Education 2025-2026 School Year in Review

As the 2025-2026 school year comes to a close, we want to thank the community for keeping us a part of their experiences.

We interacted with thousands of students across Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland through our educational programming. Thanks to funders like Corteva Agriscience, the Laffey-McHugh Foundation, the Middle Run Foundation, PNC Bank, and more, we were able to do so at little to no cost to many schools.

We welcomed 447 classes for Discovery Tours, 271 of which received partial or full grant funding to cover their programs and transportation. Some of these included attending the third annual Breaking Into STEAM Education event, where middle school students learned about more than 27 careers in our region through hands-on activities.

DelMNS hosted three Delaware Teen Science Cafes as part of the National Teen Science Cafe Network, welcoming 151 teens in grades 7-12 at no cost to meet a STEAM professional, have a free dinner, and explore targeted topics. Some schools elected to offer extra credit to their students for attending, and we thank them for that! The Delaware Teen Science Cafe program was sponsored by Incyte and WSFS.

Work-Based Learning has been a newer focus of our team through career development and exposure opportunities. This year we worked with four high schools: Newark High School, Christiana High School, Glasgow High School, and Odessa High School. Students helped both front-of-house and behind-the-scenes, some with singular tasks, others with a deliverable project by the end of their placement. All experienced memorable moments and learning opportunities as the year progressed. We hope to expand our reach in the next school year as needs arise.

School Day Off Camps were a hit this year! Throughout the year, we hosted 25 day-camps when local districts had the day off, but parents did not. Thank you to the districts that helped spread the word: we are a resource for working families!

We visited 335 classrooms to deliver outreach programs. Of these classrooms, 105 received partial or full grant funding to cover their programs and transportation. This was our third year partnering with schools to offer after-school programming, as well as school-day community partner programming.

Last but certainly not least, we worked closely with 137 educators through our Professional Development workshops; 122 of these seats were fully grant-funded. As requested, our focus this past school year was to develop a Physics-focused theme, and educators had a blast with our staff, learning how to make Physics “phun.”

We look forward to an exciting summer with a plethora of other interactions and especially anticipating a memory-filled 2026-2027 school year starting this Fall.

For more information, please visit our website and feel free to contact our education team at education@delmns.org.

All the Best,
Christina Zampini, B.S.Ed.
Director of Education
(She/Her/Hers)