Nurturing Numeracy Skills & Math Literacy in Children’s Museums

The impact of early math literacy is crucial for supporting children’s development and setting them up for a bright future. By starting early, making math fun, and including parents/caregivers—all areas in which children’s museums excel—we can create a world where everyone feels confidence in their abilities to do math.

ACM is excited to announce a new partnership with the Simons Foundation, Nurturing Numeracy Skills & Math Literacy in Children’s Museums, to engage and support a cohort of smaller children’s museums to develop ideas, strategies, activities, and resources.  This program is funded by Simons Foundation International and administered by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture division.

Application Link

The Nurturing Numeracy Skills & Math Literacy in Children’s Museums cohort will convene a diverse group of smaller museum professionals for collaborative learning, idea generation, and engagement.

PHASE 1: Gathering and Learning (September 2024-March 2025)

The application period will open September 20, 2024 and run through October 24, 2024. Application review will take place through November, with decisions and notifications going out the week of November 25.

ACM will support the cohort of 20 museums starting in December 2024, with a virtual kick-off meeting December 12 (11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. ET) and a second virtual meeting in early/mid January 2025 to dive into how ACM can best support the cohort in planning for and conducting parent learning/listening sessions.

Cohort museums will visit the Simons Foundation in New York City at the end of February 2025. This visit will center math engagement, and potentially include a visit/conversation with program staff from the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath).

In addition, in February and March,  museums will conduct parent/caregiver learning and listening sessions in their community and ACM will develop and implement a community of practice for cohort museums to network and share information.

PHASE 2: Development & Implementation (April 2025-May 2026)

Cohort museums will develop their initial program/activity ideas, as well as methods and resources for reaching and supporting parents/caregivers once they have completed their listening work – most likely starting in late March/early April and running through end of May. We anticipate that participating museums will pilot programs, activities and resources with children and parents starting Summer 2025 and will continue to revise offerings, and add new aspects and resources through at least March 2026.

During this Phase, ACM will host regular virtual meetings for the cohort to share updates, successes, challenges, explore new opportunities, and connect them with additional content specialists as needed or desired. There will also be an in-person gathering and workshop at InterActivity in 2025 and 2026.

PHASE 3: Sharing Findings, Outcomes, and Resources

As the project winds down, ACM will share information about individual museum projects and the overall learnings and impacts to the field and the children and families we serve.

Museums with the following qualifications are encouraged to apply:

• Be an active ACM member museum with annual operating budgets of less than $1 million (Levels 1, 2, or 3).

• Be participants in Museums for All, or offer some other comparable access program.

• Be able to designate a point person staff member to attend all scheduled virtual and in-person meetings between December 2024 and June 2026.

IF SELECTED, Participants are required to:

• Designate a project lead to represent the museum through the duration of project.

• Attend the virtual kick-off meetings on December 12 and in January 2025, as well as subsequent virtual convenings.

• Attend the in-person convening in New York City in February 2025 (The Simons Foundation will cover all travel expenses for 1 staff person)

• Attend InterActivity in 2025 and 2026 to participate in workshops and sessions (part of the participation stipend covers the travel and registration expenses for 1 staff person for InterActivity 2025 and 2026.)

As a benefit, the initiative will provide:

• Participating museum will receive a $15,550 stipend to offset expenses for participation. Please note that part of the stipend is to be used to cover attendance at InterActivity 2025 and 2026.