We believe we can create a generation of life-long learners and strong leaders by building a solid foundation for the children of our community.
With aspirations to positively affect all aspects of a child’s life, EdVenture has crafted three initiatives designed to address the educational and overall wellbeing of every child:
Early Childhood Initiative
Research shows that our children succeed when funds are invested in quality child development programs and early parenting education. With the future of business and the prospect of economic success dependent upon the availability of a qualified, effective, and trained workforce, success needs to start in preschool. EdVenture’s education initiative addresses key areas that involve the creation of “highly qualified teachers” in our children’s lives — giving them every opportunity to succeed in the future. This process includes parents, early childhood educators, and elementary school teachers. This initiative includes:
- Club EdVenture — an after school program for elementary children from Richland School District One
- Early Childhood Conferences — a continuing education series created for early childhood educators
- Countdown to Kindergarten — a celebration for children from across the state who are entering into kindergarten (done in conjunction with First Steps)
- EdVenture To-Go — educational outreach programming to schools and child care centers
- The Great Parents Workshops — parenting workshops that teach early learning skills
We have successfully implemented this initiative in five counties across our state (Chester, Greenwood, Lancaster, Richland & York) and intend to enter at least eight more counties by 2008.
Health Initiative
EdVenture seeks to address a critical community issue the health of our families. With strong community support, EdVenture has undertaken the development of a community-based educational initiative and program series to engage families in adopting healthier lifestyles. This initiative, called The Big ED Health Team, is a multi-faceted health education initiative which has a specific focus on reducing childhood obesity and related health conditions. Our challenge is to address important issues affecting our community’s families and, by using museum resources, to create comprehensive strategies that link families, schools and community partners to encourage positive change.
It will serve a three-fold purpose:
- To provide new educational resources for EdVenture’s audience
- To link together existing smaller collaborations into a large broad-scale community initiative
- To help to position EdVenture to expand the resources from this initiative to smaller communities across South Carolina.
This year-round approach to promoting good health for the community’s children and families will begin in January 2008.
Science Initiative
South Carolina is in desperate need of new and innovative strategies to increase the number of students interested in and excited about science, technology, engineering & math (STEM). Through a variety of programming and exhibits, EdVenture strives to present our visitors with a comprehensive approach to begin meeting this need. This will be accomplished by engaging students’ interests and developing STEM knowledge during both in-school and out-of-school times. This initiative includes:
- Cyber Loft — found on the third floor of EdVenture, Cyber Loft is a designated computer lab area where children, under the guidance of trained personnel, can experience the excitement of using computers to accomplish tasks such as creating music, designing a fireworks display or creating animated objects using Lego robots.
- School Programming and Summer Camps — from forensic investigations, to exploring robots, to uncovering the science behind magic tricks, EdVenture offers a variety of educational programming to children between the ages of 3 – 12 which teach them how to use science to understand the world in which they live.
Learn more about School Programming
Learn more about Camps
