Neighborhood North is excited to partner with the Big Beaver Falls School District to support their 21st Century Community Grant afterschool programming for students in kindergarten through middle school.  Every Wednesday and Thursday, we will host a group of students from the program at the museum to explore the arts and STEM learning in our interactive learning space. Once a month, we will host middle school students for more advanced Maker and CS programming.

At the museum, we use a Maker methodology and tools for STEAM learning in our out-of-school setting and specially trained Teaching Artists augment school activities. Learning activities include drumming, African dance, theatre, visual arts, block and screen printing, and STEM Maker activities such as creating and testing parachutes in a Bernoulli wind tunnel, 3D printing and coding, and using robots and MaKey MaKey invention kits. Other types of interdisciplinary activities include connecting cooking and cultures, circuits and art, gears and engineering activities, building and architecture.  For all these activities, our focus is on having students develop the curiosity to explore new ideas and to build their confidence and ability to collaborate to tackle difficult challenges.  They learn new skills or how to use new tools or materials to create or innovate in the world around them, as well as expand their vocabulary and increase their math skills.