Youth Programs

The Miami Science Museum's youth programs focus on providing low income youth with training, mentoring, work experience, academic enrichment and skills in the use of technology, while improving their communication and interpersonal skills and self confidence. The Museum's approach has been profoundly effective, with college and employment success stories attesting to its positive impact. Youth programs provided by the Museum not only provide students an alternative to the streets, but also with a new way of thinking and planning for their futures.

Silver Knight Awards: The Museum’s Youth Development Program proves to be a great success in mentoring our future leaders of tomorrow with the announcement of its 16^th Silver Knight Awards nomination over the past 10 years.

Current Programs

• IMPACT Upward Bound
  In October of 1999, the Miami Science Museum was honored to be the first science museum in the nation to become an Upward Bound Math & Science Center. Upward Bound is one of the US Department of Education's TRIO programs. The overall goal of the program is to help low income, first-generation college bound students be prepared for postsecondary study, and to graduate college with a bachelor's degree in science, math, and technology related fields.
  
  
• RISE
  Building on previous collaborations with Miami-Dade County Public Schools and SECME, Inc., RISE aims to raise awareness of, and interest in, engineering and advanced technology among high school girls. The project includes Saturday workshops, a four-week summer design institute, internships and college tours for girls; professional development for science and mathematics teachers at participating high schools, and parent involvement activities.
  

Past Projects & Resources

• National BioTrac Replication Project
  In collaboration with the University of Miami's School of Medicine and Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the Museum is building on its existing youth program to incorporate a new biomedical strand. The program, entitled BioTRAC, serves to expand opportunities in biomedicine for low-income, first-generation college-bound high school students, increasing the number interested in, and prepared to enter, the biomedical research pipeline. The program is funded by the National Institutes of Health under their SEPA (Secondary Education Partnership Award) initiative.
  
  
• GREAT!
  In June 2001, the Miami Science Museum received funding from the National Science Foundation to design and implement an innovative model program to increase the confidence, interest and preparedness of girls to pursue academic and employment opportunities related to high-end careers in the field of information technology (IT). GREAT! is engaging middle school girls from Miami Dade County Public Schools in Saturday and summer programming, helping them to acquire increasingly complex technology skills as they create a series of IT products, culminating in the creation of fully-interactive 3D virtual reality exhibits.
  
  
• Phase 1 BioTrac
  
  
• Secme Rise
  SECME RISE was a three year partnership to increase middle school girls' self-esteem and confidence in learning mathematics and science, reducing attrition in advanced level math and science coursework. SECME RISE was a wide-scale expansion of Girls RISE '96-'98.
  
  
• Step-UP
  STEP-UP (Student & Teacher Enhancement Program Using Palms) is a program of the Technology Trainer Enhancement Center of the Miami Science Museum to develop and implement training for teachers and underserved youth in the use of handheld computers to enhance classroom and field-based science learning. Participating teachers and students use handheld computers with a variety of probes to conduct science experiments dealing with water quality.