The following summative report describes overarching evaluation findings from the evaluation of Leap into Science, including future considerations for the Leap into Science program team (program team). The report aims to summarize takeaways from 2018-2023 and report on overall insights pertaining to the core evaluation questions of interest.
The Children’s Museum will collaborate with six Hartford Public Library branches, three Hartford Family Centers, and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center to provide hands-on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) - based programs to over 1,000 local 3 to 14-year old children and their care givers. Program design and development will include planning for field trips to the museum. All participants will be given age-specific, supplemental STEAM materials to continue their learning activities at home, and families can attend more than one week of library programs, or more than three Saturdays of family center programs. The goal will be to help urban Hartford youths find new pathways toward responsible citizenry and fiscal stability.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum will amplify its partnership with Hart Magnet School, a Title 1 elementary school in urban Stamford, Connecticut, by increasing exposure and access to the arts for first-fifth graders, their families, and educators. A new program model, leveraging the museum's artist exhibitions, will focus on technology and an inquiry-based approach to science. Students, educators, and families will be encouraged to see and think in new ways through on-site STEAM tours at the museum, artist-led workshops at Hart, teacher professional development, and afterschool family activities. Outside evaluators will work with the project team to develop goals and associated metrics to measure how the model of museum-school partnership can enhance student achievement, engage families more deeply in their child's school experience and community, and contribute to teacher professional development. The evaluator will also train museum staff on best practices for program assessment.
This project is a Smart and Connected Communities award. The community is part of Evanston, Illinois and is composed of the lead partners described below:
EvanSTEM which is a in-school/out of school time (OST) program to improve access and engagement for students in Evanston who have underperformed or been underrepresented in STEM.
McGaw YMCA which consists of 12,000 families serving 20,000 individuals and supporting technology and makerspace activities (MetaMedia) in a safe community atmosphere.
Office of Community Education Partnerships (OCEP) at Northwestern University which provides support for the university and community to collaborate on research, teaching, and service initiatives.
This partnership will develop a new approach to learning enagement through the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) interests of all young people in Evanston. This project is entitled Interests for All (I4All) and builds upon existing research results of the two Principal Investigators (PIs) and previous partnerships between the lead partners (EvanSTEM and MetaMedia had OCEP as a founding partner). I4All also brings together Evanston school districts, OST prividers, the city, and Evanston's Northwestern University as participants.
In particular the project builds on PI Pinkard's Cities of Learning project and co-PI Stevens' FUSE Studios project. Both of these projects have explicit goals to broaden participation in STEAM pursuits, a goal that is significantly advanced through I4All. In this project, I4All infrastructure will be evaluated using quantitative metrics that will tell the researchers whether and to what degree Evanston youth are finding and developing their STEAM interests and whether the I4All infrastructure supports a significantly more equitable distribution of opportunities to youth. The researchers will also conduct in depth qualitative case studies of youth interest development. These longitudinal studies will complement the quantitative metrics of participation and give measures that will be used in informing changes in I4All as part of the PIs Design Based Implementation Research approach. The artifacts produced in I4All include FUSE studio projects, software infrastructure to guide the students through OST and in-school activities and to provide to the students actionable information as to logistics for participation in I4All activities, and data that will be available to all stakeholders to evaluate the effectiveness of I4All. Additionally, this research has the potential to provide for scaling this model to different communities, leveraging the OST network in one community to begin to offer professional development more widely throughout the school districts and as an exemplar for other districts. These research results could also affect strategies and policies created by local school officials and community organizations regarding how to work together to create local learning environments to create an ecosystem where formal and informal learning spaces support and reinforce STEAM knowledge.
This 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 Space Science Institute’s (SSI) National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL), in partnership with the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the University of Virginia (UVA), was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and implement a 3-year program, Project BUILD (Building Using an Interactive Learning Design). Project BUILD aims to bring together public library staff from six libraries (three rural and three urban) and professional engineers from ASCE to engage youth in grades 2-5 and their families in age-appropriate, technology-rich
Ruff Family Science is a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that aims to foster joint media engagement and hands-on science exploration among diverse, low-income parents and their 4- to 8-year-old children. Building on the success of the PBS series FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, the project leverages FETCH’s funny and charismatic animated host, along with its proven approach to teaching science, to inspire educationally disadvantaged families to explore science together. The project is utilizing a research and design process to create resources that meet the needs of families
This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by bringing together youth (grades 2-5), their families, librarians, and professional engineers in an informal environment centered on engaging youth with age-appropriate, technology-rich STEM learning experiences fundamental to the engineering design process. The overarching aim is to better understand how youth's learning preferences or dispositions relate to their STEM learning experiences. It also seeks to build community members' capacity to inspire and educate youth about STEM careers. The project team includes the Space Science Institute's (SSI) National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL), the University of Virginia (UVA) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This team builds on the scope and reach of a prior NSF-funded project called the STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net). As an extension of this prior work, Project BUILD will collaborate with 6 public libraries (3 urban and 3 rural) and their local ASCE Branches. Two libraries have been selected to serve as pilots: High Plains Public Library in Colorado and the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Florida. All partner libraries will develop a plan for recruiting participants from groups currently underrepresented in STEM professions. Project BUILD's specific aims are to 1) Engage underserved audiences, 2) Build the capacity of participating librarians and ASCE volunteers, 3) Increase interest and engagement in STEM activities for youth in grades 2-5 and their families, and 4) Conduct a comprehensive education research project. Program components include the following: 1) Community Dialogue Events, 2) a Professional Development Program for partner librarians and ASCE volunteers, and 3) Development of a Technology-rich Programming Kit and Circulating STEM Kit program. Two research questions will be addressed: 1) What common factors might identify youth who engage in project activities and what factors might differentiate between youth who continue with program engagement and those who do not? and 2) What programmatic factors (i.e. design and composition of program activities, library recruitment, librarian engagement, professional engineer engagement, etc.) might influence youth's initial and continued engagement in project activities as well as youth's reported future career interests? An external evaluation will investigate the quality of the project's process as well as its impact and effectiveness. Benefits to the participating libraries' communities, library and engineering professionals, and the education community will be achieved through 1) Community Dialogue events; 2) Library and Librarian Outreach; 3) ASCE Outreach; and 4) Publication of Research and Evaluation results.
"PLUM RX: Researching a new pathway for bringing active science exploration to urban families" is a project that makes use of public media resources to create innovative opportunities to bring environmental science learning to the hard-to-reach audience of urban families. As part of this project, media producers at WGBH and researchers at EDC worked together to: (1) develop a new pathway for bringing active environmental science exploration to urban families with children ages 6-9; (2) expand PLUM LANDING’s media assets to support urban families and informal educators when engaging in
This report looks across multiple phases of work to discuss the PLUM Rx project’s contribution to broader knowledge about supporting children’s active, outdoor science exploration in informal, urban settings. The PLUM LANDING Explore Outdoors Toolkit that resulted from this work is designed for use by outdoor prescription programs and a broad range of informal education programs serving urban children and families. This report describes (1) the rationale for the design principles that guided Toolkit development, (2) the Toolkit components developed in accordance with the design principles; and
Mathematics plays a significant role in understanding and participating in science, technology, and engineering (STEM). Research shows that early mathematics experiences in everyday life are critical to the development of children's mathematical knowledge. This project will explore an innovative approach to fostering parent-child math interactions and conversations related to mathematical ideas. The approach will use community-based, exhibit installations called Mathscapes. These are artistic, culturally relevant, easily accessible, physical installations designed to encourage adults and children (ages 3 to 7) to use their immediate environment to playfully explore key early math concepts. The project also addresses a need for research about the cultural experiences and resources that marginalized children and families bring to mathematical conversations. Understanding parent-child interactions about mathematics community settings could result in new knowledge about early math learning among low income children and parents. As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
This exploratory study will design and investigate an innovative approach to encouraging math talk and math-related interactions between parents and children (ages 3-7) through the creation of MathScapes. These are temporary physical installations designed to use the immediate environment to playfully explore mathematical concepts. This study will be conducted in two Boston neighborhoods that are populated by low-income, non-dominant minority and immigrant families. Adopting a case study approach, the project will use observational methods, discourse analysis of parent/child talk, and interviews to study the interactions of 200 families at two neighborhood Mathscape installations. LENA devices will be used to capture parent/child talk at the Mathscapes while researchers use observational methods to document participant interactions, talk, and gestures. Data sources will include audio recordings of family talk, field notes of family interactions at Mathscape installations, surveys, and interviews. A qualitative approach will be used to produce research findings at multiple levels. The focus of the analysis will be to understand if this approach enhances the quality and quantity of math talk between parents and children. The project will be carried out by a research-practice-community partnership in Boston, Massachusetts that includes community mathematics educators, education researchers, and participating children and families. The design of community installations could promote engagement with math through adult/child conversations in culturally-relevant contexts situated in the local environment. By addressing the cultural experiences and resources of young people, the project could greatly enhance our understanding of how to leverage the resources that children and families bring to engaging with mathematics.
This 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.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Omowale MosesDanny MartinCatherine O'ConnorNermeen Darshoush
Techbridge Girls’ mission is to help girls discover a passion for science, engineering, and technology (SET). In August 2013, Techbridge Girls was awarded a five-year National Science Foundation grant to scale up its after-school program from the San Francisco Bay Area to multiple new locations around the United States. Techbridge Girls began offering after-school programming at elementary and middle schools in Greater Seattle in 2014, and in Washington, DC in 2015.
Education Development Center is conducting the formative and summative evaluation of the project. To assess the
This brief discusses the PLUM LANDING Explore Outdoors Toolkit, a new set of free, public media resources designed to help informal educators and parents infuse science learning into outdoor recreation. Developed by trusted media producer WGBH in partnership with researchers at Education Development Center (EDC), the Toolkit aims to get children (ages 6–9) from low-income, urban communities outside so they can explore the environment around them while debunking the myth that nature is something that only exists beyond city limits.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marion GoldsteinElizabeth PiersonJamie KynnLisa Famularo