The STAR Library Network Phase 2 (STAR Net) brings inquiry-based STEM learning experiences to public libraries through six traveling exhibits, training for library staff and associated programming for library patrons, and a virtual community of practice for library staff and others interested in bringing STEM programming to libraries. In 2014, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a four-year grant to the Space Science Institute’s (SSI) National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) and its partners—the American Library Association (ALA), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ginger FitzhughSarah ArmstrongSheila RodriguezVicky Coulon
resourceevaluationProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The STAR Library Network Phase 2 (STAR Net) brings inquiry-based STEM learning experiences to public libraries through six traveling exhibits, training for library staff and associated programming for library patrons, and a virtual community of practice for library staff and others interested in bringing STEM programming to libraries. In 2014, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a four-year grant to the Space Science Institute’s (SSI) National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) and its partners—the American Library Association (ALA), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ginger FitzhughSarah ArmstrongSheila RodriguezVicky Coulon
Physical science and engineering remain the least diverse of all STEM fields---with regard to women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities---across all levels of STEM education and training. SCI-STEPS is an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot that will address this persistent challenge by developing a complete end-to-end pipeline (or system of pathways) from the beginning of college to the PhD, and then into the workforce. Many isolated efforts to broaden participation have shown promise, but they have not produced big enough impact. SCI-STEPS represents a concerted set of coordinated interventions---consciously facilitated, systemically linked, and purposefully disseminated. SCI-STEPS represents a broad regional network among major research universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, comprehensive universities, community colleges, national labs, and major scientific organizations. The goal of the network is to ensure that underrepresented individuals in the physical sciences and engineering can get from their starting point in STEM higher education---freshmen at 2-year or 4-year college---through the higher education pathways leading to an appropriate terminal degree and employment in the STEM workforce.
Women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities collectively represent the majority of college-age individuals entering higher education with an expressed interest in physical science and engineering. A growing body of research indicates that academic and social integration may be even more influential than academic abilities for retention of students. Thus, interventions aimed at stemming the losses of these individuals must ultimately be aimed at changing the system---including unwelcoming institutional climates, racial/ethnic/gender stereotyping, a lack of mentors with whom to identify, and evaluation methods that emphasize conformity over individual capabilities---rather than changing the individual. The SCI-STEPS pilot focuses effort on institutional readiness for implementation of best practice interventions at four key junctures: (i) college freshman to sophomore; (ii) undergraduate to graduate; (iii) PhD to postdoc; and (iv) postdoc to workforce.The pilot will proceed in three steps: (1) a planning phase, (2) development of an initial end-to-end pathways model with four Juncture Transition teams, and (3) scale-up of the SCI-STEPS "network of networks" with all initial partners. By addressing these objectives through a collective impact framework and embedded research, this pilot will demonstrate how best-practice interventions at each pathway juncture can be dovetailed and scaled up across a broad range of institutional types and across a large but distinct geographical area. Addressing these objectives will thus also serve to advance Broadening Participation efforts at a national scale, by suggesting the forms of institutional partnerships and best-practices that may inform other alliances in other STEM disciplines and/or different regional areas.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Keivan StassunNicole JosephKelly Holley-BockelmannWilliam RobinsonRoger Chalkley
STEM Pathways is a collaboration between five Minnesota informal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education organizations—The Bakken Museum, Bell Museum of Natural History, Minnesota Zoo, STARBASE Minnesota, and The Works Museum—working with Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) and advised by the Minnesota Department of Education. STEM Pathways (logo shown in Figure 1) aims to provide a deliberate and connected series of meaningful in-school and out-of-school STEM learning experiences to strengthen outcomes for students, build the foundation for a local ecosystem of STEM
Engineering Enabling Science - A NASA GSFC Informal Education Environment Collaborative is a collaborative relationship between and among NASA Goddard Education Office, Greenbelt and Wallops Visitor Centers, Port Discovery Children’s Museum of Baltimore, The Maryland Science Center, and Prince George’s County Public Schools Owens Science Center to leverage current and past NASA Goddard Office of Education and Science Mission Directorate and Engineering investments in Earth Sciences, Astrophysics, Heliophysics, and Planetary Science and NASA Missions. The goal of GSFC’s collaborative is to interface with a number of organizations to provide leveraging, expand their activities and to utilize NASA-related activities in a broader context than that of the individual organization thereby reducing redundancy of effort and services. Specifically, the Office of Education-GSFC Visitor Centers (Greenbelt and Wallops) will develop an integrated model for sharing and delivering high quality education services and activities based on NASA unique capabilities within a network of organizations and institutions serving the general public. The common thread across all proposed activities will be NASA-unique content that flows from the science and technology work of NASA’s Mission Directorates and its Engineering directorate, thereby demonstrating that engineering truly enables science by applying the engineering cycle to the four science themes of Earth Science, Astrophysics, Planetary Science, and Heliophysics. The products of these activities will directly relate to the Educator Professional Development (EPD) and STEM Engagement (SE) lines of business established by NASA educators, as well as showing the interactions and shared STEM learning opportunities between informal and formal education communities rather than viewing informal and formal education as stovepipes.
The National Science Festival Network project, also operating as the Science Festival Alliance, is designed to create a sustainable national network of science festivals that engages all facets of the general public in science learning. Science Festivals, clearly distinct from "science fairs", are community-wide activities engaging professional scientists and informal and K-12 educators targeting underrepresented segments of local communities historically underserved by formal or informal STEM educational activities. The initiative builds on previous work in other parts of the world (e.g. Europe, Australasia) and on recent efforts in the U.S. to create science festivals. The target audiences are families, children and youth ages 5-18, adults, professional scientists and educators in K-12 and informal science institutions, and underserved and underrepresented communities. Project partners include the MIT Museum in Cambridge, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, and the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The deliverables include annual science festivals in these four cities supported by year-round related activities for K-12 and informal audiences, a partnership network, a web portal, and two national conferences. Ten science festivals will be convened in total over the 3 years of the project, each reaching 15,000 to 60,000 participants per year. STEM content includes earth and space science, oceanography, biological/biomedical science, bioinformatics, and computer, behavioral, aeronautical, nanotechnology, environmental, and nuclear science. An independent evaluator will systematically assess audience participation and perceptions, level/types of science interest stimulated in target groups, growth of partnering support at individual sites, and increasing interactions between ISE and formal K-12 education. A variety of qualitative and quantitative assessments will be designed and utilized. The project has the potential to transform public communication and understanding of science and increase the numbers of youth interested in pursuing science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Loren ThompsonJeremy BabendureBen Wiehe
The Experiential Science Education Research Collaborative (XSci) at the University of Colorado Denver has established a museum educator/theater network of eight museums around the country, pairing larger with smaller institutions. The Association of Science-Technology Centers, the NASA Astrobiology Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and several other organizations also are collaborators. The primary audience is informal science educators; secondary audiences are museum and science center visitors. The Science Theater Education Programming System (STEPS) is a technology the allows educators to create their own media-enhanced live theatrical presentations of science programs that include dynamic content, interactive virtual characters, and multiple plot-lines and endings to shows. The initial set of theater programs focus on astrobiology, along with a suite of training programs and communication formats for educators. The STEPS technology allows these programs to be delivered both on site and via outreach, depending on the goals of each organization. An in-depth research component is examining the impact of the project\'s designed community of practice structure utilizing team leadership theory in terms of professional identity construction for participating informal educators. Deliverables include: the museum partnership network, the STEPS system and programs, professional development tutorials and workshops, evaluation of the programs, and research products, among others.
NASA‘s Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Space Center Houston (SCH) will build upon the successes of NASA‘s Summer of Innovation initiative and SCH‘s highly successful Exploration Academy by developing, planning and implementing a newly defined STEM experiential program – Spaceflight Explorers. This program will not only be sustainable for the future, but will also be able to be replicated throughout the nation‘s network of museums and science centers. The Spaceflight Explorers program will: - Provide customizable STEM education content (up to 40 contact hours) to support the implementation of STEM learning programming with an emphasis on Human Spaceflight (content to include experiential STEM experiences) - Engage underrepresented and underserved middle school students in STEM learning by utilizing NASA material - Provide professional development to educators patterned after our 18 years of experience with SEEC (Space Exploration Educators Conference) our highly successful Educators Conference held here for over 500 teachers from around the country. - Create a network of visitor centers, museums, and science centers that have an interest in promoting and sharing the excitement of human spaceflight with students, educators, and the general public. Upon receiving these resources, each museum or science center will be expected to offer summer STEM learning experiences, as outlined in the Spaceflight Explorers curriculum, at their facilities targeting underserved/under-represented populations of middle school students. By adopting and utilizing The Exploration Academy concept at their facility museums and science centers are making a commitment to support current and future NASA Human Space Flight endeavors and increase student and visitor awareness of Human Spaceflight.
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific requests $1,317,701 over three years to implement its California pilot project to six sites around the country. Each site will establish local, self- sustaining coalitions linking science centers, astronomical institutions, school districts, and community groups. These coalitions will, with training and support from the national Project ASTRO staff, identify, link, and support the astronomer/teacher partners in their area to use the excitement of astronomy to improve the teaching and learning of science in elementary and middle school. A second strand of the project will use the Project ASTRO materials and techniques to train astronomers and teachers at national meetings outside the six sites to set up individual ASTRO partnerships on their own. Materials to be produced include a: Project ASTRO Coalition Manual; Training Manual; update to the Resource Notebook for the Teaching of Astronomy. Target audiences are students in grades 4-9.