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Informal Science Education Consortium 

Description

Despite our region’s status as a leader in science-related industries, many local students graduate without an adequate foundation in science and math. The achievement gap is especially pronounced for minority and low-income students.

Six major Seattle institutions have come together to address this issue. Called the Informal Science Education Consortium, partners include The Burke Museum, Islandwood, Museum of Flight, Pacific Science Center, Seattle Aquarium, and Woodland Park Zoo.

Mission Statement
The Informal Science Education Consortium seeks to work together to inspire more Washington state students to pursue and engage in scientific inquiry and engineering in order to understand and participate in solving our world’s most challenging problems.
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Informal Science Education Consortium
601 N. 59th St. 
Seattle 
WA
98103 
(206) 548-2500 

Dr. Deborah B. Jensen 
President and CEO of Woodland Park Zoo 

Programs

Informal Science Education Consortium Programs

The proposed consortium will allow the ISE partners to move beyond “transient” or one-time programs. Three prosed program initiatives, currently in the formative evaluation phase, will create a continuum of support for K-12 teachers and students, with the goal of improving student achievement and interest in STEM.

Elementary school:  Provide teacher professional development in STEM content and methods to improve elementary STEM instruction, and to increase student achievement and interest in STEM.

Middle school:  Provide after-school programs linked to state learning standards to increase student achievement and interest in STEM fields.

High school:  Provide a summer intensive internship program to increase student achievement and support interest in college level study in STEM fields.

The initiatives are built as a pipeline with each step representing a higher level of engagement which is scaffolded and supported by the earlier initiative.  All programs link to and support Washington state learning standards.

Recent Successes and Current Challenges

The ISE partners have established a solid foundation for collaborating to improve STEM education in our state. We now request funding to hire a director and evaluator. Tasks will include developing a business plan, conducting focus groups with stakeholders, identifying partners, refining program initiatives. If fully funded, we will achieve the following by December, 2012.

Outcome 1: A complete business plan is developed including:

  • Case for support
  • Measurable learning outcomes for Consortium programs
  • Implementation schedule and evaluation plan for Stage Two
  • Community partner identification
  • Financial plan (including articulating the future resources, funding sources, and income streams necessary to move forward once pilot programming is over).

Outcome 2: Interviews/focus groups with key stakeholders (school districts, teachers, students, underserved communities) have been completed.

  • Community needs have been defined
  • Feedback on the three Consortium initiatives has been collected
  • Potential partner organizations and the resources each collaborator might bring to the partnership have been indentified.

Outcome 3: Preparations for Stage Two, "Pilot Phase” are complete

  • Initiative(s) to be piloted have been finalized
  • Pilot project budget(s) has been developed
  • Consortium partner roles and responsibilities for pilot implementation have been defined
  • Partnerships have been developed
  • Funds to support initial pilot programming and evaluation have been raised

 

 

 

 

Evaluation


The six institutions comprising the Informal Science Education Consortium (ISEC) have spent the past year reaching out to educators, funders, and other stakeholders in order to begin developing a collaborative approach to program delivery. In order to move beyond a disconnected array of “transient” or one-time programs, ISEC organizations will create a continuum of support for K-12 teachers and students with the goal of improving student interest and achievement in Science, Math, Technology and Engineering (STEM) fields. ISEC anticipates a three-pronged strategy: 1) Elementary Education: teacher professional development in STEM content and methods; 2) Middle School: after-school programming aligned with state learning-standards; and 3) High School: intensive summer internship program to increase student interest and achievement in college-level STEM work.

In order to move into a more formal planning and implementation phase, the Consortium is raising private funding to hire an executive director, program evaluator, and underwrite costs related to business plan development. Once the plan is completed later this year, ISCE will begin piloting its first set of collaborative education initiatives.

Sustainability
ISEC has been successful in raising the private funding necessary to hire an executive director and complete its initial design and planning phase, which will include a fundraising feasibility study. Participating institutions seek to ensure that funders won’t ultimately choose to support the Consortium at the expense of investing in individual partners. While no clear strategy yet exists to mitigate these concerns, a fundraising feasibility study will be conducted as part of this year’s business planning process.

Collaboration
ISEC’s six partners have worked closely together for more than a year to explore opportunities for collaboration. All have demonstrated openness to making substantial changes to their education programs (where and how they are delivered, how they are marketed, etc) in order to create a more accessible, seamless range of offerings for K-12 students and teachers.

Grant History with The Seattle Foundation:

Grants Awarded through The Seattle Foundation Grantmaking Program:

DateAmountPurpose
There are no recent grants awarded to this organization.

Financials

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