The Hollister Herbarium at Tennessee Tech University will implement “Rooting Students in their Botanical History” — an educational module targeted for 11th and 12th grade biology students. The module will address “plant blindness,” a phenomenon defined as the failure to notice or appreciate plants. The herbarium will collaborate with three Tennessee high school biology teachers, a videographer, and a graduate research assistant to increase knowledge, awareness, and appreciation of plants over the three-year project. Students also will get to know herbarium specimens as an essential resource for information about the natural world.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum will partner with the Flowing Wells Unified School District on “We Bee Scientists,” a program to engage students in grades K–6 in real-world science by learning about bees—the most important group of pollinators. They plan to create a curriculum and related activities aligned with the Arizona science standards. The program is an expansion of the Tucson Bee Collaborative, which empowers community scientists from “K to grey” to contribute to ecosystem health and understanding through the study of native bees. The museum also will partner with Pima Community College and the University of Arizona on the program, which will involve volunteers and high school, college, and university students in documenting the abundance and diversity of native bees.
The Cincinnati Museum Center will develop a permanent exhibition to showcase its invertebrate paleontology collection and develop related educational programming that builds on a strong commitment to gender equity. Using focus groups, prototypes, surveys, and feedback from existing programs, the museum will incorporate community input from key audiences into the design of the 4,800 square-foot immersive gallery, which will blend science, history, and technology. The museum will engage external designers to create schematic and final exhibit designs. The museum will develop and test related educational programs for families and students, with a special focus on engaging girls ages 7 to 14 in STEM activities.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) and Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE) contracted RK&A to conduct an evaluation of their partnership’s progress and outcomes over three years. The goal of the summative evaluation is to explore students, families, and teachers’ perceptions of and relationship to BBG and the BBG-BASE partnership. The evaluation also explored attitudes and understandings of how to engage in nature exploration, scientific inquiry, and environmental stewardship in a meaningful way.
How did we approach this study?
RK&A developed questionnaires to be
WCS launched its electronic field trip program, Distance Learning Expeditions, in 2001 when there
was tremendous interest in the educational community in the potential of videoconferencing
technology for program delivery, as well as money available for the purchase of related broadcast
equipment. The program grew rapidly and was successful through 2009 -- serving 9,600 students
in 2006-07, its largest year. From 2010 to 2014, with school budget cuts, high equipment
maintenance costs, and shifts in staffing, participation in the program declined. In 2010, WCS
secured a grant from IMLS for
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History will develop traveling natural history science curricula kits for K-12 students. This project will expand the museum's outreach program, featuring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) content with a focus on Oklahoma geology, life, and cultural science. The museum will share the educational kits, featuring materials aligning with state educational standards, with teachers across Oklahoma. The museum's digitization of the kits will increase the capacity and number of teachers who have access to the material and enable students to experience high-quality STEM educational opportunities offsite and online.
Wagner Free Institute of Science will develop, prototype, and produce new interpretive tools to enhance visitor learning experiences and deepen visitor engagement with the museum's rich history, unique collections, and Victorian-era exhibit gallery of natural history specimens. Interpretive tools will include a site guide; a map of the natural history installation, which will contextualize the exhibit and provide a bridge to contemporary science; specimen stories to drill deeper into the collection; and interpretation-infused admission protocols. In creating these approaches, the Wagner will directly involve college students and young adult visitors through an iterative process of prototype testing and refinement. The initiative will result in new ways for visitors to experience the museum; make connections between science and history; and foster learning through self-directed discovery.
The Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), in collaboration with the Tampa Community Development Corporation (CDC), will create a youth STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) program designed by East Tampa neighborhood participants for the neighborhood. The STEAM program will be a first of its kind in the area and will bring a continuum of experiences in STEAM fields to underserved middle and high school students, as well as volunteer participants, who come from the East Tampa neighborhood. Initial programming topics for career exploration include astronomy/cosmology and space exploration, environmental sciences, engineering, robotics, crime scene forensics, and medical explorations. The project will expand the museum's ability to create a STEAM continuum, increase interest in STEAM careers, and to increase awareness of skills necessary to be successful in STEAM careers.
The Detroit Zoo will develop an innovative partnership to help underrepresented students achieve success in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) higher education and careers. The “Learning Classroom—Community of Practice” project will bring together the zoo’s informal educators and STEM content experts with partners at the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program and Oakland University’s School of Education and Human Services in four workshops designed to create a shared language, vision and values around program development and implementation. The group will develop methods for addressing developmental needs of youth while providing science education relating to wildlife conservation and environmental stewardship. They will also build a process for bringing new members into the collaborative with the ultimate goal of delivering large and sustained STEM projects in the metropolitan Detroit area. While focusing on creating a positive impact on STEM achievement and success in Detroit area youth, the project will identify aspects of the process that can be replicable in other regions.
In 2008, COSI received funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to develop the exhibit Labs in Life (LG-26-08-0146). The development of the Labs in Life embodies a unique model for collaboration, with active researchers interested in research outcomes while simultaneously serving as models for the public, and science center staff concurrently gleaning new and changing content for exhibits and programs. While each partner is motivated by many different goals, all agree that they are interested in stimulating public interest in and understanding of science and technology
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Institute for Learning InnovationJoe E Heimlich
Magnolia Consulting, LLC conducted a formative and summative evaluation to examine public perceptions of the utility and quality of two labs/exhibits within the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Natural World Investigate Lab, Biofuels and Science of Scent. Appendix includes survey.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
North Carolina State Museum of Natural ScienceMary Styers