The mission of the Academy's Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability (IBSS) is to gather new knowledge about life's diversity and the process of evolution—and to rapidly apply that understanding to our efforts to sustain life on Earth.
Each year, nearly 700 middle- and high-school students participate in one of the Academy’s outside-of-school programs. For volunteers in the Teen Advocates for Science Communication program, the goal is to find creative ways to share science with Academy visitors. Their methods? Flash mobs and specimen-inspired fashion shows, among other creative approaches. Whether they're joining an after-school Science Action club at one of ten local middle schools, or working with digital media to tell science stories in our Science in Action high-school program, these students are choosing to immerse themselves in science during their free time. What better way to cultivate a more science-literate society?