This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
This project's research questions include:
How and to what extent do Brains On!’s coronavirus-based episodes help children and their families understand and talk about science-related pandemic topics? What kind of conversations are sparked by these episodes?
What kinds of worries and questions do Brains On! listeners have about coronavirus and related aspects of the pandemic? How do children’s worries and questions change over the course of the pandemic?
What resources do caregivers need to answer children’s questions
The goal of this NSF-funded RAPID research project was to advance understanding of how children’s science podcasts can provide families with information to help ease children’s worries during a pandemic by increasing children’s understanding of pandemic-related science concepts and supporting pandemic-related family conversations. Our research was guided by the following questions:
1. How and to what extent do Brains On!’s coronavirus-based episodes help children and their families understand and talk about science-related pandemic topics?
2. What kinds of conversations are
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, caregivers were seeking out information to address the questions, worries, and information needs their children had about this unique moment in their lives. Our NSF-funded RAPID research project has helped to uncover some of these questions, worries, and needs by talking to caregivers of listeners of the children’s science podcast Brains On!. This aspect of our research was guided by two overarching quesitons:
What kinds of worries and questions do Brains On! listeners have about the coronavirus and related aspects of the pandemic? How do
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world continues to struggle with the many ways our lives have changed and the uncertainty that remains about the future. Vaccines are being widely administered, but how and when life will return to “normal” remains unknown. During this time, caregivers continue to seek out information to address the questions, worries, and information needs their children have about this unique moment in their lives. Our NSF-funded RAPID research project has helped to uncover some of these questions, worries, and needs by talking to caregivers of listeners of the children
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world continues to struggle with the many ways our lives have changed and the uncertainty that remains about the future. Vaccines are being widely administered, but how and when life will return to “normal” remains unknown. During this time, caregivers continue to seek out information to address the questions, worries, and information needs their children have about this unique moment in their lives. Our NSF-funded RAPID research project has helped to uncover some of these questions, worries, and needs by talking to caregivers of listeners of the children
With the world in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, families are seeking trusted and engaging sources of scientific information to help their children understand prevention, transmission, treatment, and many other topics related to COVID-19 in an effort to ease children’s fears. The goal of our NSF-funded RAPID research study is to understand how children’s science podcasts, as well as other educational products, can provide families with information to help ease children’s worries during a pandemic by increasing children’s understanding of pandemic-related science concepts, empowering
With the world in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, families are seeking trusted and engaging sources of scientific information to help their children understand prevention, transmission, treatment, and many other topics related to COVID-19 in an effort to ease children’s fears. The goal of our NSF-funded RAPID research study is to understand how children’s science podcasts, as well as other educational products, can provide families with information to help ease children’s worries during a pandemic by increasing children’s understanding of pandemic-related science concepts, empowering
This RAPID was submitted in response to the NSF Dear Colleague letter related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This award is made by the AISL program in the Division of Research on Learning, using funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The goal of this award is to advance understanding of how children's science podcasts can provide families with information to help ease children's anxiety and fears during a pandemic. The project's hypothesis is that through listening to Brains On! coronavirus-related episodes, children will increase their understanding of science concepts related to the pandemic. As they gain this understanding, it is predicted that their overall fear and anxiety about the pandemic will diminish, they will feel empowered to ask pandemic-related questions and will engage in more science- based conversations with their family members. The project will develop three Brains On! podcast episodes focused specifically on the COVID-19 pandemic for kids aged 5 to 12 and their families. The research questions include:
How and to what extent do Brains On!'s coronavirus-based episodes help children and their families understand and talk about science-related pandemic topics? What kind of conversations are sparked by these episodes?
What kinds of questions do children have after listening to the Brains On! coronavirus episodes and what are the reasons for their questions? What can the questions tell us about the impact of listening on kids' science engagement and learning?
What resources do parents need to answer children's questions and help them understand science topics related to the pandemic?
This project is a collaboration between a media producer, Minnesota Public Radio and researchers at The Science Museum of Minnesota. Brains On! already has a large listening audience, with 7 million downloads a year, and more than 200,000 unique listeners a month and these new episodes are likely to increase listenership further. The research findings will be quickly disseminated to a wide range of audiences that can immediately apply the findings to create media and other coronavirus-related educational resources for families.
The PI's prior NSF funded projects have found that previous Brains On! podcasts with a range of STEM content increase the number and sophistication of the science questions children ask and lead to science-based conversations with family members. This project will study the impacts in relation to a singular topic, COVID-19. Three online surveys of Brains On! listeners (families with children ages 5 - 12 years old) will be conducted. The first survey to be conducted as soon as the project begins will focus on parents reflecting on what information is needed at that stage of the pandemic. Two additional listener surveys will occur immediately after new COVID-19 podcast episodes are released. These surveys will ask content-specific questions to understand how well the episode conveys that information to children and their families, what conversations were sparked from the content, and what additional information needs families have. Prior to administering each of the three surveys, video-based think-aloud interviews with 10 families will test and revise survey questions.
Survey participants will be recruited using language in Brains On! episodes, social media, website, and newsletters. A sample size of around 1,000 for each of the surveys is planned (based on a 95% confidence interval and ±3% sampling error). Analyses will include descriptive statistics and thematic coding of open-ended survey questions. Subgroup samples, when large enough will look at differences in responses by demographic variables (e.g. race/ethnicity, household income, highest level of education in the household, an adult in the household with a STEM career, gender of child, geographic location). The researchers and Brains On! staff will work together to identify how the findings can be applied to the development of subsequent coronavirus-related episodes and shared with the ISE field to further support families? education and information needs.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
For public health to improve, all sectors of society much have access to the highest quality health science news and information possible. How that information is translated, packaged and disseminated is important: the stories matter. Our journalism and mentoring program will grow the health science literacy of the nation by building the next generation of science communicators, ensuring that cadre of youth from historically disadvantaged groups have the discipline, creativity and critical thinking skills needed to be successful health science-literate citizens and advocates within their own communities.
Using a combination of youth-generated videos, broadcast reporting and online curriculum resources, PBS NewsHour will engineer successful educational experiences to engage students from all backgrounds, and particularly underserved populations, to explore clinical, biomedical, and behavioral research. The PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs program, currently in 41 states, will create 10 health science reporting labs to produce unique news stories that view health and science topics from a youth perspective. We will incorporate these videos into lesson plans and learning tools disseminated to the general public, educators and youth media organizations. Students will be supported along the way with curricula and mentorship on both fundamental research and the critical thinking skills necessary for responsible journalism. This process will ensure the next generation includes citizens who are effective science communicators and self-motivated learners with a deep connection to science beyond the textbook and classroom.
PBS NewsHour will develop a STEM-reporting curriculum to teach students important research skills. The program will include activities that expose students to careers in research, highlight a diverse assortment of pioneering scientists as role models and promote internship opportunities. The resources will be posted on the PBS NewsHour Extra site which has 170,000 views per month and our partner sites on PBS Learning Media and Share My Lesson—the two biggest free education resource sites on the web—thus greatly expanding the potential scope of our outreach and impact.
NewsHour broadcast topics will be finalized through our advisory panel and the researchers interviewed for the stories will be selected for their expertise and skills as effective science communicators, as well as their diversity and ability to connect with youth. Finally, we will launch an outreach and community awareness campaign through strategic partnerships and coordinated cross promotion of stories through social media platforms.
As part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for the In Defense of Food project directed by Kikim Media, the independent evaluation firm Knight Williams Inc.1 conducted a summative evaluation of the project’s key deliverables, which included: a PBS television broadcast program, an outreach effort, and an educational curriculum. This report (Study 3 of 3) considers the In Defense of Food curriculum and, in particular, educators’ reactions to the curriculum in terms of perceived appeal, ease of implementation, and learning value. Feedback was gathered from educators who were surveyed
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting held in Washington, DC. It discusses the second season of SciGirls, a multimedia project designed to encourage and empower more girls to pursue careers in STEM.
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Twin Cities Public TelevisionRita Karl
SciGirls CONNECT is a broad national outreach effort to encourage educators, both formal and informal, to adopt new, research-based strategies to engage girls in STEM. SciGirls (pbskids.org/scigirls) is an Emmy award-winning television program and outreach program that draws on cutting-edge research about what engages girls in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning and careers. The PBS television show, kids' website, and educational outreach program have reached over 14 million girls, educators, and families, making it the most widely accessed girls' STEM program available nationally. SciGirls' videos, interactive website and hands-on activities work together to address a singular but powerful goal: to inspire, enable, and maximize STEM learning and participation for all girls, with an eye toward future STEM careers. The goal of SciGirls is to change how millions of girls think about STEM. SciGirls CONNECT (scigirlsconnect.org) includes 60 partner organizations located in schools, museums, community organizations and universities who host SciGirls clubs, camps and afterschool programs for girls. This number is intended grow to over 100 by the end of the project in 2016. SciGirls CONNECT provides mini-grants, leader training and educational resources to partner organizations. Each partner training session involves educators from a score of regional educational institutions. To date, over 700 educators have received training from over 250 affiliated organizations. The SciGirls CONNECT network is a supportive community of dedicated educators who provide the spark, the excitement and the promise of a new generation of women in STEM careers. Through our partner, the National Girls Collaborative Project, we have networked educational organizations hosting SciGirls programs with dozens of female role models from a variety of STEM fields. The SciGirls CONNECT website hosts monthly webinars, a quarterly newsletter, gender equity resources, SciGirls videos and hands-on activities. SciGirls also promotes the television, website and outreach program to thousands of elementary and middle school girls and their teachers both locally and nationally at various events.