Summer and Learning: A Natural Fit

Everyone’s best summer memories are of discovering or learning something new, be it learning how to ride a bike for the first time, or discovering where dragonflies come from. Summer and learning just naturally go hand-in-hand!

In partnership with Providence Public Schools, the AfterZone Summer Scholars program gets students out into the community for the summer while providing them with fun, hands-on, field learning experiences that focus on building science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills, all while having fun under the summer sun!

Collaborative Teaching

Teaching teams consisting of a community-based STEM educator, a district teacher, and an AfterZone staff member co-develop and co-teach a collaborative curriculum that connects STEM and literacy skills with hands-on field research. To see how collaborative teaching works in the summer, watch the video below.  

 

Academically Aligned Hands-On Learning

Twice a week students are out in the field engaging in hands-on learning, led by the teaching teams.  On the remaining days students move into the classroom for direct instruction in mathematics led by certified math specialist & teachers and which are directly related to data collected during the field experiences and English language arts from district teachers certified in those subjects. 

Students develop final projects that demonstrate their learning. Projects have ranged from PowerPoint presentations and poetic or dramatic pieces, to spoken word and other persuasive expressions.