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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Bringing at-home STEM success into focus
STEM has left the building For a long time, advocates of STEM education have worked to bring STEM learning closer to students’ lives outside of school. This year, though, COVID has made STEM learning a part of students’ lives outside of school in ways nobody ever imagined or wanted. The pandemic has forcibly ejected STEM from the traditional in-building school environment and strewn it about in a great blurry mess spread out variably and amorphously among the home, Zoom sessions, mask-, distance...Read More
Perseverance Pays – At Home and in Space
In these times, there are many lessons to be learned, for which afterschool helps kids both prepare and develop skills. One of them is perseverance – being steadfast in doing something despite difficulty or delay, or using grit to keep on going and recover in the face of trouble, great and small. Can you think of a time that you and/or your students have needed this skill or if you know someone who did? It also means keeping your eyes on your goal and vision, on what is important to you. Can you...Read More
At-home Learning in Crisis Times (with the Cat in the Hat)
Largely at a loss Nobody has any very good answers amid the anxiety and trauma of these COVID-19 times. But efforts to help, share, and encourage each other have overflowed in online education communities, to the benefit of educators, students, and families. Floods of ideas and resources have come from countless individuals and organizations to help the millions of families whose households have suddenly become classrooms. Please, for example, go get a free download of our coloring book, What’s ...Read More
COVID-19 Academic Schedule
What a time!! Everything is out of quack, that is why now, more than ever, children need an academic schedule. When things are out of hand, a schedule is something that is consistent and makes the unpredictable a little more normal. Within each time frame there is a general topic: reading, math, STEM, etc. that sets up an expectation that during a certain time of the day attention will be dedicated to that topic. What students learn within that hour should have student input. Allowing students t...Read More
A Step Beyond –Youth Team Up And Advance Their Curiosity for Space
Kids are naturally curious, wondering about everything around them, and growing in their journey of figuring out life. Each youth comes into an afterschool program with a unique background and experience – and that is reflected in their own story, perspective, and skills. In afterschool, kids can have experiences where they are guided to deepen their curiosity, develop open communication, make careful and thoughtful observations of the world around them, and learn to work with others as a team. ...Read More
Healthy Kids on a Budget: Discount Store Scavenger Hunt
Back-to-school is here! Like most educators, you probably spend money out of your own pocket for supplies, enrichment materials, treats, and rewards. I recently went to my local discount store with $20 and a mission to find simple things to bring healthy afterschool to life. Check out my finds and corresponding activities below, then share your ideas in the comment section. Supply list: neon tape, plastic orange cones, math flashcards, animal flashcards, foam activity ball, wooden clothespins, p...Read More
Algorithms with Empathy
The algorithms, math, hardware, physics, engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence behind breakthrough discoveries like those spearheaded by Elon Musk and his teams require a person to be emotionally, socially, and physically prepared for the failures and successes of attempting to reimagine and change our world. I watched with great admiration as one of the most successful human beings of our time, possibly in all human history, cried at the thought of his heroes knocking him f...Read More
STEM Ready America Report Shows Off Afterschool STEM Learning
The story of the year in afterschool STEM learning just might have come out this week in Washington, DC. At the National Press Club, people from all corners of the afterschool STEM world gathered to learn about STEM Ready America, a new report on afterschool STEM that effectively defines the national paradigm for activities in the field. Program leaders and policy thinkers, corporate and non-profit executives and funders, STEM educators and researchers from all levels discussed, reviewed, and en...Read More
Findings From an Afterschool STEM Learning Initiative: Links to Professional Development and Quality STEM Learning Experiences
The third issue of the Journal of Expanded Learning Opportunities (JELO) has arrived! This spring issue launched at the 2016 BOOST Conference and features a conversation about quality programming in afterschool, an article on the role that social-emotional learning can play to close the achievement and learning gaps, and an article focusing on the links between professional development and quality STEM learning experiences. You can visit the first week’s installment about social emotional ...Read More
It’s (Out-of-School) Time for Engineering
In at least two ways, out-of-school programs are little different from their school-day counterparts. For one, STEM education is popular and widely available. Nearly 70 percent of out-of-school programs offer some kind of STEM content. For another, engineering, the “E” in STEM, is the least developed part of the picture. As with K-12 schools, out-of-school programs focus far more on science and math. Engineering, the driving force behind all the tools and technologies that make our l...Read More
STEM Anyone? Everyone?
STEM isn’t one of my areas of expertise. As a consultant, I’ve spent time with hundreds of programs. I’m clear that there really are fifth graders who know much more than I do about robotics, coding and engineering design and are better at algebra than I ever will be. I love my time with high school students who are excited about 3-D printers – especially when they make cases for my iPhone. But I really have no idea how this works. I’m probably in the top 10% of folks my ...Read More
Engineering Challenges Promote 21st-Century Skills and Engage Youth
Asia Society and BOOST Collaborative are partnering to create a series of blogs on global learning in out-of-school time. This blog entry was originally published on EdWeek’s Global Learning Blog. This entry was written by guest bloggers Natacha Meyer, Senior Curriculum Developer, and Tania Tauer, Senior Curriculum Developer, from the Museum of Science Boston. STEM Training Today’s unprecedented push to train students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) has been pri...Read More
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