The Teen Cosmos Collective: North Carolina Museum of Life and Science
About Educational Resource
The Teen Cosmos Collective is a 10-week program for students seeking to enhance their science communication and literary skills. Throughout the multi-week program, participants are able to engage with experts in astronomy, facilitation, and exhibit engineer role models. These role models work one-on-one with participants and encouraged seeking deep space topics that most excited them. Through this, the participants are able to develop exhibit proposals and facilitate interactive experiences that showcase their content creation.
This Program Model was developed and authored by North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, with minimal editorial input and review from NASA's Universe of Learning. NASA's Universe of Learning has contributed astrophysics content and subject matter expertise to support the creation of this material.
Other organizations may adapt these materials to meet the needs of their specific audiences. While this Program Model was designed to serve the local audience of the authoring institution, it is shared here as an example for broader use. Users should adjust it as needed and use all or some of the content, as appropriate, for their own needs.
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Goals and Recommendations
Goals
- Connect participants to community content experts.
- Develop participants’ skills as effective science communicators.
- Provide a fun, safe space for participants to explore their interests.
- Encourage participants to use good research techniques to further investigate their own areas of interest.
Recommendations
For future iterations of this program, it is recommended that interested teens be scheduled for in-person interviews during the application process. Due to the low level of prior knowledge in astronomy, the program should edit the 10-week layout to better meet participant needs and create more understanding of hard concept terminology related to this field.