Science Action Club in Montana

Science Action Club was launched in Montana via the National Girls Collaborative Project. The program opened with a Bug Safari activity leader workshop at MSU in October 2016. The program has since reached more than 30 Montana sites, with a particular emphasis on reaching Montana's smallest communities. More than 50 educators--including a mix of classroom teachers and afterschool professionals from organizations such as YMCA, 4-H, libraries, and Boys and Girls Clubs--have received training and ongoing support to implement SAC in their communities.

Sites

Montana Science Action Club sites are in:

  • Ashland
  • Belgrade
  • Bigfork
  • Billings
  • Boulder
  • Bozeman
  • Brockton
  • Browning
  • Butte
  • Conrad
  • Fortine
  • Frenchtown
  • Grass Range
  • Hamilton
  • Helena
  • Hinsdale
  • Kalispell
  • Lame Deer
  • Lewistown
  • Libby
  • Livingston
  • Lodge Grass
  • Malta
  • Manhattan
  • Polson
  • Pray
  • Ronan
  • Seeley Lake
  • Sidney
  • Regis
  • Townsend
  • White Sulphur Springs
  • Willow Creek

Success Stories

Read about Science Action Club in Montana in Connected Science Learning.

Libby, Montana

Mandy Bell, the afterschool site coordinator and a 4-H leader for the afterschool club, hosted both Bug Safari and Bird Scouts.

Bell said students enjoyed using the data collection equipment provided in the SAC kits (pooters to collect bugs, loupes for viewing, and binoculars for spotting birds) as well as playing the games that connected hands-on lessons to bigger-picture issues such as wildlife conservation. The Libby Science Action Club finished with a fun finale of tasting crickets and grasshoppers after youth watched the Edible Insects video that is part of the curriculum's final chapter: Food for Thought.

Livingston, Montana

Science Action Club was hosted by Links for Learning, an afterschool and summer enrichment program supported by the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant. Educator Margy Dorr said she was drawn to Science Action Club because it offered STEM enrichment via hands-on activities while connecting youth with their beautiful surrounding environment and animals. Dorr said her students enjoyed the citizen science aspects of SAC, including launching each club session with a bird observation walk.

"I would always start each club by asking them to put on their citizen scientist hat, and from the get-go, they were in the mind frame of speaking and thinking and listening like a scientist would."

Thank You

Science Action Club in Montana is supported by Academic Technology and Outreach, Montana NSF EPSCoR, the Montana Girls STEM Collaborative, the Women's Foundation of Montana and the MSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.