Hey There Scientists, Curious Individuals, and Science Fans, I think this is one of the best place to post this in. I don't think there are many other place on the internet that match this forum for the raw amount of passion for science. As the title says I would like to start a non-profit that is focused, initially, on scientific literacy for teenagers in the U.S.A. Science has always been a hobby, passion, and way of life for me. As a child I watched every episode of shows Bill Nye the Science Guy and Beekman's world. As an adult I live on science documentaries. I would like to help kindle that passion and interests in others. I think the best way to do that is through the creation of a 501.3© non-profit organization dedicated to this cause. The results from the 2013 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that teenagers in the U.S. slipped from 20th to 24th in science since 2009, and down from 15th since 2000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which gathers and analyzes the data in the U.S. This is lower than countries such as Viet Nam and the Czech Republic.
Particularly in today’s quest for knowledge based economies, science, technology and engineering are the basic prerequisites for success. It's time that we help reverse this downward trend, both so our teenagers feel the glee and excitement from learning about how the world works, and for the future of the economy. I would like your help in doing so.
This plan is the initial goal the organization hopes to achieve. Further projects will be developed beyond this goal.
I've spoken to several people in the education field (some of my family members are teachers, actually) and they all say that the current science curriculum doesn't click with the students who are receiving it. The plan is to bring together the skills of education professionals as well as child and young adult psychologists to develop interesting and captivating scientific lesson plans for grades 6 through 12.
Young people today don't see the relationship between science and their daily lives. This initial project hopes to change that by providing teachers and other educational professionals the highly effective materials they need to not only teach science, but captivate young minds on the subject of science itself. The goal is to foster critical scientific literacy that will result in children being more perceptive about the world around them and better at making decisions about that world by including a critical/scientific thought process.
I plan to collect the initial funding for this through a crowed funding campaign.
I'm currently in the process of putting together a team to make this vision a reality. We're going to need people good at copy, science consultants, maybe a graphic designer, and more. If you would like to volunteer for something like this and feel like you have some skills you can contribute please feel free to send me a message here or reply to this post.
Thank you for reading and I look forward to your responses.