How Kids Learn: LIA's First Conference

By Sam Piha

On January 27th, over 180 people from across California and the country met at the David Brower Center in Berkeley to hear from experts on How Kids Learn - the first conference sponsored by the Learning in Afterschool project. Participants included representatives from school districts, youth organizations, private funders, the State Department of Education, and afterschool advocates.

Experts shared their best thinking and recent research in 20 minute presentations to the audience. Speakers included Paul Heckman, Associate Dean of Education at UC Davis; Michael Merzenich, a leading brain researcher at UC San Francisco; Alexis Menten from the Asia Society; Shawn Ginwright, a professor and community practitioner from San Francisco State University; youth from San Francisco's Youth Empowerment Fund; Carol Tang from the Coalition for Science After School; and many others. For a complete list of presenters, see the How Kids Learn website.


Thanks to the youth and young adults of Change Agents, we will feature a videotape of each presentation on our Learning in Afterschool YouTube channel in the very near future.

Clockwise: Paul Heckman, Michael Merzenich, Alexis Menten,
Shawn Ginwright, Youth Empowerment Fund, and Carol Tang.