To get kids into science for the long haul, new findings suggest it’s best to engage them alongside their families.

The finding runs counter to the current framework, in which children attend science-related summer camps and after-school programs apart from their families. That approach may diminish the long-term potential of what they learn.

“We wanted to see if we could support families as a whole, as opposed to giving a student a really amazing one-off experience and sending them home to parents who potentially aren’t familiar with the content or don’t know how to help them pursue classes they could take on the subject,” says lead author Megan Ennes, assistant curator of museum education at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Ennes and coauthors report their findings in the journal Research in Science Education.

In partnership with North Carolina State University, the researchers based their study on a family science program hosted at three museums. Over the course of 10 months, families met on weekends for science-themed events, beginning each day with a communal meal.

Afterward, the cohort participated in hands-on activities and attended an information session led by professionals with careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM), giving families first-hand accounts of what it’s like to work in those fields. A local teen coding club demonstrated the nuances of programming by having families construct a Rube Goldberg machine in one session, and an astronaut visited to discuss the promise and perils of space travel in another.

During an event with a focus on local wildlife, an ornithologist helped families capture birds with mist nets and band the ones that hadn’t been caught before to monitor their populations. Shared experience strengthened these formative activities.

“After the bird banding, one of the parents bought a feeder so they could continue talking about birds at home,” Ennes says. “Our goal wasn’t to convince students to become scientists, because not everyone wants that. But if we can help families see science as something they do for fun together, then we can help ensure they have a lifelong engagement with it.”

Read the full article about getting kids into science by Jerald Pinson at Futurity.