Each year, millions of Americans visit science centers and museums, children’s museums, zoos, aquariums, nature centers, planetariums, and similar institutions. Recognized as trusted and popular places for educational and leisure experiences, these institutions are uniquely capable of engaging people across a spectrum of beliefs, experiences, and identities on topics related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as addressing pressing societal problems related to science, technology, and innovation. However, the potential impacts of these institutions are largely dependent on the skills, knowledge, and abilities of the professionals working at them. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to shift the nature of work, the informal STEM learning workforce was dramatically impacted. The recent period of disruption is a time for innovation. The field is well-positioned to promote new models of professional learning and development that are grounded in the values and practices of informal learning. This project will benefit local communities across the United States and society at large by advancing the capacity of science-engagement professionals to respond to societal needs, concerns, and interests more effectively through their institutions’ exhibitions, education and learning programs, and various forms of public engagement (e.g., community outreach events, supports for teachers/educators and schools). Led by the Association of Science and Technology Centers in collaboration with the Center of Science and Industry’s Center for Research and Evaluation and Oregon State University’s STEM Research Center, this work will build on the Informal STEM Learning (ISL) Professional Competency Framework developed and validated with prior National Science Foundation funding. Competency frameworks are increasingly used across many sectors to identify the suite of skills, knowledge, and capabilities necessary to be successful in a particular area of work. Given dramatic changes to the ISL workplace in the last two years, there is an even stronger potential for the Framework, particularly if newly developed supports can link the Framework to the current, emerging, and continuing needs of the workforce.
Guided by a systematic process for designing training and instructional materials, this project will first capture changes in the ways diverse informal STEM learning professionals describe, pursue, and achieve competencies to produce a revised Framework. Next, the project will collaboratively develop companion resources with diverse professionals through a series of participatory design workshops, using a sequential and iterative approach. The resources are expected to include indicators of professional competencies, self-assessments, training tools, and other types of resources that have the potential to significantly advance the professional learning (as undertaken by individuals and institutions) and the professional development capacity (as provided by institutions, associations, and other organizations) of the informal STEM learning field. Next, the project will share final products–including a refreshed website that hosts the updated Framework and newly-developed suite of tools–with professional association and network partners who can disseminate directly to the institutions and professionals who are developing and practicing these competencies. The project will gather evidence from a small number of early adopters, providing data on specific use-case scenarios. Finally, the project will document the potential impact of the Framework on the field by measuring how the Framework is perceived by informal STEM learning professionals as usable, useful, and beginning to be “in-use." Over time—and with increased use—the Framework and its companion resources hold the promise of contributing to the opening of the field to professionals with identities currently underrepresented through more transparent expectation and clearer growth pathways.
Centering Native Traditional Knowledge within informal STEM education programs is critical for learning for Native youth. In co-created, place-based learning experiences for Native youth, interweaving cultural traditions, arts, language, and community partnerships is vital for authentic, meaningful learning. Standardized STEM curricula and Western-based pedagogies within the mainstream and formal education systems do not reflect the nature of Native STEM knowledge, nor do they make deep connections to it. The absence of this knowledge base can reinforce a deficit-based STEM identity, which can directly impact Native youths’ participation and engagement in STEM. Reframing STEM education for Native youth to prioritize the vitality of community and sustainability requires active consideration of what counts as science learning and who serves as holders and conduits of STEM knowledge. As highly regarded holders of traditional and western STEM knowledge, Native educators and cultural practitioners are critical for facilitating Native youths’ curiosity and engagement with STEM. This Innovations in Development project is Native-led and centers Native knowledge, voice, and contributions in STEM through a culturally based, dual-learning approach that emphasizes traditional and western STEM knowledge. Through this lens, a network of over a dozen tribal nations across 20 U.S. states will be established to support and facilitate the learning of Traditional and Western STEM knowledge in a culturally sustaining manner. The network will build on existing programs and develop a set of unique, interconnected, and synchronized placed-based informal STEM programs for Native youth reflecting the distinctive cultural aspects of Native American and Alaska Native Tribes. The network will also involve a Natives-In-STEM Role Models innovation, in which Native STEM professionals will provide inspiration to Native youth through conversations about their journeys in STEM within cultural contexts. In addition, the network will cultivate a professional network of STEM educators, practitioners, and tribal leaders. Network efforts and the formative evaluation will culminate in the development and dissemination of a community-based, co-created Framework for Informal STEM Education with Native Communities.
Together with Elders and other contributors of each community, local leads within the STEM for Youth in Native Communities (SYNC) Network team will identify and guide the STEM content topics, as well as co-create and implement the program within their sovereign lands with their youth. The content, practitioners, and programming in each community will be distinct, but the community-based, dual learning contextual framework will be consistent. Each community includes several partner organizations poised to contribute to the programming efforts, including tribal government departments, tribal and public K-12 schools, tribal colleges, museums and cultural centers, non-profits, local non-tribal government support agencies, colleges and universities, and various grassroots organizations. Programmatic designs will vary and may include field excursions, summer and after school STEM experiences, and workshops. In addition, the Natives-In-STEM innovation will be implemented across the programs, providing youth with access to Native STEM professionals and career pathways across the country. To understand the impacts of SYNC’s efforts, an external evaluator will explore a broad range of questions through formative and summative evaluations. The evaluation questions seek to explore: (a) the extent to which the culturally based, dual learning methods implemented in SYNC informal STEM programs affect Native youths’ self-efficacy in STEM and (b) how the components of SYNC’s overall theoretical context and network (e.g., partnerships, community contributors such as Elders, STEM practitioners and professionals) impact community attitudes and behaviors regarding youth STEM learning. Data and knowledge gained from these programs will inform the primary deliverable, a Framework for Native Informal STEM Education, which aims to support the informal STEM education community as it expands and deepens its service to Native youth and communities. Future enhanced professional development opportunities for teachers and educators to learn more about the findings and practices highlighted in the Framework are envisioned to maximize its strategic impact.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Juan ChavezDaniella ScaliceWendy Todd
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and belonging-related change is often difficult to achieve in organizations. In the context of Informal STEM Learning (ISL), this results in inequitable opportunities for both ISL professionals and learners to engage in STEM environments and experiences. For people to thrive in these settings, creative and innovative approaches that address historical and current realities of intersectional marginalization and inequitable norms within informal STEM institutions are necessary to disrupt conventions, institutional barriers, and patterns of inequities. TERC and the Detroit Zoological Society will develop and implement an ISL Equity Resource Center (the Center). The Center will advance equity within the ISL field by cultivating a multi-sector, diverse learning community that designs and conducts evidence-based research and practice, including but not limited to equity-focused leadership, decision-making, theory, methods, project topic selection and design, and budget management.
The Center will cultivate lasting change in the ISL and broader STEM learning ecosystem via (a) sharing more inclusive, culturally relevant, and responsive ISE research and practice; (b) identifying scalable, equity-focused research findings useful in ISL programming; and (c) promoting greater public awareness of the importance of broadening participation in STEM. The Center's primary stakeholders are ISL professionals, including researchers, practitioners, and evaluators. The Center will maintain and expand a digital infrastructure to support innovation and sharing across the ISL field. Through its combined efforts, the Center will raise the visibility and impact of ISL equity-focused research and practice and its contributions to the overall STEM endeavor. The Center will also organize and host the biennial AISL Awardee Meeting. The Center is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program, which seeks to (a) advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments; (b) provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; (c) advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and (d) engage the public of all ages in learning STEM in informal environments.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stephen AlkinsDiane MillerLisette Torres-GeraldPati Ruiz
This project will scale up fully virtual or face-to-face STEM professional development to afterschool educators in both urban and rural settings. Given that many afterschool educators have little or no background in STEM education, there is demand for professional development that is effective, inexpensive, and accessible. This project will build national capacity in STEM education by developing the STEM skills of over 1,500 educators across multiple states and will ultimately impact over 31,000 under-represented youth in these areas. The project will also deliver robust materials through a free open-source mechanism, for use by educators anywhere and anytime. The project will broaden participation in STEM by engaging community educators in the rural parts of the nation, a critically under-represented group in STEM. It will also reach educators from low-income urban communities across three states and seven cities, targeted through strategic networks and partnerships, including organizations such as the YMCA, 4-H, and the National Afterschool Association.
This collaborative project is scaling the ACRES model (Afterschool Coaching for Reflective Educators in STEM). The model humanizes the virtual experience, making it social and engaging, and allows educators to learn, share, and practice essential STEM facilitation skills with a focus on making STEM relevant and introducing STEM careers to youth. In addition to enhancing the professional STEM skills of rural and urban educators, the project will create a national cohort of coaches with deep expertise in (i) converting in-person activities for youth into a highly engaging, choice-rich online format, (ii) engaging isolated informal educators in supportive professional learning communities, and (iii) coaching foundational research-based STEM facilitation skills that ensure these activities are pedagogically sound. A key part of this broad implementation project involves studying how to integrate an effective professional development program into afterschool organizations, including the ways afterschool programs adapt the materials to be culturally responsive to their local communities. The researchers will also study factors contributing to the longer-term sustainability of the program. The research will use surveys, interviews, direct observations, and case studies of participants to provide the field with valuable insights into scaling a program in the afterschool world.
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 extending 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.