Project Exploration
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| Founded | 1999 |
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| Founder | Gabrielle Lyon, Paul Sereno, co-founders |
| Type | Nonprofit educational organization |
| Focus | Science education for students underrepresented in the sciences, primarily girls and minorities |
| Location |
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Area served
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Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Method | Mentoring and field science |
| Slogan | Changing the face of science |
| Website | www |
Project Exploration is a not-for-profit educational program whose goal is to "change the face of science" by encouraging interest in science among students—especially girls and minorities—who traditionally have not found effective career routes into scientific disciplines. Its primary method is to create intensive collaborative relationships between students and working field researchers through structured programs involving the University of Chicago and other institutions. In January 2010, it received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. The organization, founded in 1999, is based in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Project Exploration currently serves nearly 1,000 students. It began as an after-school and summer program when Gabrielle Lyon, a teacher at Fiske Elementary School on the South Side of Chicago, decided that students underrepresented in the sciences, primarily girls and minorities, should be given opportunities to collaborate with actual scientists and participate in real-life scientific research. Students design research projects and test them in the field, or work summers at museums demonstrating science to young children.
This program provides an intensive immersion into the field of paleontology for twelve 12- to 17-year-old Chicago Public School minority students. The annual program selects students who are curious and open minded, regardless of academic achievement. For two weeks, the students study geology, anatomy, and paleontology at the University of Chicago followed by work alongside scientists in Montana, South Dakota, or Wyoming, on fossil-rich terrain. Project Exploration maintains a relationship with them until they graduate from high school. In Hot Springs, South Dakota, students worked under the supervision of paleontologist Larry Agenbroad, Professor Emeritus of Northern Arizona University, for a week of fieldwork at the Mammoth Site in 2009.
Sisters4Science is a year-round after-school and field program that combines science exploration with leadership development for approximately 100 minority middle school girls. Girls participate in hands-on science activities led by women scientists as well as participate in science-based field trips.
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