Few people realize that the largest part of our planet’s biosphere remains virtually unexplored and unknown. This enormous habitat, accounting for an area of 116 million square miles or the equivalent size of roughly 30 times the area of the United States, is the abyssal zone of the deep ocean. The abyssal sea floor, at about 6000 ft., contains more than four times as much habitat for animal life as all of the dry mountains, forests, deserts, plains and jungles combined. Microscopic larvae in the deep ocean, are essential for the renewal and replenishment of life and they repopulate areas damaged by human activities such as mining and trawling, and they make marine protected areas both feasible and important. The National Science Foundation has funded intensive studies of oceanography related to larval recruitment for decades. However, findings from this large NSF investment of personnel, technology and funding have never been widely presented to the public. This project proposes to remedy this by developing a 40 minute giant screen film to be shown in science centers across the country, supported by virtual reality and augmented reality learning tools. The film will cover select deep ocean science expeditions using the deep-sea vehicles Alvin and ROV Jason. Content will include elements of the research process, activities related to the design and operation of deep-sea vehicles as well as interviews with scientists and technologists. The companion activities, Deep-Ocean Pilot (a VR-360° viewing station) and Plankton Quest (an AR biology treasure hunt) will extend the audience experience of the deep ocean out of the giant screen theater and into the surrounding museum environment. The website and social media will extend awareness and resources into homes. The project will be appropriate for a broad general audience, with particular appeal for the target audience of women and girls (ages 7-20). The larval biologist team is led by the PI at the University of Oregon, in collaboration with scientists from North Carolina State University, Western Washington University and the University of Rhode Island. Several young women scientists will be featured in the film providing role models. The production company, Stephen Low Productions, Inc. will use the latest technology on the Alvin and other cinematic tools to capture the visual images in the abyss. Collaborating museums will participate in the development and implementation of the Virtual and Augmented Reality learning tools as well as showing the film in their theaters.
Broader impact project goals include 1) Advancing public awareness of the abyssal ocean, the role of microscopic larvae, and what scientists are learning from expeditions that use deep submergence technologies; 2) Introducing public audiences and young women specifically to the wide range of STEM-related occupations encompassed in the field of ocean exploration and research; and 3) Advancing STEM learning research and practice in the area of immersive media in conveying STEM concepts and enhancing audience identification with STEM. Oregon State University’s STEM Research Center will build new knowledge by conducting formative and summative evaluation of the film and its associated support products (e.g., Virtual and augmented reality activities, website resources), addressing the following evaluation questions: 1)What do audiences take away from their experience in terms of fascination/interest, awareness and understanding related to ocean science exploration? 2) To what degree does the film alone or in combination with supplemental experiences trigger career awareness in girls and young women, and youth of racial/ethnic backgrounds? 3) To what degree do immersive experiences (a sense of “being there”) contribute to learning from the film? 4) How enduring are outcomes with audiences past the onsite immediate experience? Formative evaluation will be designed as ongoing improvement informed by empirical evidence in which evaluators work with team members to answer decision-relevant questions in a timely and project-focused way. The summative evaluation will be structured as an effectiveness study using mixed methods and ascertaining whether key programmatic outcomes have been reached and the degree to which particular program elements will have contributed to the results.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Craig YoungAlexander LowStephen LowGeorge von DassowTrish Mace
The Northwest Passage Project explored the changing Arctic through an innovative expedition aboard the Swedish Icebreaker Oden to conduct groundbreaking ocean science research, while it actively engaged 22 undergraduate and graduate students from the project’s five Minority Serving Institution (MSI) partners and 2 early career Inuit researchers in the research at sea. Over 35 hours of training in Arctic research techniques, polar science, and science communication was provided to these participants, who were engaged in the Northwest Passage expedition and worked with the onboard science team
In both the STEM media and entertainment sectors women are significantly unrepresented. Women account for only 21% of the upper-level positions in film (directors, writers, executive producers, cinematographers, etc.) according to a recent study. This small conference directly addresses how to expand the volume of STEM focused media and entertainment content centered on women and girls. The Creative Workforce Summit: Women Storytellers Explore STEM will be held in New York City and online (hybrid) in September 2022. The goal of the conference is to 1) encourage an infrastructure of support for the creation and distribution of informal STEM educational film, digital, and television content that is centered on women and girls and 2) to strengthen ties between women in media, entertainment, and women in STEM fields. The agenda includes keynote addresses by thought leaders in STEM disciplines and media, panels of industry leaders, a youth journalist interviews, and film screenings with filmmaker and scientist Q&As. The conference will be a hybrid event to allow for the greatest access to a broader audience. The projected 300 in-person and 1000+ virtual attendees will be drawn from New York Women in Film and Television’s extensive membership and 100+ partner organizations in entertainment and media, including Black Public Media, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Firelight Media, ReelAbilities, and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. The conference will be followed by a publication based on the convening featuring the keynotes, abridged panel discussions, additional interviews, and industry representation data analysis. In addition, a curriculum guide for high schools and colleges focused on STEM and film collaborations will be developed and distributed.
A post conference quantitative survey will be conducted with conference participants to gather data on the impacts of the conference. Questions to be asked include: What new professional connections were made by women attending the conference? What was learned related to the craft of STEM related media production and distribution? Were new and meaningful connections made with participants outside the participant’s current field/networks? Additional analysis will be done by the organizers of the conference in planning post-conference strategies for supporting and building the women in STEM infrastructure.
Research-practice partnerships between filmmakers and social scientists can help:
Produce effective and engaging documentaries on complex science + society issues
Fill gaps in social science research on the impact of films, and how films can reach traditionally missed audiences
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sarah GoodwinEmily HowellAmanda MolderMeredith DeSalazarYachao QianDietram ScheufeleElliot Kirschner
In order for science media to thrive in an environment where science misinformation is prevalent -- more than ever communicators need tools to be effective in reaching audiences. Researchers in science communication have developed best-practices approaches that can be extremely useful. Connecting researchers in science communication and practitioners including science filmmakers can lead to research that is more applicable and impactful and relevant to the needs of producers, in addition to media content that is based on the latest best-practice evidence.
The Ice Worlds media project will inspire millions of children and adults to gain new knowledge about polar environments, the planet’s climate, and humanity’s place within Earth’s complex systems—supporting an informed, STEM literate citizenry. Featuring the NSF-funded THOR expedition to Thwaites glacier, along with contributions of many NSF-supported researchers worldwide, Ice Worlds will share the importance of investments in STEM with audiences in giant screen theaters, on television, online, and in other informal settings. Primary project deliverables include a giant screen film, a filmmaking workshop for Native American middle school students that will result in a documentary, a climate storytelling professional development program for informal educators, and a knowledge-building summative evaluation. The project’s largest target audience is middle school learners (ages 11-14); specific activities are designed for Native American youth and informal science practitioners. Innovative outreach will engage youth underserved in science inspiring a new generation of scientists and investigative thinkers. The project’s professional development programs will build the capacity of informal educators to engage communities and communicate science. The Ice Worlds project is a collaboration among media producers Giant Screen Films, Natural History New Zealand, PBS, and Academy Award nominated film directors (Yes/No Productions). Additional collaborators include Northwestern University, The American Indian Science and Engineering Society, the Native American Journalism Association, a group of museum and science center partners, and a team of advisors including scientific and Indigenous experts associated with the NSF-funded Study of Environmental Arctic Change initiative.
The goals of the project are: 1) to increase public understanding of the processes and consequences of environmental change in polar ecosystems, 2) to explore the effectiveness of the giant screen format to impart knowledge, inspire motivation and caring for nature, 3) to improve middle schoolers’ interest, confidence and engagement in STEM topics and pursuits—broadly and through a specific program for Native American youth, and 4) to build informal educators’ capacity to share stories of climate change in their communities. The main evaluation questions are 1) to what extent does the Ice World film affect learning, engagement, and motivation around STEM pursuits and environmental problem solving 2) what is the added value of companion media for youth’s giant screen learning over short and longer term, and 3) what are the impacts of the culturally based Native American youth workshops.
The evaluation work will involve a Native American youth advisory panel and a panel of science center practitioners in the giant screen film’s development and evaluation process. Formative evaluation of the film will involve recruiting youth from diverse backgrounds, including representation of Native youth, to see the film in the giant screen theater of a partner site. Post viewing surveys and group discussions will explore their experience of the film with respect to engagement, learning, evoking spatial presence, and motivational impact. A summative evaluation of the completed film will assess its immediate and longer term impacts. Statistical analyses will be conducted on all quantitative data generated from the evaluation, including a comparison of pre and post knowledge scores. An evaluation of the Tribal Youth Media program will include a significant period of formative evaluation and community engagement to align activities to the needs and interests of participating students. Culturally appropriate measures, qualitative methods and frameworks will be used to assess the learning impacts. Data will be analyzed to determine learning impacts of the workshop on youth participants as well as mentors and other stakeholder participants. Evaluation of the community climate storytelling professional development component will include lessons learned and recommendations for implementation.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This project will research core methods of science documentary film production and impact on audience engagement and understanding. The findings from this study will be used to later produce a film on how the CRISPR genome editing technology will shape agriculture, ecology, and the natural world. The research study and film to be produced will be a collaboration of science communication practitioners and researchers. The intended outcomes are to improve effective science filmmaking and increase impact on audiences. Many people rely on documentary film and videos for science information outside of formal learning environments. Research has shown that video programming can reduce knowledge gaps between those of higher and lower levels of education. But there is little research with findings about what makes a particular style of storytelling effective for engagement and learning outcomes. A recent report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine identified a significant shortage of social science research with directly applicable lessons for filmmakers. This project addresses this need by providing new frameworks for research and methods to produce science documentaries. Project partners are iBiology, a producer of video resources for learning, and science communication researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This project will examine two key questions: 1) In a science documentary film, how does the diversity of the scientists profiled and the use of a narrator shape audiences? perception of content and scientists? and 2) What are effective methods in science filmmaking to visualize the invisible (i.e. explain scientific phenomena that are not easily visualized)? The project begins by testing a recently produced film, Human Nature, that tells the story of the discovery of CRISPR (genome editing), told by the scientists who led the effort. Phase 1 testing will include screenings, focus groups, and experiments run through Amazon Mechanical Turk to test what features of the film (editorial voice and visualization styles) are most effective for communicating scientific content. In Phase 2 video test clips will be produced using a combination of narration and visualization strategies. An experimental design run through Amazon Turk will randomly assign participants to watch a clip using different combinations. Researchers will use this data to parse out what effect seems to be related to particular narration and visualization choices. This quantitative experimental data will be supplemented by qualitative data from focus groups with participants with a diverse range of science experience and demographic backgrounds. Researchers will design a survey-embedded experiment with a U.S. nationally representative sample to see how well the findings translate and change in a broader population.
This Innovations in Development 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.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Dietram ScheufeleSarah GoodwinElliot Kirschner
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This EAGER seeks to explore the state of research ethics in practice in science and, specifically, how ethics plays out in informal STEM institutions, through lenses of multiple cultural traditions and perspectives. By means of producing a documentary, Decolonizing Science, the project will engage scientists and informal STEM educators in considering how informal STEM institutions could re-envision their work to fundamentally embrace inclusivity and belonging. The exploratory process will challenge and inform informal STEM learning institutions and the scientists with whom they work to consider how to navigate contemporary social tensions, support research that values diverse perspectives, and promote decolonizing practices. A significant component of the project includes screenings, workshops, and difficult conversations, in conjunction with informal learning institutions that are already on the front lines of new language and knowledge creation. The project will be a collaborative process as participants' thoughts, views, and arguments will shape the project from the beginning. Once the film is made, collaboration will continue by engaging science-based practitioners at institutions that serve communities of color and that are invested in working towards greater diversity, inclusivity, equity, and access. Discussions related to the film's screenings will inform how informal learning institutions can radically re-imagine their work and their spaces, including teaching, curation, research, communication, and knowledge and literature production.
The film will explore the origins, creation, and evolution of Western science as an enterprise that can sublimate, marginalize and re-narrativize the practices, procedures, ethics, and contributions of the underrepresented people of color in science. Through focus groups, interviews, and facilitated discussions, this EAGER will document and share the interactions among scientists, informal STEM educators, and filmmakers as they explore how to practice more ethical science in communities of color, on their lands, and within their nations, as well as how science can be portrayed and enacted within informal STEM learning institutions. The project seek to challenge and shift both informal STEM learning institutions and the sciences, through a yet-untested, well-considered, and humane approach to ethical practices of science and their implementation in informal STEM learning institutions through a film and by envisioning possible futures.
This project is jointly funded by Directorate for Education and Human Resources/Advancing Informal STEM Learning Program, the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Ethical and Responsible Research program and the Directorate for Geosciences Education and Diversity program.
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.
We used content analysis to analyse the representation of female scientists in animated short films on gender and science, selected from the Anima Mundi Festival, over 21 annual editions. In these films, female scientists are featured as ‘intelligent’, ‘dominant’ and ‘well respected’, adult, white, wearing a lab coat or uniform and working in laboratories and fieldwork. We identified a reconfiguration of the gender stereotype in films in which the female character is about to gain space and visibility. We also analysed films whose sexist foundations in the relationship between scientists and
The night skies and the planet on which we live can be inspirational to young and old alike. In the run up to its 200th anniversary in 2020, the U.K.'s Royal Astronomical Society has put together a £1 million scheme to fund outreach and engagement activities for groups that are less well served in terms of access to astronomy and geophysics. This article outlines the projects funded and the impact they are starting to have.
This conference grant will support professional development at Jackson WILD. Jackson WILD (formerly the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival) is the premier industry conference for science and natural history documentary filmmakers and distributors, bringing the world's top factual storytellers together with inspiring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) professionals at a biennial industry conference and juried film festival. This project supports a robust thematic strand of professional development within the conference focused on strategies for making the science of science communication more accessible to an industry that has significant influence over the accuracy, quality and quantity of STEM stories reaching mainstream audiences through popular media.
The conference grant strategies are scaffolded upon the results of Jackson WILD's previous two conference awards which have employed multiple interventions aimed at 1) understanding how science communication expertise is perceived and gained by media content creators, 2) identifying the demographics and professional development needs of both emerging and seasoned STEM storytellers, and 3) finding pathways to enhance science communication expertise for STEM professionals seeing to increase their reach to public audiences. The current conference grant will build upon lessons learned and offer thematic professional development programming advancing science communication literacy and best practices among media professionals and STEM communicators. The 2019 Jackson WILD industry conference will also further expand the cross-industry STEM media fellows program, which offers professional development and cohort-building opportunities to emerging professionals in both STEM and media fields. The driving theory of change is that access to research-informed professional development and increased science communication fluency among content creators and STEM communicators results in products (i.e. documentary programs, podcasts, social media content, etc.) that are in better alignment with evidence-based best practices for communicating STEM topics to lay audiences. Therefore, the resulting media products will be more effective in engaging and educating those audiences, resulting in increased STEM literacy and informal STEM learning. To extend the reach and impact of the conference, the program content will be available on line via streaming videos and podcasts on various channels. Investing in professional development for science media professionals will strength the ecosystem of quality STEM media and help support public engagement in STEM more broadly. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understanding of deeper learning by participants.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.