outreach programs-programs like Science in Your Neighborhood and Mission Discovery-made it a candidate for the IMLS award, the most prestigious in the museum industry. “The team at Carnegie Science Center is truly committed to increasing science literacy among all of Pittsburgh’s young people and increasing their opportunities for economic independence in adulthood,” says Dr. Robert S. Martin, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Joanna Haas, the new Henry Buhl, Jr., Director of Carnegie Science Center, notes that outreach is at the very core of what every non-profit organization should be doing. Carnegie Science Center, she says, does what’s expected-but does it exceptionally well.

“What’s wonderful about the Science Center receiving this award is not the fact that we reach out to the community-it’s our job to do that,” Haas says. “What’s truly outstanding is that this award establishes us as a leader in what is most important about what we do, which is reaching out and integrating with the community and really making a difference in peoples’ lives.”

Carnegie Science Center Outreach: Counting the Ways

Since 1994, programs such as Science In Your Neighborhood have built solid relationships with communities that cannot take advantage of the Science Center facility itself based on geographical or financial restraints. Here are some of Carnegie Science Center’s key outreach programs.

Science FUNdamentals focuses on enriching science education among the region’s youngest learners (ages 3 to 5). It was developed to complement the Allegheny County Department of Human Services’ Head Start program, an education program that serves 2,000 preschool children of low-income families annually.

“This is one of the most innovative and educationally comprehensive programs available to the children of the Head Start community,” says Head Start Program Coordinator Mickey Bradley.

Funded by the DSF Charitable Foundation, Science FUNdamentals provides children with frequent visits to the Science Center, access to scientific equipment, and hosts state-accredited workshops for teachers. It sponsors field trips, a Parents’ Night (where parents of Head Start children experience, without their kids, the programs their children participate in during field trips), free Family Days and Science on the Road (where Science Center staff visit each Head Start classroom twice a year).

Science Explorers annually provides 16 at-risk 8th graders from the North Side’s Columbus Middle School with 40 eight-hour college preparation and career exploration sessions at the Science Center. Graduates receive a paid job shadowing science professionals in Pittsburgh for six weeks every summer. This program is funded by YouthWorks and is presented in conjunction with UPMC Health System.

Mission Discovery is held five days a week, 50 weeks per year. Designed for 30 middle school students and their families, the program is held after school and during the summer in the Hill District. Students pay a limited monthly tuition fee, and parents or caregivers must volunteer at least four hours at the center monthly.

“We ask parents and caregivers to volunteer because it gives them an opportunity to become more involved in their children’s lives and helps them take ownership of the program,” says Aleina Smith, director of Community Affairs at Mission Discovery.

Funded by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation, Mission Discovery is presented in conjunction with The Hill House Association and includes activities such as caring for live plants and animals, discovering chemistry through cooking, and instruction in the use of microscopes, computers, and telescopes. The subjects relate back to the children’s homes and neighborhoods.

“If we make science, math, and technology fun and show kids how they use these often-intimidating subjects in their daily lives, they’re much more likely to develop an interest in them and retain what we’re trying to teach them,” says Jamie Saulsbery, Mission Discovery’s on-site coordinator.

Bioscience Camp, which began in the summer of 1999, is an annual summer day-camp that provides academically-average inner-city 6th grade students with the chance to explore biology by seeing an OMNIMAX movie, exploring the Science Center’s Seascape and live animal exhibits, and participating in science investigations such as growing and studying bacteria. An intensive six-day science experience at either Powdermill NatureReserve in Westmoreland County or Pymatuming Research Center is also offered. The positive impact of the program is extended with a one-year Science Center membership to every camper’s family.

“Before I came to this camp I didn’t like science that much, but now I do,” says Kerry, a 2001 camper. Another Bioscience camper, Sarah-Jane, says, “I loved it here. This is an experience I will never forget. I wish I could come hack again.”

Bioscience Camp is funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is held in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh.

Access Science works to break down barriers that may prohibit audiences from using Science Center facilities and resources. To specifically address financial barriers, Access Science distributes full or partial scholarships to qualifying community groups interested in either attending the Science Center or participating in its many classes, camps, overnighters, or special events.

The PaLS (Partners Learning Science) Program is a partnership with North Side Elementary Schools-Manchester Academic Charter School, Manchester Elementary School, and the Urban League Charter School-that creates a relationship between the Science Center and its North Side neighbors. PaLS fosters a sense of student ownership in the Science Center, and students in participating schools visit the Science Center approximately 40 times a year.

“Our time at the Science Center is filled with extraordinary experiences in helping to develop scientific awareness for both the teachers and students,” says Sheila Adams, a 2nd grade teacher at Manchester Elementary School.

Copyright Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh Jan/Feb 2004