Breakfast Club Blog
The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is a curated space where bloggers from around the world contribute content on a continual basis about a variety of topics relevant to in and out-of-school time. The BOOST Breakfast Club blog is at the heart of an ongoing dialogue where expanded learning and education professionals share their personal thoughts and stories from the in and out-of-school time field. They also tell us what they ate for breakfast!
The BOOST Breakfast Club Blog is Brain Food for In and Out-of-School Time Leaders!
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We’ve All Got a Spark. Let’s Light a Fire!
We have the power to light a fire in every child with whom we work. It only takes one person to change a child’s life. Think back on your educational influences and you will likely find someone who lit a fire in you that still burns today. Across the country I’ve asked leaders, “What childhood science experiences do you remember?” People share about baking soda volcanoes, science fairs, field trips, and dissections that lit a spark in them. I never hear about textbooks. D...Read More
Kids Are Natural Scientists—Let Them Take the Lead!
Science is based on curiosity and finding evidence. Giving kids opportunities to roll up their sleeves and understand the world around them by looking for evidence is a great way to be a “guide on the side” rather than a formal teacher or science expert. By letting the children lead, watching what they do, and asking questions, you empower them to follow their natural curiosity. By encouraging them to help one other and share ideas and materials, you help them build important social skills. Scie...Read More
The Science and Art of Helping Kids Love Physical Activity
Creating a physical activity program for grade schoolers that engages all children involved is both a science and an art. The science of child development, motivational psychology, and human behavior help us create an enriching program. The art of creating a fun, play-like, inclusive environment gets all kids excited to participate. Using imaginative, play-based activities to introduce critical developmental skills is a perfect culmination of the art and science behind getting kids to enjoy bec...Read More
Youth Development’s Hippocratic Oath
Editor’s Note: this blog is used with permission from the author. It was first published on October 14th, 2016 at https://arancibia.org/rodrigoblog/2016/10/14/youth-developments-hippocratic-oath. In 1964, Louis Lasagna, the academic dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, looked at the work of Hippocrates and crafted the modern version of the Hippocratic Oath that is used in many medical schools today. This galvanizing text is used as a declaration for the medical field to ra...Read More
Out-of-School, Out-of-the-Box, and Out of This World!
The act of imagining other places, other worlds, is the stuff of explorers, adventurers, science fiction writers – and KIDS! Imagination is something that kids have naturally, and out-of-the-box thinking is a valued creative 21st century skill. Encouraging the kids in your out-of-school program to imagine other worlds, places beyond Earth, can help grow this skill. Couple it with some thought experiments to engage with science – what if earth was closer to our sun, or further away? What if our s...Read More
Breakthrough Episode Six Recap: Water Apocalypse
Breakthrough is produced by Hollywood power players Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and their Imagine Entertainment company. Each week a different actor or director will delve into real world, human stories that connect the ways that science impacts our lives. The directors include actors like Angela Bassett and Paul Giamatti, Producer/Directors like Ron Howard, Bret Ratner (X-Man) and Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind; I, Robot) and Peter Beg (Friday Night Lights). BOOST Collaborative will be publis...Read More
Breakthrough: Q&A with Executive Producer Kurt Sayenga
Breakthrough is produced by Hollywood power players Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and their Imagine Entertainment company. Each week a different actor or director will delve into real world, human stories that connect the ways that science impacts our lives. The directors include actors like Angela Bassett and Paul Giamatti, Producer/Directors like Ron Howard, Bret Ratner (X-Man) and Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind; I, Robot) and Peter Beg (Friday Night Lights). BOOST Collaborative will be publ...Read More
Celebrate Lights On Afterschool. Hands-On Projects Inspire Students to Find the Engineer Within
“I made a new friend today,” a girl enthusiastically shared as she and her fifth-grade peers cleaned up after making polymers. These girls come together once a week and work through science and engineering activities in an afterschool program hosted by Techbridge. We challenge them to work with students that they don’t know and measure success when we see them supporting each other. It’s a sign that afterschool programs are not only fostering and expanding opportunities f...Read More