• Generating Engagement and New Initiatives for All Latinos
  Generando Entusiasmo y Nuevas Iniciativas para Audiencias Latinas
  The GENIAL Summit, funded by the NSF, was held June 5–6, 2017, at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. Ninety-one practitioners, community leaders, media specialists, and researchers from across the United States and Puerto Rico participated. The Summit was organized around five major strands that are central to thinking about how to engage Latino audiences in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM):
  • Latino Audiences
  • Marketing, Communications, and Media
  • Community Collaboration and Empowerment
  • Organizational Change
  • Relevant STEAM Experiences
  • Each strand was guided by its own "big idea," which was co-developed by the strand leaders and panelists. Each strand had a different format, including a mix of panel discussions, presentations, interviews, and audience Q&A.

• What Parents Talk About When They Talk About Learning: A National Survey About Young Children and Science
  Released in March 2018, this study from the Education Development Center and SRI Education found that:
  • Nearly all parents, regardless of income or education level, think it is important to help their young children learn, especially social skills, literacy, and mathematics.
  • Most parents say they are confident about their ability to teach their young children literacy, math, and social skills. Fewer parents are confident about science. Parents with less formal education are less likely to feel confident in helping their children learn than are parents with more education.
  • Nine out of ten parents report doing learning activities with their children daily. About half of parents report doing science-related activities with their children daily.
  • To do more science, parents want ideas and resources to build their knowledge and confidence for helping their children learn science. Seven of 10 parents say that knowing what young children need to learn about science, and having ideas for doing science with everyday materials, would help them do a lot more science.

• STEM Starts Early: Grounding Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education in Early Childhood
  Winter 2017
  This study from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and New America, was funded by the NSF to:
  • better understand the challenges to and opportunities in STEM learning as documented in a review of early childhood education research, policy, and practice;
  • make recommendations to help stimulate research and policy agendas; and
  • encourage collaboration between pivotal sectors to implement and sustain needed changes.

  The study highlights the important roles that parents and museums play in supporting early STEM learning.

• Harnessing the Power of Explanation - Talking with Schools and Families about Afterschool STEM
  Relationships with families and schools are a key component to afterschool program quality. Communication between educators and families is key to building these relationships. This guide provides easy and readily adaptable messages for afterschool program staff to communicate STEM program happenings and to share the children's engagement and development with their families.
  

  Additional Afterschool Resources

  • Afterschool Alliance Special Reports
    The Afterschool Alliance publishes a variety of special reports on afterschool programs. The latest one addresses afterschool issues in communities of concentrated poverty. There is also a state dashboard where you can look up afterschool numbers for your state.
  • Afterschool Alliance STEM Resources
    A source for afterschool research, program profiles and other great resources.
  • Afterschool Stem Hub
    A source for tools and resources for STEM communications and advocacy including a comprehensive afterschool STEM messaging toolkit

• DOE & HHS Policy Statement on Supporting the Development of Children Who Are Dual Language Learners in Early Childhood Programs
  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Education have issued a joint policy statement providing recommendations that promote the development and learning of young children who are dual language learners (dll).
  

  Additional Resources

  • U.S. DOE Fact Sheet
  • White House Fact Sheet: Supporting DLL in Early Learning Settings
  • DOE English Learner Toolkit
  • HHS Dual Language Learner Toolkit

• Family Engagement and Latino Students' Decisions About College
  Sylvia Acevedo, chair of the Early Learning Subcommittee of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, writes about the struggles first-generation students and their families face when making decisions about college.

• Parents as Agents of Change
  In this article from the Harvard Family Research Project's FINE Newsletter Sandra Gutierrez, national director of Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors program, shares her vision of how families are fundamental to transforming the lives of our children and our communities. The Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors program was developed by and for Latino parents of young children to address opportunity gaps. [Este artículo también está disponible en español como Padres de Familia como Agentes de Cambio.]

• Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum
  The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum (LVM) is a cross-platform immersive education initiative based on bilingual mixed media experiences that highlight the Smithsonian's art and science collections as they relate to U.S. Latinos. The LVM provides a Teacher Tool Kit that supports educators with integrating LVM resources into their existing STEM +Arts programs. The Educator Training and materials are geared towards grades 5-8.

• Smithsonian Latino Center
  The Smithsonian Latino Center is an educational outreach and research center dedicated to promoting Latino presence throughout the Smithsonian Institution. The Center works collaboratively with Smithsonian museums and research centers to ensure that contributions of the Latino community in the arts, history, national culture and scientific achievement are explored, presented, celebrated and preserved.

• Aprender es Triunfar
  Aprender es Triunfar es una iniciativa de la cadena de televisión Telemundo que tiene como meta animar a los estudiantes latinos a proseguir estudios en ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería, artes y matemáticas (STEAM, acrónimo en inglés). La página web de Aprender es Triunfar proporciona muchos recursos y herramientas útiles para ayudar a los estudiantes a prepararse para los estudios en campos STEAM.

• Creating Equitable Ecologies Broadening Access Through Multilingualism.pdf
  Museums reflect the practices of the dominant culture within the particular society in which they are located. This article examines the effects of museums offering texts, cultural artifacts and experiences in English only, which function to exclude patrons, often visiting in family groups, from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This article includes explanations of various theoretical frameworks that help to explain how the construction and dynamism of social boundaries impact museum participation and guide considerations about designing and implementing bilingual and multilingual practices.

• America After 3PM National Report
  This report spans a decade of data chronicling how children spend the hours between 3 and 6 p.m. — the hours after school ends and before parents typically return home from work. It highlights the trends of afterschool program participation, documents the benefits associated with participation in afterschool programs and measures public support for afterschool programs.

• America's Hispanic Children: Gaining Ground, Looking Forward
  This report presents a rich and nuanced statistical portrait of America's Latino children, drawn from the latest nationally-representative data. It is a complex picture. Some facets will be familiar, while others are less well known. All have important economic and social implications, particularly with respect to education as the pathway to fulfilling aspirations and to full participation in the life of the nation.

• Leave Them Wanting More!: Engaging Youth in Afterschool
  Afterschool programs are a powerful influence in the lives of young people, but their benefits can only be realized if youth are engaged. This commentary explores the different dimensions of youth engagement in afterschool programs and offers promising practices for those seeking to promote and foster youth engagement.

• Museum Managed STEM Programs in Out of School Settings
  This report examines the impact and value of museum managed programs STEM programs on school-age children’s understanding of STEM concepts and practices as well as their interest and engagement in STEM.

APEX Science Resources

A Bird's Eye View / A vista de pájaro

• Project Beak Bird Education and Awareness for Kids
  A great resource for information about birds.

Design and Construct It! / ¡Diséñalo y constrúyelo

• Can Kids Be Inventors Too?
  This website inspires kids to be inventors by encouraging them to use their imaginations to solve problems.
• Interactive Bridge Building
  Take the opportunity to experience one of the greatest engineering feats of ancient times: Xerxes’ bridge over the Hellespont. Phoenician and Egyptian engineers built this marvel in 480 B.C. – and this site allows students to build their own bridge to cross the Hellespont!

Can You Hear Me? / ¿Puedes escucharme?

• Sound Facts and Information
  A great resource for information about sound.

Let's Rock! / Magníficos minerales

• One Geology Kids
  OneGeology Kids helps kids investigate geology, from volcanoes to dinosaurs.
• Chemistry of Petroleum 3: Distillation of Hydrocarbons
  Students learn how hydrocarbons in crude oil are distilled and treated in the refinery process to produce useful materials.

Water Works / Fuente de la vida

• The USGS Water Science School
  This resource from the U. S. Geologic Survey offers information on many aspects water for kids and adults.

You Are What You Eat / Eres lo que comes

• Food Web: Facts
  Information about the food chain and the predator/prey relationship.

Up, Up and Away! / ¡Sube, sopla y vuela!

• Parachutes, Gravity And Air Resistance
  This resource provides an informative discussion of the physical concepts involved in how a parachute works.

The Sun, Our Star / El Sol, nuestra estrella

• What is Radiant Energy?
  Learn about radiant energy and how it is used.