In an earlier blog post, I described my two clearinghouse ideas as follows:

Both clearinghouses will be websites that provide information to people interested in science education. One website will be a one-stop shop for the tremendous amount of amazing science education content that is available online. If a parent is looking for science enrichment classes, experiences, virtual education, games, etc., it’s out there. It’s just really hard to find what one specifically wants when there is so much and it’s not listed anywhere in an organized way. The website I envision will provide that organization.

The second website addresses the issue of countering louder anti-science voices at board of education meetings. This website will be a one-stop shop listing all the upcoming meetings discussing science education decisions.  That way, someone who knows they want to fight for better science education in their community will know when to show up at the relevant meetings.

A partnership to bring the clearinghouses to life

So, how can I actually make these two clearinghouses happen?  In their most minimal form, they are simply websites. I can certainly go ahead and pay for webhosting, design the sites, and start populating them. But then what? If I take it upon myself to populate both clearinghouses, you would never hear from this blog again, because I would be spending every waking hour doing nothing by scouring the web.

Fortunately, I have partnered with an amazing organization, Chemists Without Borders (CWB). Its mission is to solve humanitarian problems by mobilizing the resources and expertise of the global chemistry community and its networks. This organization is ideal, as the clearinghouses, a center of excellence within CWB, will work best with a network of volunteers, each just spending a small amount of time looking for the information to populate the websites.

The way forward

CWB well set up both clearinghouses as pilot projects within a science education center of excellence, with myself as project lead. I am excited to work with them and make these a reality.

However, the first day of operation for either clearinghouse requires a considerable amount of work. This work includes:

• Developing a rule set for what can go on the sites
• Developing internet safety rules for populating the sites
• Developing the websites
• Finding enough volunteers to make the websites achievable
• Training the volunteers
• Beginning operations.

Progress to date

As of this writing, I have developed a set of rules to ensure that any material on the scientific content clearinghouse website meets necessary criteria for child and internet safety. In addition, for those internet resources that point to in-person events, ensuring they meet CDC requirements relative to COVID.

Using Microsoft’s PowerPoint, I designed a strawman for the websites, but of course, that will need to be translated to actual webpages.

I’ll be developing the next steps with CWB, and I will provide updates in this blog and through CWB.