Our mission is to use science, technology and engineering to develop persistent curiosity and to show that knowledge is empowering.

FAMILY SCIENCE

Engineers trained in the Engineers As Teachers Program create lesson plans to share their knowledge and education with under-served elementary and middle school students and their families through the Family Science Program. Family Science programs are run in Los Angeles and New York City.

Be a Scientist!

We were awarded a five-year longitudinal grant to study and scale-up our Family Science program. Learn more about our research here.

What does a Family Science course look like?

Each Family Science Course consists of five sessions of two hours each. Topics are science or engineering based. Sessions are conducted once a week at the school or the Iridescent science studios. Families are invited (including younger brothers and sisters). A teacher or school administrator is usually present, and food is provided. A Spanish-speaking instructor is present to translate instruction for non-English speaking families. Formative assessments are conducted in every session, along with pre- and post- assessments conducted before and after the course, to ensure knowledge transfer.

The first 10 minutes are spent in direct instruction, where the engineers introduce the science and engineering concepts. The engineers then guide the families through conducting their experiments. Each family gets materials to conduct their own experiment. The last 20 minutes of the session are spent on reflection and filling out the exit slip questions that check for participant understanding. All instruction is aligned with the state science or math standards so that parents are empowered to better support their child’s education.

Family Science program objectives and methods of assessing impact