Museum Institute for the Teaching of Science

CONTACT:

308 Congress St.
Boston, MA 02210-1027
617-695-9771
www.mits.org

Emily Wade, President

DESCRIPTION:

MITS began over 20 years ago with a great idea: that the quickest, cheapest, and best way to improve K-8 science, technology/engineering and math (STEM) education would be to connect schools with museums. For young children especially, museums have exciting, engaging, effective, hands-on, inquiry-based pedagogy, and magnificent resources for teaching that schools could never afford. It seems an obvious marriage of formal and informal education, but in 1983 it was cutting-edge. MITS received strong support from leading funders, including the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. Its Summer Institutes (SIs) and Science Is Elementary publication for teachers, its Professional Development Seminars (PDS) and conferences for museum educators, and its Massachusetts Parent Involvement Project (MassPIP) for parents, received the highest accolades. Having trained 2,200 teachers since 1993, the SIs has reached hundreds of thousands of students. The PDS and conference programs reach over 100 museum educators annually. As a result, our STEM education is among the best in the nation. With a small staff and a 2004-05 budget of only $488,500, MITS is an austere and cost-effective operation; it receives no federal or state monies and just modest support from the Mass Cultural Council. It needs your help.

(2003: CULTURE: Education: Informal: General)