Creativity Garden is an ASTC initiative designed to provide programming around creativity, science, and innovation at science centers and museums throughout the United States. With an emphasis on reaching underserved children and youth, 87 minigrants awarded in 2016 helped to support programming with schools, science festivals, spring and summer camps, and out-of-school-time programs. This first year of the program far exceeded expectations, reaching more than 75,000 children and youth with nearly one quarter of a million hours of programming.
Creativity is a necessary skill for all ages – young, old, and everything in between. Cultivating young minds to think creatively is key to our society and helps foster advances in science and innovation. ASTC member science centers and museums provide STEM learning in safe, secure, and stimulating environments. Science centers offer inspiring, educational, and enjoyable platforms for collective activities. Through this program, science centers can provide children ages 6-14, an opportunity to develop their creative potential and plant the seed of lifelong learning.
The Center for Childhood Creativity (CCC) in its report, Inspiring a Generation to Create: Critical Components of Creativity in Children, identifies seven components of creativity: imagination and originality; flexibility; decision making; communication and self expression; motivation; collaboration; and action and movement.
ASTC is an organization of science centers and museums dedicated to furthering public engagement with science among increasingly diverse audiences; ASTC encourages excellence and innovation in informal science learning by serving and linking its members worldwide and advancing their common goals.
Through strategic alliances and global partnerships, ASTC also supports science centers and museums in proactively addressing critical societal issues, locally and globally, where understanding of and engagement with science are essential. Founded in 1973, ASTC now numbers more than 660 member organizations in nearly 50 countries.
The Center for Childhood Creativity
The Center for Childhood Creativity (CCC) is the research and advisory division of the Bay Area Discovery Museum, working at a national scale to advocate for the critical importance of creativity development in childhood and to inspire the next generation of innovators, thought leaders and problem-solvers.
The CCC is committed to advancing the research that informs our understanding of creativity and recently established a bold new framework, the 7 Components of Creativity, which form the basis of the evaluation criteria for the Creativity Garden grant initiative.
The 7 Components of Creativity framework was published in Inspiring a Generation to Create: Critical Components of Creativity in Children, a white paper that synthesizes more than 150 studies from various academic fields contributing to our understanding of creativity and finds that environment and experience determine our creativity potential. The paper establishes a bold new framework of seven key skills associated with creativity (imagination & originality; flexibility; decision making; communication & self-expression; motivation; collaboration; and action & movement) and provides practical tips and sample activities to promote the skills.
For more information about the CCC and to download white papers, visit: CenterforChildhoodCreativity.org.