Bring STEM Alive Through Community Collaboration

A museum is the perfect conduit of content knowledge and community resources. Museums have strong networks with community organizations and leaders from which they receive in-kind and financial support. The New England Air Museum has developed a business partners program that provides services such as meeting space to local businesses in return for annual financial support. Museum educators are well informed of school curriculum goals and the school calendar in order to best serve their constituency. The museum's Director of Educational Programs meets with school principals and/or curriculum directors to discuss how to best support curriculum goals in STEM areas. Museums have educational missions that can be alligned with formal educational goals and produce meaningful and relevant programs that schools do not have the time and means of developing. Enclosed are sample letters of support from schools. Museums provide professional development for teachers in their content area and demonstrate teaching using the process of inquiry. The New England Air Museum offers a free educator's membership to any teacher. The museum's Director of Development then brings a school's letter of interest to a local business that has an interest in developing students' skill base in STEM subjects and invites them to see the "SOAR for Science" program in action at their local museum. If the business is impressed and recognizes the ties being made between school instruction and real world applications, the business realizes that by supporting such programs they are supporting their schools and museums while inspiring their students to explore careers in STEM and become better prepared to join their workforce. Museums collaborate with their peers at other museums and have the opportunity to coordinate schedules and build on each other's content areas. This provides the opportunity to develop a pipeline of experiences for students who want to further pursue a particular field in STEM. It is the museum that engages each member of the partnership and makes the collaboration work.

Accountability for students' successful STEM learning outcomes is measured by student performance in science, teacher feedback, letters of recommendation from school administrators, and student's choices to pursue other programs (move down the pipeline) in aviation/aerospace engineering.

Examples of ADMINISTRATOR FEEDBACK:

“Your staff has done a wonderful job combining concepts taught in our science curriculum with hands-on projects. Teachers and students truly enjoy the trip to the museum and the activities that have enabled them to apply abstract terms to concrete examples.”
- East Hartford Schools

“The opportunities you provided our students went well beyond what we can do in the classroom and we consider your program a valuable learning experience for our students.”
– Tolland Schools

“Programs like the New England Air Museum’s are critical to building student – and teacher – interest in science. We are already aligning lessons and pacing charts to accommodate this spring’s visits to the museum.”
- Middletown Schools

“The opportunity to go to the museum, design a group airplane, make modifications and test their designs while surrounded by the museum’s aircraft creates interest in science in a way that classroom learning alone cannot.”
– Windsor Locks Schools

“This program is now a part of the eighth grade Science curriculum. By having the students explore the laws of motion through flight; students came away with a deeper understanding of concepts and heightened excitement for Science.”
– Suffield Schools

Examples of TEACHER FEEDBACK:

“Despite our concerns about our student’s behavior, they all remained positively engaged and stayed on task extremely well. You know the program is good when the third graders tell you they want to get to fourth grade so they can come to the museum.”

“This is a tremendous resource for our students! Our curriculum is now designed on a student visit to NEAM!”

“Thank you! We see this as a valuable education experience that our children would otherwise never have.”

“Very well done. Kids definitely benefit from this program.”

“The experiences that you provide our students are outstanding. Many of them go back to the museum with their families because you have stirred so much interest.”

Examples of STUDENT FEEDBACK:

"It was an honor to go there and see all the decorative planes. I like the old plane. It was really different." - Alana

"I learned a lot. It was fun to learn about the history of the planes." - Mackenzie

"The activity we did was really fun. We learned about all different kinds of planes. The guides told us about the backgrounds of a few planes. We got to do hands-on experiments." - Ava

"The air museum was by far the most interesting. Learning the cool facts was the part that everybody in the room enjoyed." - Sean

Students who have participated in the "SOAR for Science" program are invited to attend summer workshops and special events that build on their newfound interest in aviation.

The museum would like to be recognized for its innovative program and ability to pool commmunity resources to benefit students and their schools. Research supporting the effectiveness of formal and informal educators working together should be shared in professional publications and eventually supported by educational reform. Statistics on the impact of "SOAR for Science" on students' decisions to pursue a career in aviation/aerospace engineering should be gathered over a ten year period.

Museums have tremendous resources to support such a program including volunteer help with a strong skill base, a large engaged membership, access to unique artifacts and innovative ideas, and role models in their fields of specialty. These resources can be made available to schools to enhance STEM education at little or no cost through community collaboration.