If you are not familiar with The National Science Digital Library (NSDL) you probably should be. Created in 2000 by the National Science Foundation, this online library is free to use and provides exceptional resources for K-16 educators. Users can search the site and find not only text documents such as lesson plans and journal articles, but also images, video, audio, animations, software and datasets. NSDL is continually building on the site and has recently added a new pathway that will cater specifically to informal learning educators.

The new pathway, SMILE (The Science and Math Informal Learning Educators) will provide activities that fit with informal learning experiences and will be a useful resource for these educators. Across the country, organizations and especially museums are pulling their resources together to create curriculum that will supplement formal classroom learning experiences in STEM fields. The new site being created through NSF will combine these curriculum ideas into an easy searchable database, where participants can create, share, and rate informal STEM programs, lessons and demonstrations. SMILE is currently surveying museum professionals about their preferences for the new pathway.

Informal education differs from formal education in that it is not bound to learning standards and tests to measure performance. Informal educators are free to spend more time on a concept and take a more hands on approach then formal educators usually have the time or resources to.

Related: The NSDL engineering pathway, provided by the National Engineering Education Delivery System (NEEDS) and TeachEngineering, can be found here.