What Is Intersections?

“What if a school classroom space sometimes worked more like an interactive science museum — where the materials and environment encouraged informal learning? And what if field-trip and science-museum experiences sometimes worked more like the National Writing Project network — where people are the biggest resource, and collaborations are reflective and fluid?” – Lacy Manship, Associate Director, UNC Charlotte Writing Project

The best of formal and informal education merged when the National Writing Project (NWP) and the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) kicked off the Intersections Initiative. Intersections is a program that supports partnerships between NWP sites and science museums around the country to integrate literacy practices with science, technology, art, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) education and to work at the intersections of formal and informal education. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the 10 Intersections Partnerships featured on this website provide models of connected learning in action. We invite you to borrow from the models, use the resources, and continue to find and work in the intersections between literacy and science, and formal and informal education.