The Saturday Light Brigade (SLB), Pittsburgh's award-winning live public radio program featuring acoustic music and interactive family fun, will broadcast its show from a new studio in the Theater of the Children's Museum. SLB's live entertainment includes interviews with kids and other interesting guests, puzzles, on-air calls, music and live performances by regional and national musicians. SLB can be heard Saturday mornings from 6:00 am- Noon on WRCT 88.3 FM. Listeners can participate by calling 888-SLB-RADIO (888-752-7234), emailing slb@slbradio.com or by visiting www.slbradio.com.

Check the Calendar of Events for radio workshops hosted by the Saturday Light Brigade studio in the Museum's Theater space.

Sense of Place Learning, LLC invites students and communities to explore the history, heritage, ecology, and works of art that make each place unique. Sense of Place Learning strives to enhance local residents’ sense of self, community pride, and civic engagement through inquiry-based, interdisciplinary educational programs, services, and materials.

Visit us at www.senseofplacelearning.org.

Child Watch of Pittsburgh is a non-profit agency whose mission is to bring focus to the problems of at-risk children and mobilize the community to achieve collaborative solutions. Child Watch works with over 70 agencies (governmental and private) and hundreds of individuals. Through education and advocacy, they seek systemic changes to improve children's lives. In addition, Child Watch operates the Snack and Story Program in the Allegheny County Juvenile Court, which provides nutritional snacks, free books and a story/arts program to children awaiting court hearings. Child Watch understands that children may only a quarter of our population but they are 100% of our future.

Website: www.childwatchofpittsburgh.org

RIF Pittsburgh's mission has been to provide children ages 2-12 with the resources, opportunities, skills and motivation to read since 1982. RIF Pittsburgh accomplishes this goal through three distinct programs that help children become successful learners and enhance their academic success. The Book Distribution Program distributes new, free, age-appropriate children's books; the After School Tutoring Program assists students who are reading below grade level to improve their reading scores an average of five times greater than those not in the program; and the Read To your Parent Program inspires families to read books together. RIF Pittsburgh and the Children's Museum have partnered with the Carnegie Libraries to explore programs and partnerships that promote literacy for Museum and library visitors and the larger community.

Website: www.rifpittsburgh.org

The Children's Museum is the location for two new pre-kindergarten/Head Start classes for children ages 4 and 5. The program provides early childhood education to children through the Pittsburgh Public School System, using the Museum's exhibits and activities to enhance lessons.

Website: www.pghboe.net

The Children's Museum has built a unique partnership with the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE), an arm of Pitt's Learning Research & Development Center. Led by Dr. Kevin Crowley, director of UPCLOSE and associate professor of education and psychology at Pitt, UPCLOSE researchers are dedicated to building a practical theory on how children and families learn in informal settings such as museums and other educational organizations. UPCLOSE occupies a permanent learning laboratory at the Children's Museum, where they conduct sustainable and cumulative studies of museum learning that are disseminated to peer-reviewed journals in the field. To further this partnership, the Museum created a Department of Research and Evaluation, headed by Dr. Karen Knutson of UPCLOSE, to evaluate prototypes of Museum exhibits and programs and conduct other survey work that informs the Museum's mission and practice.

Click here to see the supplement on UPCLOSE printed in the Pittsburgh Business Times on January 19, 2007.

Click here to visit the UPCLOSE website.

The Museum received the Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award for Business Practice from the Association of Science-Technology Centers on October 16, 2005, for its “unique and innovative partnership with the University of Pittsburgh for Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE), which serves as a model of how nonprofit organizations can collaborate to advance each other’s goals and positively influence visitor experiences.”

This partnership also garnered the MetLife Foundation and Association of Children's Museums (ACM) 2004 Promising Practice Award on May 5, 2004.