The Zula Patrol - Actually it IS Rocket Science!

"TEACHERS NATIONWIDE have immense enthusiasm for The Zula Patrol not only because of the projects mission to educate children about science through television, museum programs, planetarium shows, science education curriculum, and online website supportive content, but also because of their focus on reaching young children."

Teacher

Zula's Afterschool Discovery Program™ was designed to be flexible and easily to tailor to your group's needs, resources, and time constraints. But most importantly, it was designed to be FUN!

Are you ready to blast off?

Zula's Afterschool Discovery Program™ provides interactive, investigative activities designed to get young children thinking scientifically. The missions harness young children's natural curiosity of the world around them. The format encourages participants to make connections with math, language arts, creative arts, and other subjects through multimedia, hands-on experiments and activities, books, open-ended discussion, and community/home connections.

Questioning and exploration are second nature to young children, but they need guidance and encouragement to develop communication-and scientific and critical-thinking skills. The less structured out-of-school environment is a perfect place to support this growth! With many existing science programs serving children in six grade and up, we're pleased to expand the field by providing science inquiry opportunities for children in elementary grades.

Each mission bundle in The Zula Afterschool Discovery Program™ covers several related topics. For example, the Environment bundle contains Weather, Climate, and Greenhouse Effect activities and includes many suggestions for making meaningful connections between children's interests and local/regional issues. There are two missions per topic: Level 1, which is an introductory activity, and Level 2, which builds upon what children discovered and observed in Level 1.

As the adult leader, you can support your group's discoveries by taking on the role of trusty copilot to your group of young Cadets. You don't need any special experience or specific answers. Co-pilots are there to model resourcefulness, curiosity, problem solving, and attention to detail. You reinforce that the most important part of the mission is the journey and not arriving at any one "right" answer.

A is for Attitude

One of the most important aspects of The Zula Afterschool Discovery Program™ is YOUR role! If you think you need to be a science expert, think again! The most important factor in your group's inquiry is your science attitude, not science aptitude.

Close your eyes and repeat the following: "I am the ideal role model for science inquiry for my Afterschool group when I express my natural curiosity and excitement about discovering the world around me."

It truly doesn't matter if you know more or less than the children in your groups know about physics, biology, or chemistry. That's because the most important concept to know is that we all have what it takes to explore!