Who says being an employee of MMSA is all work and no play? Sometimes we get a chance to do both by working with innovative education programs in some of the most beautiful corners of the state of Maine. This summer the ACRES team is collaborating with Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership (HICSL)… [Read More]
The ACRES Project Evaluation Report 2: Reflections of the Coaches
Alexandria Brasili, Sue Allen, Maggie Foster August 2017 For more information: Email research@mmsa.org Or visit www.mmsa.org Background Beginning in 2014, the Maine Mathematics has received a series of grants from the Noyce Foundation, STEMNext, the Davis Family Foundation, and the NSF AISL program, to create a coaching system for supporting out-of-school (OST) educators such as… [Read More]
The ACRES Project Evaluation Report 1: Impacts on Afterschool Educators
Alexandria Brasili, Sue Allen, Margaret Foster June 2017 For more information: Email research@mmsa.org Or visit www.mmsa.org Background Beginning in 2014, the Maine Mathematics has received a series of grants from the Noyce Foundation, STEMNext, the Davis Family Foundation, and the NSF AISL program, to create a coaching system for supporting out-of-school (OST) educators such as… [Read More]
Timeline for ACRES Coaching Cohort
Fall 2018 Introduction to ACRES Coaching September 6 (12:00pm to 2:00pm ET) You will meet in a cohort of new coaches and learn coaching skills and logistics to prepare you to coach your own cohort. During the time following this meeting, you will recruit afterschool educators to participate in your practice cohort. ACRES Cohort Session… [Read More]
Become a STEM Coach through the ACRES project
Become a STEM Coach through the ACRES project Improve your program or network and move the needle on STEM in afterschool. Contact us at acres@mmsa.org for information on upcoming cohorts. How it works: As a STEM coach, you will receive professional development in a community of peer coaches, under the leadership of an expert STEM coach. You… [Read More]
11 ways to improve your AISL project advisory committee meeting
Last month, an advisor on our new Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) project advisory committee told us that our in-person kick-off meeting was the best he had ever attended. Inspired by his encouragement, we share below our top 11 recommendations for lively and productive advisory committee meetings. We think the recommendations may be particularly useful… [Read More]
The ACRES Team Begins Professional Development Cohorts with Librarians
The ACRES project will now provide innovative STEM professional development to more out-of-school educators, including librarians, thanks to a National Science Foundation grant MMSA received earlier this year. In November, Research Associate Alex Brasili traveled to Louisville, Kentucky for the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Symposium. While there she learned about the youth STEM… [Read More]
ACRES Summer Recruitment *Past Event*
MMSA is looking for camp counselors and educators from across New England to participate in testing an innovative, video-based coaching curriculum in STEM. This is free professional development with a stipend! Space is limited! Sign up now! Registration deadline: June 15th Start Date: June 28nd To sign up, http://tinyurl.com/ACRES-registration or contact acres@mmsa.org Interested? Download… [Read More]
State of Afterschool in Maine
MMSA’s very own ACRES project (Afterschool Coaching of Rural Educators in STEM) recently presented and attended several national conferences. The project is in its second year of funding and is already positively impacting not only Maine’s Afterschool programs, but rolling out their coaching model on a national scale. We thought we would take a moment… [Read More]
