Through First Steps in Science, we aim to have even the youngest visitors actively engaged with their families in exploring our world.
Pete Gustafson, deputy director, SEE Science CenterDartmouth Health Children’s has partnered with the SEE Science Center to present its new First Steps in Science initiative for children ages 2 to 6. First Steps in Science is a dynamic set of programs centered on developmentally appropriate hands-on engagement opportunities, designed to foster children’s natural curiosity about the world around them.
“As two nonprofit organizations dedicated to serving New Hampshire children and their families, a partnership between SEE Science Center and Dartmouth Health Children’s made perfect sense, especially to introduce this newest program geared toward our youngest visitors,” said Pete Gustafson, deputy director of SEE Science Center. “Through First Steps in Science, we aim to have even the youngest visitors actively engaged with their families in exploring our world.”
The SEE Science Center currently serves more than 8,000 children from infancy to age 6 annually. While SEE serves a small percentage of these children through outreach, over 85 percent of these children are visiting with one or more adult caretakers. Prior to 2020, SEE had not provided services specifically for this audience. SEE currently serves this audience through preschool programming, demonstrations, exhibits and story time sessions as part of First Steps in Science. This initiative also seeks to demystify science learning for parents and caregivers, helping them to better support early STEM opportunities for their children at the Science Center and at home.
With family-centered care at the core of its services, Dartmouth Health Children’s is excited to partner with a community organization that not only introduces children to the wonders of science, but also supports families exploring and learning, together.
To learn more about First Steps in Science, presented by Dartmouth Health Children’s, visit https://see-sciencecenter.org/early-learners/.
About Dartmouth Health Children's
Dartmouth Health Children’s is the most comprehensive pediatric healthcare system in the region and the first integrative medicine children’s health system in the country. Dartmouth Health Children’s is fully integrated in Dartmouth Health and anchored in Lebanon, NH, by Dartmouth Health’s Golisano Children’s Hospital (also a member of the nationwide Golisano Children’s Alliance): home of the highest acuity neonatal intensive care unit and only pediatric intensive care unit in New Hampshire, along with the only adolescent medical-psychiatry unit in northern New England. Through a unique partnership with the state of New Hampshire at Hampstead Hospital, Dartmouth Health Children’s also provides the state’s only inpatient psychiatric care for children and adolescents. Dartmouth Health Children’s advances knowledge through groundbreaking research and education as the primary pediatric partner of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and delivers the best patient- and family-centered care for infants, children, and adolescents in a range of settings across New Hampshire and Vermont. Outpatient specialty visits and same-day surgery services are available at Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics in Manchester, NH, with pediatric primary care at nearly every Dartmouth Health member location.