Having Fun With The National Science Foundation

One of the best parts of my job is spending time with other educators and thinkers: sharing best practices, exchanging ideas, developing collaborations. I recently spent nine days on the road doing National Science Foundation (NSF) related work. First stop, San Francisco where I gathered with colleagues on the MAPPD project (Museums Afterschool: Principles, Data and Design) at the Exploratorium, the seminal hands-on museum of science, art, and human perception. We have been collecting and reviewing video segments from our programs with the aim to create a framework to analyze out-of-school science learning. Fabulous bonus: Playing in the Exploratorium.

I then headed to NSF headquarters in Arlington VA to sit on a Discovery Research K-12 grant review panel. While I cannot give any details – top secret stuff - I can say that I learned a great deal in those two days and enjoyed meeting some amazing educators and advocates. Fabulous bonus: Time to actually apply learnings to the Salvadori Center’s next grant to this federal agency!

Finally, I wrapped things up in Washington DC at the CAISE (Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education) a gathering of 400 practitioners who oversee science programming in museums, afterschool programs and other informal settings. Days of discussion were followed with networking receptions. I got to see old friends and make some new ones. Fabulous bonus: The comedic stylings of the brilliant Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.