This front-end evaluation study is part of Designing Our Tomorrow: Mobilizing the Next Generation of Engineers, a five-year project (2018–2023) led by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) with the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF, DRL-1811617) and project partners: Adelante Mujeres, the Biomimicry Institute, and the Fleet Science Center. The Designing Our Tomorrow (DOT) project seeks to promote and strengthen family engagement and engineering learning via compelling exhibit-based design challenges, presented through the lens of sustainable design exemplified by
Intellectual Merit: Project RESET utilized a responsive teaching approach to engage youth in critical STEM literacy on the topic of climate change. Video recordings of the afterschool program, artifacts from the program, and interviews with youth were analyzed to better understand how youth supported each other’s participation in science discourse. The team outlined four themes of critical STEM literacy (CSL) and identified a “constellation” of knowledge, dispositions, and practices within each of those themes. Finally, Project RESET demonstrated the potential benefits of multi-modal analysis
"Evolution in Action: Isolation and Speciation in the Lower Congo" is a 9-minute documentary about a team of researchers working to understand what is driving the rapid evolution and speciation of fishes in the Lower Congo River. The evaluation was designed to probe the following: 1) Connection and Interest in the science content 2) Connections between the scientific story and other topics of personal interest 3) Implications of the multilingual versions for disseminating science to the public and to science educators The participants included international education students who work in
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Maritza MacdonaldAmerican Museum Natural History
Overview of Clever Together/Juntos somos ingeniosos and Evaluation: As part of the National Science Foundation funded "Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Decision Making in Informal Education" project, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and its partners developed a bilingual (Spanish/English) exhibition. The goal of this and other project deliverables was to promote sustainable decision making by building skills that allow participants to weigh their choices and choose more sustainable practices. Clever Together/Juntos somos ingeniosos is a permanent, bilingual exhibition at
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryRenee B. Curtis
Overview of Sustainability
Events and Evaluation: As part of the National Science Foundation funded Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Decision Making in Informal Education project, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) project team designed and hosted seven events between September 2011 and July 2014. In line with the overall project goals: Participants will 1) capture the big idea, “We can cultivate a more sustainable community by building skills and making decisions that maximize positive impacts,” 2) practice skills necessary for making more sustainable choices that consider
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryRenee B. Curtis