Kids Science Challenge – New tools for proving science is COOL!
The Kids Science Challenge (KSC) aims to empower 3rd through 6th graders to discover the fun of STEM subjects, to overcome any cynicism they may have about them, and to envision themselves as bold innovators – all before becoming teenagers. Through its national online competition, KSC allows kids the opportunity to experience inquiry-based learning and engage in 3 annual science fields. Recognizing that there are certain populations who are not afforded the same exposure to online education at school or at home, KSC aims to bring this hands-on opportunity to this underrepresented demographic through after-school program partnerships as well.
About You
About You
First Name
Jim
Last Name
Metzner
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Kids Science Challenge
Organization Website
Organization Phone
845-338-0464
Organization Address
7 Lansing Lane, Kingston, NY 12401
Organization Country
United States
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States
Is your organization a
For‐profit
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Kids Science Challenge – New tools for proving science is COOL!
What change do you want to bring to the world?
The Kids Science Challenge (KSC) aims to empower 3rd through 6th graders to discover the fun of STEM subjects, to overcome any cynicism they may have about them, and to envision themselves as bold innovators – all before becoming teenagers. Through its national online competition, KSC allows kids the opportunity to experience inquiry-based learning and engage in 3 annual science fields. Recognizing that there are certain populations who are not afforded the same exposure to online education at school or at home, KSC aims to bring this hands-on opportunity to this underrepresented demographic through after-school program partnerships as well.
What are the primary activities of your project?
KSC selects 3 science topics yearly & for each, a team of expert scientists. Kids, parents & teachers can learn more about these topics at www.kidsciencechallenge.com via online tools that catalyze creative thinking: videos, hands-on activities, games, & curricula. Kids learn that scientists are regular folks, just like them & their parents. They learn that science deals with real stuff from real life & that science can help to solve problems that are part of their future.
Year 3 of KSC included: Magical Microbes, Super Stuff for Sports, & Sensational Sounds. This year, our topics will include: Meals on Mars: Come up with new ways to preserve, cook, deliver or sustainably produce food in flight or on Mars; Animal Smarts: Design a toy, game/experiment that enhances the life of a pet or zoo animal & demonstrates its intelligence; and Zero Waste: Invent a package that never has to see a landfill.
Students are presented a question and tasked to come up with a solution for one of the teams of scientists they’ve studied. Their submissions, a short essay and optional drawing, convey their unique idea and are judged by a panel of educators/scientists.
Prizes are given to winning students for each topic. Grand prize winners travel to collaborate with scientists to see their idea come alive. This work is filmed for all the KSC virtual community to see. There are additional cool prizes for the winners & runners-up as well as Kids’ Choice prizes. Free hands-on activity kits with experiments mirroring the work of KSC scientists are sent to the first 1,000 entrants yearly.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
KSC demystifies science and scientists & makes science relevant. KSC specializes in grades 3-6, engaging kids who don’t think of themselves as science types who express minimal interest in science, 2/3 of whom have never experience a science contest, club or camp. KSC website offers interactive games & activities pulling kids in as they learn about the scientific topics and methods relevant to the featured challenges. Only the KSC COPPA compliant site contains interactive games & activities designed to help kids brainstorm ideas and put their entries together. Overall the KSC site appears to be the most kid-friendly site among those reviewed by evaluators, Knight Williams. Furthermore, KSC encourages the kids to make the intellectual leap to come up with their own idea, and to think of science creatively and not to simply regurgitate information.
One parent wrote: Since participating in KSC, my son’s mind becomes active with possibilities. He dreams about ways he can use his creative scientific ideas in the future. For example, he voiced a strong desire to eradicate the world of invasive funguses before they begin to mutate & attack more vertebrates, as last year at school, his class studied the fungus that is causing certain species of frogs globally to become extinct. He began to consider applying models found in nature to other fields, just as he'd done in KSC by using model of the spider's web and applying it to the field of tree- and building- climbing safety gear .I believe it opened his mind to how science relates to many different aspects of the world.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
KSC reaches out to kids in all sectors of the US. Our promotion plan has had two basic components. The first is a grassroots effort. This effort is expanding our target markets from 40 to 50 cities across the US, where we contact Girl Scouts, 4H, homeschool organizations, after-school groups, science coordinators, libraries and museums. We reach these markets through phone and email encouraging them to put KSC brochures in their venue, and include the KSC on their list servs. This coming year the KSC will be adding additional support elements to teachers helping them to better use the KSC in their classroom.
The second is aimed at its adult audience of parents and educators, while the other at a youth demographic. Metzner’s Pulse of the Planet radio series which extensively covers the KSC topics and winners during the contest season reaches a daily audience of 425,000 adults, who listen on 209 public and commercial broadcast outlets, pulseplanet.com’s RSS feed, iTunes podscasts, and the websites of 89 newspapers nationwide. Each year of the competition, Pulse broadcasts 10 to 15 programs on every KSC scientist, with a credit line that includes the KSC website.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Since 1989, Jim Metzner has produced “Pulse of the Planet,” a radio series heard by millions weekly. Realizing he was not reaching youth, aware of challenges they were inheriting, he came up with the KSC to counter extremely low science accomplishments of students nationally by ‘hooking’ kids with fun, cool science, without dumbing material down. He was able to secure funding from the National Science Funding for the initial 4 years of the program, and has helped promote the KSC through his radio program, with programs related to the fields in the competition, as well as covering the scientists involved in the KSC.
Jim’s greatest inspiration comes from stories told by parents/teachers: a shy 3rd grader becoming a confident leader of friends as she explored science over vacation, a sick child gathering buddies to invent a tongue depressor made of candy, a 9-year-old collecting water samples from grass and turf soccer fields to compare water quality, presenting results at a major scientific conference.
Jim plans to continue the development and expansion of the KSC. He wants to expand the afterschool program from its prototype in LA to San Francisco, NYC, and Dallas and beyond. He is forming partnerships with existing programs which will facilitate this expansion. Jim is involved in every aspect of the development of these programs as executive director of KSC, and with increased funding, will be freed up to hire more staff for implementation, which will enable him to make more appearances in large gatherings and to work with the children himself.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
To measure its success, KSC has contracted Knight-Williams to conduct evaluations, using surveys & focus group discussions. Knight-Williams specializes in evaluating national science education programs. They incorporate web metrics, documentation of competitors’ demo-graphics/background information, content analysis of visitors’ contributions to the website, content analysis of competitors’ entries, and surveys of competitors, parents and professional audiences involved in local efforts.
In year 1, KSC received 770 entries, with year 2 and 3 crossing over the 1300 mark, one year reaching 1620 entries. We were pleased to learn from the Informal Education Division of the NSTA that the KSC had achieved results in its first two years equal to or better than most current national science competitions. We were also proud to receive the Parents Choice Award for our website.
In the third year of the competition which just completed, the KSC and Pulse of the Planet (PoP) websites received a combined 18,000 daily hits and 4,400 daily sessions. To date, 2762 educators have downloaded the free KSC curricula aligned to national standards. KSC has reached over 7,500 kids through special events such as the Cambridge Science Festival, NY Maker Faire (where our booth received an Editor’s Choice Blue Ribbon), LA Girl Scouts Family Days, Yuri’s Night, and after-school workshops in LA. KSC winners have been featured in national media: NBC’s Today Show, NPR’s Science Friday, Time Magazine for Kids, and Scholastic’s Super Science as well as being featured in local media in winners’ hometowns.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
More than 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
More than 10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Over the next 3 years, the KSC will strengthen its afterschool component of its programming, ensuring that thousands of kids without computers in school or at home can be exposed to its creative curriculum. By working with established on-the-ground partners, we will efficiently reach thousands of underserved kids with substantive science. Over the next years, this model will be strong enough to replicate across the country. We are also planning partnerships with museums and technology centers so that we can reach kids who are exposed to science via an occasional field trip to a museum. By working with education coordinators at these sites, the KSC curriculum/contest can be brought to kids who otherwise would not have discovered the material.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Our primary limitation is funding. Having been funded by the NSF for 4 years (one for planning plus our first 3 years of the competition), we recently learned that in these times of extreme budget cuts, and fierce competition for existing grants, our NSF grant was not renewed. We have been encouraged to reapply this coming year, addressing some of the issues they wanted us to respond to. We can not count on this grant, so we are pursuing other potential sources of funding. We operate a very tight ship, and the staff we can afford this year will work hard to keep the program moving forward. We will benefit for sure from the systems that have been put in place over the past four years so carefully. We currently have funding for this fourth year of the competition, but will need to expend a fair amount of time raising new revenue for the KSC. We have also applied for 501c3 status, which will certainly help us be eligible for sources of grants we could not apply for before now.
We are engaging with corporations in various regions of the country to become sponsors of local competitions and local afterschool programming. In this way, we aim to partner with such a local business to both fund the area programs as well as potentially provide mentors. These sponsors, being local, will be encouraged to remain long-term partners.
Our limitations are negligible compared to the energy and commitment and devotion of our KSC team. We are working hard to develop partnerships that will position us even more favourably for funding.
Tell us about your partnerships
As mentioned, our primary partnership is with radio program, Pulse of the Planet. Because of the KSC Director’s connection with both organizations, the extensive reach of Pulse not only brings news of KSC and its topics and scientists into homes all around the country, but Jim Metzner’s name recognition opens many doors.
We are currently developing our after-school program so that we can reach more underserved kids who may not have computer access in school or at home. This past year, with help from an American Honda Foundation grant, the KSC pilot a very successful after-school program in LA. In this prototype we partnered with a local organization that ran an afterschool program for Title 1 kids in Los Angeles, and who was eager to use the KSC curriculum and bring STEM education to their students. We are now exploring relationships with organizations like TASC (The Afterschool Corporation) and PASE (Partnership for Afterschool Education) in NYC as well as other afterschool organizations in SF and around the country. Additionally we are in conversations with museums such as the Lawrence Hall of Science, NY Hall of Science, and the Dallas/Ft Worth Museum of Science, exploring ways that the KSC activities can serve the children visiting the museum, extending our reach, while connecting our science topics to existing exhibits in the museums.
With our new nonprofit status (pending till fall 2011), we are eager to deepen these budding relationships, partnering to both broaden our reach into underserved communities, as well as broadening our reach into funding circles.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$500,001‐1 million
Explain your selections
As mentioned above, the first 4 years of the KSC were funding primarily by the National Science Foundation. The first year was a planning year, and the next 3 years unfolded the first 3 competition cycles. This past year, the American Honda Foundation joined us with a significant grant, funding an afterschool program in Los Angeles. We partnered with Woodcraft Rangers, Synergy and other after-school groups to conduct a series of workshops for kids who have had very little experience with science. Hands-on activities were followed by mentored brainstorming sessions in which kids were encouraged to take the intellectual leap to come up with their own science ideas. We received over 200 KSC entries from youth attending these workshops. At times, we have had corporate support to enable us to attend regional events.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
During the next three years the KSC will continue to strengthen the foundation of national competition, engaging more students in the KSC materials and competition. We will also further develop a strong model for reaching into underserved populations in urban areas by marrying the KSC program with existing, strong after-school programs. The need, during times of extreme budget cuts, is great to ensure that our underserved children are not left out of the STEM fields at a time where as never before, all young people need a basic understanding of science to move forward.
We will strengthen our project by developing partnerships around the country with organizations who are already established in their area as experts in afterschool education. We will not be reinventing the wheel but rather adding value to their existing successful programs, utilizing local expertise to identify the best programs to introduce the KSC curriculum in, using these regional organizations to supervise and monitor and evaluate their local programs.
As the afterschool programs are strongly in place, we are considering offering regional competitions, so that local areas will have their own competitions and live hands-on science events, with all students also entered into the national competition as well.
Partnerships and Accountability
Please tell us more about how your partnership was formed and how it functions. What specific role does each partner play? What unique resources does each partner bring to the initiative?
As mentioned above, the partnership between KSC and Pulse of the Planet has allowed the competition to have a voice to millions of Americans across the country via radio programming featuring KSC scientists and students. Also, Pulse’s ‘voice’ and KSC founder Jim Metzner has opened doors to many supporters, be it the NSF or companies offering prizes for the competition’s winners.
Currently, partnerships are being explored, as already mentioned, with major organizations already established as authorities for afterschool programs, as well as with significant museums and technology centers who also have existing programs for young kids. We seek to expand our reach for the competition, as well as have our creative curricula materials used as broadly as possibly, benefiting more kids via these associations.
Our afterschool partners bring expertise in training staff, evaluating programs, monitoring programs on the ground, and it is our hope that together we can rally new sources of funding. Museums also have existing relationships with schools, scouts, homeschoolers, etc, and can bring us into contact with a broad range of kids. We anticipate as well joining our development team to seek funding together as partners.
How are you building in accountability for students' successful STEM learning outcomes? Please provide a summary and examples.
The KSC has contracted Knight-Williams Inc. to conduct evaluations for the KSC competition. Evaluation methods incorporate the use of surveys and focus group discussion to elaborate on the survey data. Knight-Williams Inc. specializes in the evaluation of national science education programs. The evaluation will focus on: listening to podcasts, entering the Challenge, participating in online activities, using the activity kit, pursuing info links on the internet, joining online communities of kids, and engaging with parents or teachers while doing these activities. This evaluation incorporates the use of: web metrics, documentation of KSC competitors in terms of demographics/background information, content analysis of visitors’ contributions to the KSC site, content analysis of competitors’ entries, and surveys of competitors, parents/ mentors and professional audiences involved in the local efforts.
Studies will follow large samples of youth over several months, using a combination of online surveys, telephone interviews, and secondary data sources to construct a detailed picture of how youth engage with and become involved with the KSC project over time.
Additionally, the KSC project Advisory Committee will meet 3 times annually, reviewing project activities, science content, program content, and the progress and impacts of the project, based on evaluation reports. The group will make overall recommendations for future directions and more effective implementations. The committee includes research scientists, informal science educators, and experts on children’s media.
We are seeking to partner with The Partnership for After School Education in NYC as they are specialists in evaluating after school programs and will help to design evaluative mechanisms for all our after school programs.
Obviously to determine the ultimate benefits of the KSC’s programming will take a longitudinal study over years. At present, as well as the evaluations prepared by Knight-Williams, we will document numbers of participants, website traffic, number of entries to the KSC contest, number of times videos are watched, number of kids downloading apps and online games, and numbers of after school groups and their attendance records.
Needs
Investment, Marketing/Media, Pro-bono help (legal, financial, etc.).
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add needs that may not be listed.
Aside for help raising funding, the KSC would appreciate support in developing appropriate relationships with collaborators/partners. To take the Kids Science Challenge to a new level, we need these strong relationships with major organizations/funders.
Offers
Collaboration/Networking, Innovation/Ideas.
Please use this space to elaborate on your selection above and/or to add offers that may not be listed.
The KSC’s greatest strength is its strong program. We would be happy to work together with other organizations who are reaching 3rd through 6th graders, to see how our materials, our website, games, activities, etc. might be able to be used in their programs, both to bring more kids to our competition, but also to strengthen other programs.
 | 40 weeks agoGrace Decker said: Thank you for sharing your project! We at the Biomimicry Institute are familiar with Jim Metzner's work in science competitions with ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 42 weeks agosusan Olshuff updated this Competition Entry. |
| 42 weeks agosusan Olshuff submitted this idea. |
