ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain

ECHO will partner with the Greater Burlington YMCA, Vermont’s largest childcare service provider, to provide environmental education resources and programs to high need, culturally diverse preschool children and their caregivers. The “Science Play” project will create an immersive watershed resource and activity area to support preschool children and caregivers in exploring their watershed community. It will expand the museum’s preschool programming to reach an additional 500 preschoolers and 1,000 caregivers through drop-in programs, class field trips, family visits, and professional development for teacher-caregivers. The project will provide caregivers with tools and resources to support early science learning and environmental stewardship, and help YMCA and ECHO educators improve their knowledge and skills to support developmentally appropriate science education. The museum will use outcome-based assessments with children and caregivers; surveys and informal feedback from visitors; and quarterly Advisory Team Meetings to review progress and results.