This poster was presented at the 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Awardee Meeting.
The project’s goal is to create media-rich citizen science experiences for girls, particularly girls of color and/or from rural areas, which broaden their STEM participation, build positive STEM identity and increase understanding of scientific concepts, while leveraging the citizen science endeavors occurring at 16 diverse National Parks.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. This Innovations in Development project addresses the need to broaden girls' participation in STEM studies and career pathways. While women make up 47% of the U.S. workforce, they hold only 28.3% of STEM jobs and only 1 in 10 employed engineers and scientists are minority women. Girls of low socioeconomic status start losing interest and confidence in STEM during middle school, and this decline often continues as girls get older. Multiple sociocultural barriers contribute to girl's loss of confidence including gender and ethnic stereotypes; lack of culturally responsive programming; limited exposure to women role models; and few or no hands-on STEM experiences. This project builds upon the success of SciGirls, the PBS television show and national outreach program, which provides professional development on research-based gender equitable and culturally responsive teaching strategies designed to engage girls in STEM. It is a collaboration between Twin Cities Public Television, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the National Park Service. The project's goal is to create media-rich citizen science experiences for girls, particularly girls of color and/or from rural areas, which broaden their STEM participation, build positive STEM identities and increase girls' understanding of scientific concepts, while leveraging citizen science engagement at national parks. Project deliverables include 1) creating five new PBS SciGirls episodes that feature real girls working with women mentors in 16 National Parks, 2) producing five new role model videos of women National Park Service STEM professionals, nationally disseminated on multiple PBS platforms, 3) providing professional development for educators and role models. This project will increase access to STEM education for girls of color and/or from rural areas, inspiring and preparing them for future STEM workforce participation. It will build the capacity of educators and National Park Service women role models to create educational and professional programs that are welcoming to girls of varying racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds. SciGirls' massive reach to diverse audiences via PBS broadcast and multiple PBS digital platforms will amplify public scientific literacy, particularly for 21st- century audiences that connect, learn and live online.
The research study conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will address these questions: 1) To what extent does the use of culturally responsive and gender equitable multimedia in citizen science programming affect girls' learning outcomes, and contribute to the development of positive STEM identity' 2) how will their experiencing citizen science in the parks influence girls' connection to nature? At the beginning of the project all participating girls (n=160) will complete a survey on their interest in science, efficacy for doing science, and knowledge of citizen science and project-specific subject matter. Researchers will use the suite of DEVISE instruments most of which have been validated for youth to measure these constructs. To measure connection to nature, researchers will use the Connection to Nature Index, a scale developed for children. Interviews with the girls will be used to obtain qualitative data to supplement the survey data. Pre-post data will be analyzed to determine the influence of the culturally responsive media and experiences on girls' STEM identities. Researchers will share findings with the project evaluator to triangulate data between educators' implementation of the strategies and girls' learning outcome providing a more holistic picture of the overall program.
This Innovations in Development award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
The mixed methods randomized experimental study assessed a model of engagement and education that examined the contribution of SciGirls multimedia to fifth grade girls’ experience of citizen science. The treatment group (n = 49) experienced 2 hours of SciGirls videos and games at home followed by a 2.5 hour FrogWatch USA citizen science session. The control group (n = 49) experienced the citizen science session without prior exposure to SciGirls. Data from post surveys and interviews revealed that treatment girls, compared to control girls, demonstrated significantly greater interest in their
SciGirls' (Season'Three) is a multimedia project that presents videos and games designed to engage and educate millions of children about citizen science. Multimedia Research, an independent evaluation group, implemented a summative evaluation that assessed a model of citizen science engagement and education that examined the contribution of SciGirls multimedia to preteen girls' experience of citizen science.
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. The third season of the national PBS series, SciGirls, is the first national children’s television series and website designed to engage and educate millions of children about citizen science. In each half-hour episode, a female mentor guides a group of ethnically diverse middle school girls as they learn about citizen science protocols and collect and share data for an established citizen science project. In addition to the videos, the SciGirls website presents
SciGirls and Citizen Science: Real Data, Real Kids, Real Discoveries SciGirls is showcasing Citizen Science! From their own backyards to a NASA research center, the bright, relatable, real girls featured on the groundbreaking PBS series are seriously into science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. And Season Three of SciGirls finds these STEM adventurers tracking toads, counting clouds and much more, all in the name of citizen science. The brand-new season of the Emmy-winning show, featuring six stand-out episodes, debuted April 2015 on PBS KIDS (check local listings) and online at http://pbskids.org/scigirls. Citizen science is the newest STEM frontier that engages the general public –and kids – in real science. Scientists worldwide invite ordinary people—like the SciGirls—to observe and record data about everything from birds to beaches, monarch butterflies to maple trees. The data is then shared with scientists, who use it to generate new scientific knowledge. In six exciting new episodes, middle school girls and their female STEM professional mentors hit the great outdoors, cataloging frog calls, tracking the changing seasons, verifying satellite imagery of clouds, monitoring fragile butterfly populations, improving urban bird habitats, and advocating for healthy oceans. In addition, animated characters Izzie and Jake are back and finding themselves in sticky situations that can only be solved by STEM—and the SciGirls. When the SciGirls share their data with professional scientists, they save the day for Izzie and Jake and help save the environment! The new mobile-friendly website at http://pbskids.org/scigirls lets kids play new games, watch episodes and videos, and connect with fellow STEM explorers anywhere, anytime. “Collaboration is the key to successful citizen science,” said SciGirls executive producer Richard Hudson. “Since SciGirls’ beginning, working together—making discoveries, mistakes and friends—is one of the important research-based methods we use to engage girls around STEM. This new season underscores the importance of collaboration within the scientific research community and workforce. SciGirls is fortunate to have powerful partners advising us about citizen science, including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, NASA and SciStarter.” The SciGirls creative team is headed by Twin Cities Public Television’s Director of Science Content Richard Hudson, Executive Producer of the long-running PBS children’s science series Newton's Apple and creator of DragonflyTV and the SciGirls initiative. Animation is created by Soup2Nuts, producers of PBS’ WordGirl. Strategic partners for the new series are the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Rick Bonney co-PI, and the National Girls Collaborative Project, co-PI Karen Peterson. SciGirls is made possible by a major grant from the National Science Foundation. Additional funding is provided by INFOR, Northrop Grumman Foundation, and PPG Industries Foundation.