The purposes of the STUDIO 3D evaluation were to collect information about the impact upon student learning as a result of participating in the STUDIO 3D Project, as well as to elicit information for program improvement. Areas of inquiry include recruiting and retention, impact on project participants, tracking student impacts, and the project as a whole.
This article presents a contextual model of learning that examines visitor learning in museums. It explores features of the model, factors that can influence learning in a museum setting, and challenges associated with teaching in a museum context.
This paper uses a possible selves theoretical framework to examine whether and how adolescent girls' images of themselves as future scientists change during their transition from high school to college. Forty-one female high school graduates from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, who had enrolled in an intensive math and science program while in high school, participated in interviews focused on their perceptions of factors that influenced their career plans over time. Participants suggested that career-related internships and intensive academic programs, especially those that
Summer science programs held in university research facilities provide ideal opportunities for pre-college students to master new skills and renew, refresh, and enrich their interest in science. These types of programs have a positive impact on a student's understanding of the nature of science and scientific inquiry and can open a youngster's eyes to the many possible career opportunities in science. This paper describes a study of high school students enrolled in the Summer Science Academy program at the University of Rochester that investigates the program's impact on students' knowledge of
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kerry KnoxJan MoynihanDina Markowitz
This study evaluated a 2-week residential program aimed at enhancing the science interest and persistence of high-achieving 8th-grade girls. Questionnaires were administered to 38 program participants (14 of whom were of minority ethnicity) and 173 applicants who did not attend the program, at 3 time points: preprogram, 1 year postprogram, and 4 years postprogram. Outcomes, measured postprogram, included science self-concept and interest, persistence and aspirations in science, science activities, science course-taking in high school, and plans for a science college major. There was no main
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Toby JayaratneNancy ThomasMarcella Trautmann
This article reports on some of the outcomes of a study that investigated the factors influencing K-7 teachers' decisions to make field-trip visits in Vancouver, Canada. The key outcomes emergent from the study, in the context of the city of Vancouver, its many field-trip venues and its teachers, have relevance for both educators and museum policy makers in other metropolitan areas. The authors address issues that call for reflection on assumptions that might be deeply entrenched and also affirm and reiterate the findings of contemporary studies of teacher perceptions regarding field-trip
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David AndersonZuochen Zhang
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This model science teacher retention and mentoring project will involve more than 300 elementary teachers in "Lesson Study" of inquiry science around school gardens. Drawing on the rich resources of the University of California Botanical Garden and the science educators at the Lawrence Hall of Science this project will develop Teacher Leaders and provide science content professional development to colleagues in four urban school districts. Using the rich and authentic contexts of gardens to engage students and teachers in scientific inquiry opens the opportunity to invite parents to become actively involved with their children in the learning process. As teachers improve their classroom practices of teaching science through inquiry with the help of school-based mentoring they are able to connect the teaching of science to mathematics and literacy and will be able to apply the lesson study approach in their teaching of other innovative projects. Teacher leaders and mentors will have on-going learning opportunities as well as engage participating teachers in lesson study and reflection aimed toward improving science content understanding and the quality of science learning in summer garden learning experiences and having context rich science inquiry experiences throughout the school year.
In the spring of 1999, the Board of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST) established an Informal Science Education Ad Hoc committee, co-chaired by Lynn Dierking and John Falk. The Committee's task was to focus on the organization's positioning in regard to out-of-school science education. After 2 years of work, the committee composed a policy statement, included below, that was presented to, and accepted by, the NARST board. The policy statement defines this arena of research, describes a variety of out-of-school environments in which science learning occurs
Evidence from the data collected on the Midwest Wild Weather Project indicates that the teachers are very excited about its potential for increasing their students' science literacy and understanding of the scientific process, as well as increasing their knowledge of the weather and exciting them about science in general. Students are very focused, enthusiastic and excited when interacting with the exhibits and universally pleased with their exploration and explainer experiences. MWW is also effectively reaching the intended underserved and underrepresented students across the nine sites are
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Gregory AloiaSciTech Hands On Museum
In the Spring of 2003, Rockman et al conducted an evaluation that was designed to explore children's viewing behavior, outcomes of viewing, the impact of the program's structural features, viewers' content preferences, and factors that motivate greater participation by viewers. Nearly six hundred children and twenty-five adults in three major U.S. cities participated in this study. Evaluation activities included: Five sets of student surveys: one administered prior to viewing episodes of DragonflyTV, one following each of the three programs viewed as part of the evaluation, and one
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Rockman, et. al.Twin Cities Public TelevisionJennifer Borland
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS) is a five-year collaborative effort between the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and King's College London. The purpose of the Center is to study the intersection of informal science learning that takes place in museums and science centers and formal learning that takes place in schools, and to prepare leaders in informal science education. Through the efforts of the center, new doctoral level leaders will be prepared who understand how informal science learning takes place and how informal institutions can contribute to science education reform. A Ph.D. program will be offered to 16 individuals at King's College London (two cohorts of eight) and a post-doctoral program to six scientists interested in issues of learning and teaching in informal settings. A doctoral program is planned at the University of California at Santa Cruz for 24 students, 12 whose interests are primarily in education and 12 who come from the sciences. In addition to doctoral level training, there will be a certification program for existing informal science professionals to better enable them to support teachers, students and the general public. That program will provide 160 informal science educators 120 hours of professional development experiences, and an additional 24 informal science educators with a master's degree in informal science education at UC Santa Cruz. A Bay Area Institute will be developed to serve as a central focus for all CILS activities. It will bring together researchers and practitioners; it will offer courses and workshops for graduate students; and it will provide a central location for reporting research findings and methodologies that focus on how informal learning institutions can best contribute to science education reform.
The Wildlife Conservation Society is developing and implementing a five-year science program for 420 parents and 210 teachers of children in grades K-8. Linked directly with school curricula and the new National Science Education Standards, the program will bridge the gap between parents and schools, and position the Zoo as a partner and intermediary to help parents and teachers improve the quality and quantity of science education. The program consists of four interrelated components: 1) A series of workshops that will prepare the 420 parents and 210 teachers to work in teams for better and more widely available science education; 2) A series of education projects that will enable workshop participants to teach thousands of other parents and educators about the importance of science literacy, the need for active parental engagement in children's education, and the crucial role that informal science institutions play in augmenting formal science instruction; 3) A series of four Science Advocacy Fairs at the Zoo that are expected to raise the visitor's consciousness on a large scale about the above issues; and 4) A symposium for educators from schools and informal science centers in the region to disseminate successful methods for involving parents in science education.