THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF

Public education - the academy brings natural science to life through three floors of engaging permanent exhibits that include our historic dioramas and dinosaur hall as well as the children's nature discovery center, outside in, that facilitates hands-on experiences with live animals. While visitation to the academy is still rebounding from the effects of the global covid-19 pandemic, we welcomed more than 100,000 visitors in the fiscal year 2024. This past summer, the number of group visits for summer camps continued to increase, and the attendees in the academy's popular summer science camp rose significantly. The academy continues to offer exciting new experiences to our publics. For evolution year 2024, the academy presented the in-house developed exhibition "life onto land: the devonian" in the william b. Dietrich gallery - a groundbreaking exhibition centered around the academy's internationally celebrated paleontological research and the incredible discovery of "tiktaalik roseae", a transitional fossil unearthed in 2004 on ellesmere island in the canadian arctic territory of nunavut that has been critical in piecing together a picture of how terrestrial, limbed vertebrates arose from aquatic, lobe-finned ancestors. In our spotlight gallery we presented "drawing from the collections: beetles" highlighting the astounding biodiversity of beetles and their evolutionary success. In our special exhibitions gallery, we opened "ice dinosaurs", an exhibition based on groundbreaking discoveries on dinosaurs that lived in extreme polar environments. Public programming such as the academy town square series; speaker series; dinos after dark and festivals such as the beloved bug fest as well as the new confluence film festival animated the public experience throughout the year. In fiscal year 2024, we also continued to collaborate with drexel faculty on the museum innovation fund, a micro-granting opportunity that inspires faculty and students to experiment with the academy as a space for new approaches to public engagement.the community learning division continues to create community-centered initiatives that mobilize environmental justice leaders and civically minded individuals. Partnering with communities across the city, the academy provides science-infused curriculum to schools and educators, supports professional development within a network of educators, and creates environmental justice programs for students. The newly formed department of community science works in partnership with drexel's environmental collaboratory to identify and deliver funded projects in which individuals and communities partner with scientists to answer and address real-world environmental questions. Drawing on the academy's unique attributes - including its scientists, collections, and relationship with drexel, the education, learning and development department creates programs and curricula in support of lifelong learning. The academy's center for steam equity works in partnership with drexel (in particular, the school of education) to address social inequity through steam teaching and learning by conducting, catalyzing and supporting community-based research. Among these efforts, the nationally recognized and award-winning women in natural sciences (wins) program, the longest-running of its kind in the region, continues to deliver after-school and summer enrichment for young women, introducing hundreds of high school students to future careers in science. Our engineering wins program infuses wins lessons with engineering content and continues to connect students with scientists who serve as mentors. The education, learning and development team reaches students ages 5 and up in private, charter, and public schools, during the school day as well as in outreach programs. We also work with community partners in west philadelphia and throughout the city. Our key partnerships and collaborations are currently with the mantua civic association, in color birding club, the mill creek community coalition and both lankenau and olney high schools. Volunteer and civic engagement enables recruitment, screening, and placement of volunteers to support work throughout the academy, supports staff in designing meaningful volunteer, intern and co-op positions that serve the mission of the academy and provides support in developing training and in ongoing supervision and recognition of the accomplishments of volunteers, unpaid interns, and co-op students. 177 volunteers have contributed 10,693 hours to the academy.