The project team published a research synopsis article with Futurum Science Careers in Feb 2023 called “How Can Place Attachment Improve Scientific Literacy?”
This presentation "Revealing Impacts: How does one long-term, statewide field trip program influence a community's learning ecosystem?" was shared as showcase at the 2021 Connected Learning Summit (https://app.clowdr.org/conference/clsummit2021/) held virtually from July 7-30, 2021.
In the showcase session, we shared details of an NSF funded collaborative project between the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Oregon State University and TERC to understand how a longstanding, statewide field trip program, LabVenture, influences a community’s learning ecosystem. The project uses the construct
This is a summary description of the 2018 Summer Science Camp offered by the Morgridge Institute for Research at the Discovery Building on the UW-Madison campus. The camp has been offered annualy since 2007, and the 2018 evaluation produced some specific ideas for improving the camp. Since 2007, more than 300 students from rural Wisconsin high schools have attended the camp. This population has less access to the many educational advantages that regular internet access affords their urban counterparts. The science camp team is exploring how to carry out a study of camp alumni.
How does focusing on “community science literacy” change the role of an informal science learning center?
This poster was presented at the 2019 NSF AISL Principal Investigators meeting.
This poster, which was presented in Alexandria, VA at the CAISE AISL PI meeting in February 2019, summarizes the LabVenture informal learning experience and the research challenge of leveraging a learning ecosystem frame to understand effects this statewide program may have had over its 14+ years at the student, teacher, school, and community levels.
This report looks across multiple phases of work to discuss the PLUM Rx project’s contribution to broader knowledge about supporting children’s active, outdoor science exploration in informal, urban settings. The PLUM LANDING Explore Outdoors Toolkit that resulted from this work is designed for use by outdoor prescription programs and a broad range of informal education programs serving urban children and families. This report describes (1) the rationale for the design principles that guided Toolkit development, (2) the Toolkit components developed in accordance with the design principles; and
This paper explores the construction of hybrid spaces through the observation of middle school children engaged in short science projects in an informal science learning programme. Hybrid spaces are not just physical structures, but refer to contexts, relationships and knowledges developed by children as their social worlds and identities merge with the normative expectations of school science. Hybrid spaces have been characterised in three different ways: as a convergent space between academic and traditionally marginalised knowledges and discourses; as a navigational space, or a way of
Supported by the National Science Foundation, the Global Soundscapes! Big Data, Big Screens, Open Ears project employs a variety of informal learning experiences to present the physics of sound and the new science of soundscape ecology. The interdisciplinary science of soundscape ecology analyzes sounds over time in different ecosystems around the world. The major components of the Global Soundscapes project are an educator-led interactive giant-screen theater show, group activities, and websites. All components are designed with both sighted and visually impaired students in mind. Multimedia
Organized creationism is not widespread in Italy. It is a rather limited resource politicians and columnists draw upon when wishing to stir up a “debate”. Judging by its results, Italian creationism is old-fashioned, still comparing Darwin’s theories with the Bible, hoping to find the wreckage of Noah’s Ark, holding conferences on the origin of apes, questioning fossil dating and distorting science debates with out-of-context quotations from disparate sources. It is not a lobby that could obtain considerable electoral support, win favour or drag scientists to court.
In addition to their intrusive presence in American schools, creationists - or more modern epigones thereof, known as “intelligent designers” - are also and unexpectedly to be found in other countries. Take the United Kingdom as an example. Over the past few years, Darwin’s homeland has actually been witnessing attempts to introduce literal faith in the Bible into school programmes in a way which does not significantly differ from the one adopted in the United States. It is multi-billionaire Howard H. Ahmanson who generously finances the Discovery Institute across the Atlantic, one of the