The YES and EiE sponsor’s generosity helped illuminate some incredible activities.
Behind the scenes of a video shoot with Museum staff. Credit: B. Logan.
If there’s one thing we love at the Museum of Science, it’s educating and empowering students to be problem solvers and STEM lovers. Thanks to our partnership with National Grid, we’ve been able to take that mission to new heights over the past year.
See it to Be it
Last year, we sat down with National Grid engineers to understand what an engineer can do on the job. Engineering managers Elizabeth and Rob, and their colleague, Diego, spoke about their work and how doing their jobs as engineers means helping people get natural gas to their homes, so they can stay warm during the coldest of seasons.
Putting faces and jobs to the label “engineer” helps students imagine themselves in the role and empowers them to see how they can help solve real world problems. Building both student and educator knowledge around the multitude of career paths engineers can take increases the likelihood of students finding STEM-related fields that they can identify with and aspire to partake in. The more students in STEM, bringing their diverse experiences to the table, the better our chances of solving some of the biggest issues challenging our society.
Bringing Engineering Home (and into the Museum)
Behind the scenes of video shoots on electricity and energy with Museum staff. Credit: B. Logan.
After showing students what engineers can do on the job, we moved on to showing how the work they do, well, works in the real world. With National Grid’s support and the help of Museum of Science educators, Morgan and Sloane, we took over the Museum’s Theater of Electricity (above right photo) and studio (above left photo) for a fun day of filming how electricity and energy work.
Morgan also helped us explain the concepts of radiation and thermal energy transfer in a separate video.
While radiation and thermal energy transfer can seem like confusing, distant terms, they’re much closer to us in practice than students may realize. Making videos like the above allows us to provide teachers and students with educational content that makes big science concepts digestible and easy to understand.
From the Studio to the Classroom—For Free
Ultimately, our efforts help move students from seeing what engineers can do, to understanding how what they do works, to thinking like engineers themselves in the classroom. Whether students are designing solar ovens, or windmills, or nightlights, or making better insulated homes to stay cool—we find ways to encourage them to light up and construct their world the way engineers do. It’s all part of the Museum’s 200-year history of inspiring the public to pursue a brighter future by interacting with science and technology—including this year’s climate and sustainability initiative, Earthshot.
Through Youth Engineering Solutions (YES) and Engineering is Elementary (EiE), we now offer free and paid STEM resources for educators. With a focus on engineering and computer science, our classroom and out-of-school enrichment resources guide students through the engineer’s thought process. Real world problems are presented to students to help anchor and frame their understanding of how they can help change the world around them for the better. Then, under the guidance of our incredible Professional Learning team, teachers are educated and empowered to teach not just our units, but the engineering practices behind them.
All made possible, in part, thanks to the generous support of National Grid.
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To learn more about YES and EiE curricula, please visit our website here.
To learn more about our Professional Learning team and upcoming workshops, please visit our website here.
To learn more about Earthshot, the Museum’s yearlong spotlight on sustainability and climate action, please visit the Earthshot home page.
