There is a dearth of prominent STEM role models for underrepresented populations. For example, according to a 2017 survey, only 3.1% of physicists in the United States are Black, only 2.1% are Hispanic, and only 0.5% are Native American. The project will help bridge these gaps by developing exhibits that include simulations of historical scientific experiments enacted by little-known scientists of color, virtual reality encounters that immerse participants in the scientists' discovery process, and other content that allows visitors to interact with the exhibits and explore the exhibits' themes. The project will develop transportable, interactive exhibits focusing on light: how we perceive light, sources of light from light bulbs to stars, uses of real and artificial light in human endeavors, and past and current STEM innovators whose work helps us understand, create, and harness light now. The exhibits will be developed in three stages, each exploring a characteristic of light (Color, Energy, or Time). Each theme will be explored via multiple deliveries: short documentary and animated films, virtual reality experiences, interactive "photobooths," and technology-based inquiry activities. The exhibit components will be copied at seven additional sites, which will host the exhibits for their audiences, and the project's digital assets will enable other STEM learning organizations to duplicate the exhibits. The exhibits will be designed to address common gaps in understanding, among adults as well as younger learners, about light. What light really is and does, in scientific terms, is one type of hidden story these exhibits will convey to general audiences. Two other types of science stories the exhibits will tell: how contemporary research related to light, particularly in astrophysics, is unveiling the hidden stories of our universe; and hidden stories of STEM innovators, past and present, women and men, from diverse backgrounds. These stories will provide needed role models for the adolescent learners, helping them learn complex STEM content while showing them how scientific research is conducted and the diverse community of people who can contribute to STEM innovations and discoveries.
The project deliverables will be designed to present complex physics content through coherent, immersive, and embodied learning experiences that have been demonstrated to promote engagement and deeper learning. The project will research whether participants, through interacting with these exhibits, can begin to integrate discrete ideas and make connections with complex scientific content that would be difficult without technology support. For example, students and other novices often lack the expertise necessary to make distinctions between what is needed and what is extra within scientific problems. The proposed study follows a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach characterized by iterative cycles of data collection, analysis, and reflection to inform the design of educational innovations and advance educational theory. Project research includes conceiving, building, and testing iterative phases, which will enable the project to capture the complexity of learning and engagement in informal learning settings. Research participants will complete a range of research activities, including focus group interviews, observation, and pre-post assessment of science content knowledge and dispositions.
By showcasing such role models and informing about related STEM content, this project will widen perspectives of audiences in informal learning settings, particularly adolescents from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. Research findings and methodologies will be shared widely in the informal STEM learning community, building the field's knowledge of effective ways to broaden participation in informal science learning, and thus increase broaden participation in and preparation for the STEM-based workforce.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Todd BoyetteJill HammJanice AndersonCrystal Harden
In Defense of Food (IDOF) is a media and outreach project based on Michael Pollan's best-selling book of the same title. Through the lens of food science, IDOF is designed to engage diverse audiences in learning about: (1) how science research is conducted, (2) how research findings are used in media, marketing, and public policy, and (3) how to apply food science research in everyday life. IDOF will be created by Kikim Media, an independent production company, broadcast and distributed by PBS and supported by an extensive outreach campaign and interactive website. The project's educational materials will be developed, in part, by the Teacher's College at Columbia University's Center for Food and Nutrition, with dissemination supported by the Coalition for Science After School and by Tufts University's Healthy Kids Out of School initiative, which involves nine of the leading out of school time (OST) organizations, such as Girl Scouts USA, and the National Urban League. The project advisory committee includes highly respected researchers in food, nutrition, and health. IDOF will use an integrated strategy of learning resources, combining a television documentary with online/social media, community outreach, and youth activities. Knight Williams Research Communications will conduct formative and summative evaluation of all major components of the project. The results will advance the informal science community's understanding of how the combination of a documentary with outreach, website/social media, and afterschool activities impacts motivation and learning. The evaluation study will pay special attention to the degree to which participation in the community events, social media/website, and afterschool activities motivates deeper or extended engagement with the subject. Project evaluation results and educational resources will be widely disseminated to the informal science community. IDOF includes a two-hour documentary film that will be produced in both English and Spanish; a community-level outreach campaign focused on reaching underserved audiences who may not watch public television; a set of activities for use in afterschool programs, youth programs and schools; and an interactive and content-rich website with tightly integrated social media tools. IDOF will be nationally broadcast by PBS; the Spanish-language version of IDOF will be broadcast by Vme Television. The ambitious IDOF educational materials and outreach campaign, combined with interactive web and social media, will reach large and diverse audiences. The intended impacts on audiences include increased knowledge and understanding of the scientific process by learning what food scientists do, what techniques they use, and how scientists arrive at their conclusions; the development of critical thinking skills audiences can use when evaluating messages about food and nutrition in media and advertising and when making decisions about what food to buy and eat; and becoming active learners and consumers regarding food. Evaluation results will be widely disseminated to science media producers and the informal science community via professional publications and presentations at conferences. The ultimate value of the In Defense of Food documentary and learning initiative will be to enhance public understanding of the crucial importance of science in people's everyday lives and in shaping dozens of daily decisions.
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) will partner with the City of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development, Metro Regional Government, Portland Community College, Verde, and the Coalition for a Livable Future, to create a series of informal science education experiences on the theme of Sustainability. For this project, sustainability is defined in terms of a triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental needs. The project responds to calls for broad environmental education of the public in response to environmental crises (such as climate change), and specific research suggesting that even museums that do provide information about such issues rarely help their visitors learn to make the comparisons necessary to make more sustainable choices. For the public audience, the project team will create a 1,500 sq. ft. bilingual (Spanish/English) exhibition to encourage the public to develop skills in making personal choices that affect the sustainability of their community. They will also create 25-40 bilingual cell phone tags that will provide listeners who dial the phone numbers with information, personal perspectives, current STEM research, invitations to contribute ideas or vote on issues, interactive phone-based activities, and links to websites, all in service of helping them make intentional and informed personal decisions on sustainability. The cell phone tags will be located at approximately 100 locations in the Portland area, including predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods, public transit locations, public works, and community projects. The team will also create a bilingual website and will offer quarterly bilingual events at the museum on the topic of sustainable living. For the professional audience, the team will create a set of tools and indicators for assessing the sustainability of exhibit-development processes, using the triple bottom line of financial, environmental, and social impacts. For example, a Green Exhibit Guide will provide resources and a checklist for exhibit development projects, and will propose field-wide standards analogous to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system for green buildings. Regional workshops will engage exhibit developers, designers, fabricators, and administrators in using the tools in their own institutions. The project will create a coordinated set of resources to inform the public about the science of sustainability and to engage them in making informed choices in their daily lives, both in the museum and beyond. The topic of sustainability is timely and important, and the use of cell phones as a mobile technology linked to web resources and an exhibition constitute an innovative synergy of media to create impacts on a city-wide scale. The project serves underrepresented Hispanic audiences through its creation of bilingual materials, placement of cell phone tags, and community involvement in the development process. Finally, the project advances the ISE field in proposing and broadly disseminating a set of standards for green exhibit design, along with developing resources and tools for assessing sustainability. Created in collaboration with other organizations, this work has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of museums while providing highly visible examples of sustainable practices for visitors.
This full-scale development project would use a multi-platform approach (TV, Field School, and Web site) to engage public audiences and underserved youth in archaeology research and discovery. The project will advance knowledge and practice in the field of ISE by establishing the utility of archaeology as an entry point to multiple STEM fields showing how it answers important questions about human origins-culture, history, and the natural environment. The target audience includes a broad demographic of viewers who will watch the PBS broadcasts. The other key audience is underserved youth who will participate in the archeology digs and be featured in the national broadcast. They will engage other underserved youth who will have the opportunity to participate in the interactive online virtual field school. Primary organizational partners include the Crow Canyon Archaeology Center in Colorado and other archeology organizations at the 4 field sites. Deliverables include four hours of PBS programming filmed at four archaeological sites telling the stories of diverse cultures (Native American, African American, Hispanic); field schools designed for underrepresented youth both onsite and online; blogs, online discussions, and user-generated videos. The evaluation will determine the impact of the television series, online content, and the on-site Field School on audiences' understanding of, interest in, and interactions around STEM topics within the context of archaeology. Formative evaluation will provide input and help refine the television programs, web site, and field school. The summative evaluation will use a variety of methods and artifacts to determine the degree to which the process of the TV series, web site, and Field School was successful. The television programs are expected to reach 13 million viewers via broadcast, 300,000 via streaming video and 50,000 unique web site visitors. The lessons learned from this project will be disseminated to other media and ISE organizations.
Blackside, Inc. is producing a television series and an outreach component about minority scientists. The goals of the six-hour prime-time series, "Breakthrough: People of Color in Science," are to raise the consciousness of the general public that is largely unaware of the significant contribution of scientists of color and to provide role models that will encourage young people to consider science and engineering careers. The programs will feature the work of contemporary African-American, Latino and Native American scientists and engineers who are active in cell biology, astrophysics, applied mathematics and other fields of science. The stories of their scientific achievements will present both women and men, old and young, at different stages of their careers, and will explore the professional, educational and social worlds they live and work in. Viewers will have immediate access to a comprehensive follow-up effort that will connect them with local, regional and national opportunities in informal science education. Blackside will collect information from existing resources and institutions as well using source material from several extensively researched databases geared toward minority students. Using all of this information, Blackside will create a metadatabase that will connect teachers, parents, mentors, and students to a rich variety of educational programs: extracurricular classes, mentoring programs, national science contests, teacher training workshops, and a myriad of on-line services. To ensure immediate access and, where possible, to customize the information to viewers needs, Blackside will disseminate it through a variety of means: an 800-number with a direct fax-back capability, an on-line service, a CD-ROM, and a printed packet delivered by mail. A principal target audience is gatekeepers in students' lives: parents, teachers, and scientists interested in becoming mentors. The target audience also includes students from fourth th rough twelfth grades. Joseph Blatt will serve a PI for this project and co-executive producer for the television series. His previous experience include serving as executive producer of "Scientific American FRONTIERS" and as a producer/director for several NOVA programs. He also has been executive producer for three television series/college credit courses in mathematics. Henry Hampton will be the other co-executive producer. He was the creator and executive producer of the 14-hour, award winning series, "Eyes on the Prize," about America's civil rights movement. The principal educational consultant will be Ceasar McDowell, assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Michael Ambrosino, the original executive producer of NOVA, will be the principal science television consultant.
This project, WALKING ON WATER, chronicals the success of Jaime Escalante's nationally acclaimed mathematics program at Garfield High School in Los Angeles. Overcoming crime, poverty and a 50% drop-out rate, Mr. Escalante transformed Hispanic students with deficient scholastic backgrounds into the top calculus students in the country. As a result of this success, Garfield High School is now a magnet school for math and science in the Los Angeles School District. Mr. Escalante's story will be told in a 90 minute film docudrama which will air nationally on public television's American Playhouse series, the 14th most popular program on PBS reaching 1.2 million homes. The film is designed for general theatrical release, for educational distribution on cable, for videocassette release and will be dubbed into Spanish for airing in Spanish theaters. In addition, Eddie Olmas, the Emmy award winning star of Miami Vice who portrays Mr. Escalanate in the film, will use the film in personal appearances. Reviewers all agree that this story will inspire and motivate students and teachers alike. They also agreed that it is equally important to reach other significant audiences such as parents, school administrators and opinion leaders so that they will understand and support these types of education efforts.