"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.

Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has"

Margaret Mead, Anthropologist
(used with permission)



"If you don't like the news .... go out and make some of your own !!"

Wes "Scoop" Nisker, Newscaster



INTRODUCTION

Government is a slow and tedious process. While it often includes citizen and neighborhood involvement, non-governmental, private organizations have created movements and interesting groups which can create positive change in our cities and towns.

I am fascinated by the way groups are created and how they influence public decision making. This blog merely recognizes them and forwards the description of these groups from their own websites.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Taylor Community Science Resource Center

Location: St. Louis, MO

Website: www.slsc.org/ForEducators/TaylorCommunityCenter.aspx

Jack and Susan Taylor, longtime St. Louis philanthropists, donated $2.5 million to the Saint Louis Science Center to help improve science learning opportunities throughout the region. In honor of the gift, the Science Center named its new outreach facility the Taylor Community Science Resource Center.

The Taylor Center is a state-of-the-art, 69,000-square-foot facility at 4900 Manchester (southwest corner of Kingshighway and Manchester). The Taylor Center is a dynamic place, providing outreach and community programs for youngsters of all ages, adults, and educators. Through its myriad partnerships and collaborations throughout the community, the Science Center has seen a growing need for high-quality math and science-based programming. The new Taylor Center allows these programs to grow and meet the needs of the community.

The Taylor Center is a place where learning happens every day, where teachers connect with science and technology, and where youngsters are actively engaged. The Taylor Center meets one of the metropolitan area's most critical needs - one facility that provides high-quality information about science and technology for many different audiences, including educators, parents, teens and community-based organizations.

The facility houses several classrooms and multipurpose rooms that can be used for after-school programming, professional development for educators, community-wide and family programming, and more. The wet laboratory facilities and technology center will be places for hands-on science activities and provide technology access to disenfranchised audiences. In addition, the Science Center’s extensive natural history/science collection is housed here and visible to educators and the expanded resource library will help teachers strengthen their math and science curricula, and connect them with recent science and technology discoveries.

Youth Exploring Science (YES) is one of the Saint Louis Science Center’s premiere educational programs. Based at the Taylor Community Science Resource Center, YES is a structured program, which sends fourteen-year-olds on a four-year journey of self-discovery. YES teens explore scientific concepts through inquiry-based experiences and then learn to teach others. Through their teaching initiative, YES teens take museum science education out into the community where they facilitate science and mathematics activities.

The Saint Louis Science Center launched the YES program in 1997 by recruiting fifteen under-served, minority teens from community organizations. Today's YES teens continue to be recruited from more than fifteen community partners, including Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club, Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Center, Beyond Housing, Lighthouse Community Center, Girls, Inc., and Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center.
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