The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) was a resource center for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) (fka Informal Science Education [ISE]) program from 2007-2022. Through three cooperative agreement awards (#0638981, #1212803, #1612739) CAISE was charged to strengthen and advance the informal STEM education field by providing infrastructure, resources, and connectivity for practitioners, researchers, evaluators, and other value-holders.
See a brief summary of CAISE’s activities throughout its tenure.
Over its term of service to the field, CAISE evolved a Theory of Action:
IF CAISE:
…convenes those working across informal STEM education sectors and settings; connects people and related work; characterizes the state of the field with regard to trends, topics, and approaches through the collection and curation of project examples, scholarship and evaluation reports; and communicates what it learns and creates to the wider field…
THEN CAISE:
…will advance the development of knowledge from practice, research, and evaluation in informal STEM education, science communication, and engagement.
In 2012 CAISE launched a new InformalScience.org website, integrating content from its previous InSci.org site with other relevant web infrastructure. It contains a community-contributed repository of informal STEM education (ISE) project descriptions, research articles, and evaluation reports and tools dating from the 1980’s to the present.
CAISE Activities
NSF AISL Project Meetings (2008-2023)
Newsletter Archives (2021-2022)
Year in Informal STEM Education (2017-2020)
Task Forces (2017-2020)
News and Views (2008-2023)
CAISE Convenings (2011-2015)
Inquiry Group White Papers (2009-2010)
CAISE-Developed Resources
Project Planner
Broadening Participation Toolkit
Discover Research
STEM Identity, Interest, and Engagement Interviews
Year in ISE
Principal Investigator’s Guide: Managing Evaluation in Informal STEM Education Projects (2011)
Team
CAISE was composed of core staff at the Association of Science and Technology Centers in Washington, D.C., and a network of co–principal investigators, staff, advisors, and contractors based at academic institutions and informal STEM education organizations across the United States. Over the course of its history, CAISE engaged thousands of informal STEM learning, science communication, STEM engagement, and broader impacts professionals in inquiry groups, task forces, convenings, edit-a-thons, roundtables, workshops, online forums, and NSF AISL program awardee and Principal Investigator meetings. The team is deeply grateful to those individuals and communities for their countless, rich contributions to our field and knowledge-building efforts.
 James Bell | Project Director and Principal Investigator |
 Shannon Sullivan | Program Manager |
 Aya Rothwell | Communications Coordinator |
Co-Principal Investigators 2016-2022
The following co–Principal Investigators contribute to the project’s vision and the development of CAISE activities and resources.
 Kevin Crowley | University of Pittsburgh |
 Cecilia Garibay | Garibay Group |
 Rabiah Mayas | Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago |
 Martin Storksdieck | Oregon State University |
