California Academy of Sciences educates their after-school programme leaders
Activity leaders for the Science Action Club receive standardised training and resources to educate environmentally-conscious students.
The challenge
Adapt leadership training and messaging for a growing programme
Founded by the California Academy of Science, Science Action Club (SAC) is a nationwide out-of-school (OST) education programme that leverages citizen science to address science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning goals to the next generation of critical thinkers and environmental stewards. To succeed at this goal, educators and activity leaders must be empowered to take students outdoors to investigate nature, contribute to authentic science research, and design strategies to protect the planet.
SAC originally trained activity leaders directly through in-person workshops, but as the programme scaled up, there was an increasing need for consistent messaging and resources. It was clear that materials needed to be created so every educator who wanted to participate in the programme could follow standardised activities with best practices for addressing STEM learning goals with youth members.
The solution
Develop scalable training for activity leaders and educators
Based on the feedback from the surveys, interviews, and other interactions, along with the team’s experience with out-of-school time educators, Science Action Club collaborated with the Mindtools Kineo design team to develop an online training user profile and high-level design document focused on two categories of online learners: novice educators and experienced educators.
The Mindtools Kineo-produced training instead uses Adapt, which maintains a high level of user interactivity within a single continuous page that guides SAC educators to advance with buttons sparingly and more strategically.
Videos are embedded into the course for a more focused viewing experience, but content is still accessed directly from third parties to accommodate licensing and permissions.
The result
Improved engagement from activity leaders to fuel a growing national presence
Overall, both the online and blended training approaches were received very well by OST educators. Activity leaders, in particular, reported feeling more prepared after the online training to lead SAC with youth, help youth connect with the natural world, and help youth build their STEM identities.
Results among both activity leaders and trainers were significant with 99% increase in satisfaction and engagement, and found the training:
- Beneficial for professional growth;
- Inspiring – increased their interest in teaching science;
- Increased their enthusiasm for leading SAC, and;
- It was helpful to exchange ideas with other educators at the ALT/ToT.
As a result of this collaborative project, SAC has grown its reach from just two clubs in San Francisco to hundreds of clubs in more than 400 cities and towns across the country. Evaluation findings show significant levels of increased youth interest, engagement, and value of STEM.