Welcome! My name is Andy Allan and I oversee the creation of the Champions Science Adventures program. Our enrichment program believes the best way to learn science is though hands-on discovery, actually doing science.

Recently, I got to do some very cool hands-on science for television. I was interviewed by fourteen morning news shows concerning the importance of science education and how our program makes science learning interesting and fun. This media blast was part of a series of fun events around the country to kick off Science Adventures Summer Camps. The news programs were located all around the United States, but luckily I only had to make one trip for my interviews. Using the power of satellite technology, I was able to stay in one place and beam my science experiments around the country.

Once in the studio, I was joined by three elementary students who became my science assistants. They helped me demonstrate three experiments and showcase just how motivational and exciting science learning can be. Together we made atomic green-glowing slime, made a cup of water disappear using some science magic, and set in motion an oscillating chemical reaction that swung back-and-forth from bright yellow to blue. These experiments not only got my three assistants excited and engaged, but also grabbed the attention of the news anchors. It is always a lot of fun to teach science, and being on camera with the children doing the experiments was a great way to showcase the fundamentals of how Science Adventures teaches science in its programs around the country. I think we definitely brightened the morning for quite a few people and got both the news anchors and their viewers to think a little more about how the world around them works.

Click here to learn about experiments you can do at home.

We spent the morning together discovering some interesting things about the Champions (including hunting down the Coyote tracks out back). Please take a look at the magazine/book that we composed from our adventures and interviews during our time together!

http://www.tikatok.com/book/viewShared/title/everybody-works-001/code/58c8c1469e8d22063c6f5b750a89b86f

With Easter weekend having come and gone, many of us have fresh memories of kids running frantically through the yard, hunting down those little platic capsules of sugar energy. The dedication and tunnel-visioned effort that kids put into finding those hidden holiday treasures is almost awe-inspiring, and it makes me wish that we could tap into that same gusto in the learning process. Well, why can’t we?

I built a “virtual scavenger hunt” in an online course that I was developing some time ago and received some rave reviews from the students following the activity. I hid little clues throughout the weekly content of the course, and then gave the students a list of items to find, and sent them on their way. They gathered the breadcrumb, and brought them back at the end of the week in lieu of a more formal assessment. Although I didn’t have the chance to fully analyze the outcomes for that week versus the other weeks (the sample size was pretty small), the very positive reactions that I received spoke to something even deeper–i.e. the activity seems to have reenergized the learning process through the spice of variety.

Tapping into that natural human propensity to hunt and gather seems to be a pretty powerful tool; moreover, though, tapping into new ways of presenting learning materials so that the end users (the learners) remain attentive and engaged is a perpetually exciting and energizing experience.

Anyway, I guess real the take-away here is that the educators need to make the “eggs” good, and the learners will keep coming back to hunt for more.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking lately about how to get users of all ages excited about learning and engaged with the information that we are presenting to them. Between Science Adventures, the Online Math program, our engaging Before and After school programs, and our other Academic Offerings, we really already offer an interesting and engaging range of educational and enrichment-type activities; but, what does the next generation of Champions look like? Should we offer exciting Science opportunities that ignore geographic boarders, and allow children from coast to coast to learn together and share their discoveries? Do we extend the Math opportunities into the realm of games and social sharing? Do we extend our other academic offerings into the digital arena too?

We are very excited about the future of teaching and learning, and so are investigating all sorts of avenues. If you had your “perfect learning world” what would you want to see Champions offer, and how would you like to see it offered? On the computer? In person? Pushed out to mobile phones? Through a microblogging service like Twitter? A combination of all those options?

We want to hear your thoughts, please don’t hesitate to share your comments!

Over the past weekend my family and I took a quick spring break road trip to a little touristy mountain town not far from where we live. Although we were only 1.5 hours from our front door, we got a hotel room for a few nights and immersed ourselves in the local attractions to really immerse ourselves in the vacation feeling. Admittedly, though, I have a five year old son and a baby girl, so just staying in a hotel with a pool was probably enough to create the full simulacra experience for them.

Anyway, we visited an ancient Native American cliff dwelling site, toured a cave with stalactites, stalagmites and columns (a term that I only learned during the visit to the cave, but one that my son surprisingly knew from his pre-trip homework with mom on the cave website), and even ate at a “real” Colorado pirate restaurant. Although the destinations were less than exotic, our family showed an innate ability to let go of the regular grind and immerse itself in vacationland, even if for just a few days.

With that all said (and in the spirit of bringing this post back down to an educational ground) watching the ways in which my son gathered and processed new data while in that less structured “vacation mode” was fascinating. The learning that he did was truly experiential, and the freedom with which he immersed himself in new experiences was inspiring. By watching a group of older boys and girls, he mastered the cannon ball in the pool within about three tries (back in swimming class he would have likely waited for permission and/or recognition from the instructor); in the cave tour, he stepped up and volunteered all kinds of information about the different strata and formations–knowledge that he had mastered on the fly in excited anticipation of the trip; at the cave dwellings, he noticed drawings on the wall, and notches in the rocks that I never would have caught, and he then offered his own personal explanations for what they likely meant or were used for. Never once did he second guess himself, and he was always happy to hear the information that I or my wife could gather from the signs posted throughout the place.

Although I very much understand the need for accountability in education, watching a young mind grasp on to unexpected learning opportunities is almost awe-inspiring. I suppose that what I take with me from these musings is that we have to try, at all costs, to allow children to learn through decision-making, discovery and even serendipity. And, whatever we can do to infuse those possibilities into the very structured world of educational learning, the better we’ll all likely be.