National Lab Day, a new nationwide initiative to support project-based learning, is coming in May 2010. Volunteer science and technology professionals and educators will work together with students to improve America’s science labs and offer inquiry-based STEM experiences in classrooms, learning labs, and after-school programs. Teachers of students in grades 6-12 can sign up to plan a science project, inviting an engineer or STEM-related professional to the classroom to oversee the lab, provide help, and help generate student enthusiasm.

National Lab Day (NLD) coincides with a broader STEM initiative announced by the White House to reverse a recent slide in U.S. competitiveness in science and math education. National Lay Day, it is hoped, will become an annual event and also spur a longer-term involvement by science and engineering professionals in their local schools.

Interested in having an engineer in your classroom? Create an account on the National Lab Day website and upload your project request. Local volunteers can then help you meet your teaching needs so that your students can have a fun, more fulfilling lab experience.

Professional engineers, professors and graduate students can also sign up as volunteers to visit and aid nearby schools as part of National Lab Day.

NLD is sponsored by the National Science Teachers Association, the American Chemical Society, the MacArthur Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Jack D. Hidary Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation, and the Business Roundtable. ASEE is among some 200 organizations that have signed on to support the initiative.

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Tags: Teaching Aids