As STEAM has gained traction in informal education settings, it is important to support educators in learning about and developing STEAM learning experiences. We investigated what STEAM means to informal educators and how it relates to their everyday lives and identities by examining a STEAM objects activity. We found three themes in how the participants talked about the significance of the STEAM objects they shared: connection to land, historicity, and agency of materials. The STEAM objects served as boundary objects that connected communities of practice, showing the integrative nature of
Iteration is a central practice in art and science; however, it has yet to be deeply explored in STEAM learning environments. This study adopts a sociomaterial orientation (Fenwick and Edwards, 2013) to characterize the nature of iteration in one STEAM activity, an Optics Design Challenge, with informal educators. We found that iteration emerged as “microcycles” of interactions, specifically as adjustments, additions, and negotiations in both material artifacts and the narrative.
The Pacific Science Center will develop new evaluation tools to assess the impact of Tinker Tank, a visitor-directed, hands-on design space in which participants are challenged to use their creativity, problem solving, and experience to understand the processes of design, engineering, and science. The project will allow the museum to determine which tools, adapted from both informal learning settings (such as timing and tracking studies, observations, surveys, and focus groups) and formal settings (such as design journals, digital portfolios, and badging),are most suitable for providing meaningful data about the learning and engagement occurring in its makerspace. By adjusting and refining the evaluation tools and methods, the museum will be able to measure learning in its makerspace, determine the extent to which it is achieving the goals and objectives of its Tinker Tank, and guide planning for expansion of making activities into different areas of its exhibition floor.
Marbles Kids Museum will develop tools and strategies to train its staff, volunteers, and interns to engage infants, toddlers, and preschool children in activities and conversations that lay the foundation for critical early math skills. The staff capacity-building project will deepen the museum staff's understanding of early math skills, how to foster those skills, and why investment in early math is critical to long term success in school. With a content coach, the museum will research and develop early math resources, activities, and exhibit enhancements that engage children and their families. Additionally, the museum will seek to understand community needs related to early math learning, and create content for professional development video modules. The museum will modify the professional development modules to create caregiver workshops focused on fostering early math learning through everyday activities and play at home. Museum staff will share tools and lessons learned through a regional museum convening and at national conferences.
The Bay Area Discovery Museum will address the need for STEM education by delivering engineering outreach programming to schools and libraries throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The museum's mobile engineering lab, Try It Truck, will introduce the engineering design process to students and teachers in grades K-5 with hands-on activities (both on and off the truck) where they can collaborate, experiment, and design solutions to engineering challenges. The Try It Truck will serve 21,600 children, parents, and educators throughout the Bay Area, with at least 50 percent of all participants coming from underserved communities and Title I schools. The museum will work with an external evaluator to design survey instruments for both formative and summative evaluation, analyze summative evaluation data, and produce a report. Museum staff will share project results with colleagues at national and statewide conferences.
In partnership with early childhood service providers and elementary school systems, the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry will expand the reach of its programming to share its hands-on, play-based approach to STEM education with targeted children and educators. The museum will create a Power of Play curriculum with lesson plans that reflect best practices and focus on play-based activities to teach STEM concepts tied to grade level and state standards. The museum will train and support 40 teachers and educators from ten Head Start/First Steps early childhood centers and ten Title I elementary schools, and provide them with free Pop Up Tinker Shop (a museum on wheels) outreach visits. The trainings will build teacher confidence, promote best practices for play-based learning, support a community of practice, and enhance young learners' engagement, fascination, and attitude towards STEM. The Power of Play Curriculum will be published as a bound resource and shared with other children's museums and service providers.
The Brookfield Zoo will launch the Zoo Explorers Club to provide underserved middle school students with free informal STEM education in public libraries and community centers in majority African American and Latino neighborhoods in Chicago, Cicero, and Melrose Park, Illinois. The program will consist of two four-week units per year, themed around STEM topics of interest to sixth-eighth graders. Students will participate in informal sessions that include hands-on science experiments, outdoor observations, craft projects, or animal experiences designed with the varied learning styles of middle school students in mind. Students will also participate in a free field trip to a zoo, nature center, museum, or other destination related to the unit topic. The curriculum will be designed to facilitate science learning through inquiry for up to 180 students per year, and empower young people to see themselves as agents of conservation solutions.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium will use an iterative program development process to strengthen and expand its teen programming to inspire youth to conserve the ocean and its vast resources. The Teen Pathways: Inspiring Future Ocean Stewards project will increase the number of teens the aquarium engages in ocean science, environmental research, service learning, and conservation action. The project will create opportunities for middle and high school teens to strengthen their knowledge, skills, and commitment to conservation that will continue into and beyond college. The project team will complete an ongoing development process by implementing new project-based science and conservation programs for 7th-9th grade students that provide a pathway to the aquarium's high school programs. The team will also revamp its existing leadership program for high school students and refine its other teen offerings. The programs will align with Next Generation Science Standards and the Ocean Literacy Framework.
Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History will develop and present the "Exploration of African American Physicians and Surgeons" project with an overall goal to expose young people in the community to the opportunities and benefits of STEM education. Project components will include educational programming, lectures, and an historical exhibition revolving around African American contributions and achievements within the world of medicine. The exhibition will focus on work of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, the founder of Chicago's Provident Hospital, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States. Dr. Williams was the first general surgeon to perform a documented and successful pericardium surgical procedure to repair a wound. The project's educational programming will explore the ways in which other African American doctors broke down racial barriers within the field of medicine.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society will develop, pilot, and implement an evaluation framework for nature-based STEM programming that serves K-12 students visiting its network of nature centers and museums. Working with an external consultant, the society will develop the framework comprised of a logic model and theory of change for fieldtrips, and develop a toolkit of evaluation data collection methodology suitable to various child development stages. The project team will design and conduct three professional development training seminars to help Massachusetts Audubon school educators develop a working understanding of the new evaluation framework for school programs and gain the skills necessary to support protocol implementation. This project will result in the development and adoption of a universal protocol to guide the collection, management, and reporting of education program evaluation data across the 19 nature centers and museums in the Massachusetts Audubon system.
In response to a community-identified need to prevent conflicts between humans and carnivores, the Woodland Park Zoo will develop new strategies to facilitate community-driven learning and problem-solving. The zoo will establish a community-based science education and conservation model in partnership with the city and school district of Issaquah. The project will include a middle school inquiry-based science program for 6th grade students that will begin with teacher orientations, followed by introducing program elements to students, and culminating in a community event at each school featuring student presentations. A three-phase community engagement program will begin with a resident survey on carnivores in the community and an open house launch event. A series of community events and formation of learning teams for further dialogue and for problem solving will result in the implementation of strategies developed by the teams. The framework produced by the project will be applicable to other communities attempting to balance urban expansion with wildlife conservation.
As it embarks on opening a new facility, the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo will launch the "Access From the Ground Up" project to make the new facility and exhibitions accessible to everyone, and provide science learning opportunities to children with physical and developmental disabilities. The museum and zoo will build relationships with the Inclusion Collaborative of the Santa Clara County Office of Education and other partner organizations that serve visitors with disabilities; provide seven intensive training and professional development opportunities for staff members and volunteers to heighten their knowledge about contemporary access issues; and prototype, test, build, and remediate 27 new permanent exhibitions. The project will address the lack of quality STEM experiences for the growing number of children with a variety of disabilities, and is intended to serve as a national model for inclusion for museums and zoos of all types and sizes.