RISES (Re-energize and Invigorate Student Engagement through Science) is a coordinated suite of resources including 42 interactive English and Spanish STEM videos produced by Children's Museum Houston in coordination with the science curriculum department at Houston ISD. The videos are aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, and each come with a bilingual Activity Guide and Parent Prompt sheet, which includes guiding questions and other extension activities.
How can we use a telenovela to help Latinx parents see themselves as role models in their young children’s science learning? Using an innovative, culturally relevant, meaningful, and authentic media program – a telenovela – to promote caregivers’ confidence, ability to support their children’s everyday science learning, and awareness of science career paths. Latinx children make 25% of the U.S. population but represent only 7% of the STEM workforce as adults. This project aims to change the narrative around Latinx family engagement with rich science learning that draws on home culture and
Wireless radio communications, such as Wi-Fi, transmit public and private data from one device to another, including cell phones, computers, medical equipment, satellites, space rockets, and air traffic control. Despite their critical role and prevalence, many people are unfamiliar with radio waves, how they are generated and interact with their surroundings, and why they are the basis of modern communication and navigation. This topic is not only increasingly relevant to the technological lives of today’s youth and public, it is critical to the National Science Foundation’s Industries of the Future activities, particularly in advancing wireless education and workforce development. In this project, STEM professionals from academia, industry and informal education will join forces to design, evaluate, and launch digital apps, a craft-based toolkit, activity guides, and mobile online professional learning, all of which will be easily accessed and flexibly adapted by informal educators to engage youth and the public about radio frequency communications. Experiences will include embodied activities, such as physically linking arms to create and explore longitudinal and transverse waves; mobile experiences, such as augmented reality explorations of Wi-Fi signals or collaborative signal jamming simulations; and technological exploration, such as sending and receiving encrypted messages.
BSCS Science Learning, Georgia Tech, and the Children’s Creativity Museum (CCM) with National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net) museum partners will create pedagogical activity designs, digital apps, and a mobile online professional learning platform. The project features a rigorous and multipronged research and development approach that builds on prior learning sciences studies to advance a learning design framework for nimble, mobile informal education, while incorporating the best aspects of hands-on learning. This project is testing two related hypotheses: 1) a mobile strategy can be effective for supporting just-in-time informal education of a highly technical, scientific topic, and 2) a mobile suite of resources, including professional learning, can be used to teach informal educators, youth, and the general public about radio frequency communications. Data sources include pre- and post- surveys, interviews, and focus groups with a wide array of educators and learners.
A front-end study will identify gaps in public understanding and perceptions specific to radio frequency communications, and serve as a baseline for components of the summative research. Iterative formative evaluation will incorporate participatory co-design processes with youth and informal educators. These processes will support materials that are age-appropriate and culturally responsive to not only youth, with an emphasis on Latinx youth, but also informal educators and the broader public. Summative evaluation will examine the impact of the mobile suite of resources on informal educators’ learning, facilitation confidence and intentions to continue to incorporate the project resources into their practice. The preparation of educators in supporting public understanding of highly technological STEM topics can be an effective way for supporting just-in-time public engagement and interests in related careers. Data from youth and museum visitors will examine changes to interest, science self-efficacy, content knowledge, and STEM-related career interest. If successful, this design approach may influence how mobile resources are designed and organized effectively to impact future informal education on similarly important technology-rich topics. All materials will be released under Creative Commons licenses allowing for widespread sharing and remixing; research and design findings will be published in academic, industry, and practitioner journals.
This project is co-funded by two NSF programs: The Advancing Informal STEM Learning 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 understandings of deeper learning by participants. The Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.
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.
Kid-focused STEM podcasts have grown in popularity over the years, but the ISE field lacks knowledge of the impact and value of this medium as a means for engaging children and families in science learning and discovery. This research summary shares the results of an exploratory study of the popular children's science podcast, Brains On!, in an effort to being to fill this knowledge gap.
The research was guided by three overarching research questions:
Who is the audience for Brains On! and what are their motivations for listening to children’s science podcasts?
How are Brains On
The Brains On! exploratory research study was guided by three overarching research questions:
Who is the audience for Brains On! and what are their motivations for listening to children’s science podcasts?
How are Brains On! listeners using the podcast and engaging with its content?
What kinds of impacts does Brains On! have on its audiences?
These questions were answered through a three-phase mixed-methods research design. Each phase informed the next, providing additional insights into answering the research questions. Phase 1 was a review of a sample of secondary data in the
In this paper, our collaborative project team shares design principles and lessons learned from research for designing an app to support families’ joint engagement with media and promote powerful shared learning experiences. We provide a rationale, based on research literature, for why a second-screen app in particular addresses our project goals. In addition, we describe the Splash and Bubbles for Parents app components as well as the co-design process and design-based research studies conducted to inform its design and development. Finally, our team offers design principles grounded in
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
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
Through Project BUILD, a STAR Library Network (STAR Net) program funded by the National Science Foundation, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) offered the virtual Dream, Build, Create program which consisted of (1) the award-winning documentary Dream Big: Engineering Our World and (2) five live-streamed panels of diverse engineers (Dream Teams) who shared their stories of what it means to be an engineer.
The external evaluation, conducted by Education Development Center (EDC), aimed to examine how
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. The goal of this pilot and feasibility study is to increase participation in informal STEM learning in rural Idaho through Stories of Fire, a program based on personal narratives of wildland fire. Idaho is a rural state, with an average population of just 19 people per square mile, the fourth lowest population density in the United States. The state is experiencing increasingly severe wildfire, and effective responses to such environmental change require a better understanding of the underlying science. Contextualizing science learning, making connections between everyday lives and a sense of place can engage learners and bring about a better understanding of wildfire. This project will bring together a science communicator, a narratologist, a fire ecologist, and a specialist on emotions and public lands. They will work collaboratively with informal educators based in rural areas of Idaho underrepresented in STEM fields. Rural areas are rich in knowledge based on years of cumulative observations, cultural beliefs, and practices shared through community networks. This project builds on these rural assets while addressing the challenges rural populations face. The project addresses broadening participation in STEM through narrative practices that encourage more diverse ways of knowing, being, and representing science.
This research study will explore: 1) what mechanisms of narrative (storytelling) most effectively integrate individuals? personal experiences and accurate STEM content in fire science communication, and 2) what audience-centered approaches best facilitate narrative approaches to informal STEM learning. This project engages four levels of participants over four phases of research and programming: 1) The research team will interview and analyze the narratives of 40 Frontliners (e.g., wildland firefighters and evacuees) from the inland Northwest region with first-hand experience with wildfire. 2) They will conduct a narrative workshop to train 20 informal STEM Educators from across the state on audience-centered approaches that facilitate participant storytelling about fire. 3) Educators will pilot their own narrative-based informal science learning programs with program participants in their rural home communities across the state, 4) A professional podcaster will create two podcasts modeled on our research findings for public audiences reached through media.
This Pilots and Feasibility Studies 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.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Teresa CohnLeda KobziarJennifer LadinoErin James
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.
Science television shows are an important source of informal learning and enrichment for preschool-aged children. However, one limitation of television programming is that it is largely a one-way, non-interactive medium. Research suggests that children learn best through active engagement with content, and that parents can make TV watching more interactive by co-viewing and talking with their children. However, many parents and other adults may lack the time or experience and comfort with science language and content to provide critcial just-in-time support for their children. This study seeks to take advantage of recent advances in artificial intelligence that now allow children to enjoyably interact with automated conversational agents. The research team will explore whether such conversational agents, embedded as an on-screen character in a science video, can meaningfully interact with children about the science content of the show by simulating the benefits of co-viewing with an adult. If successful, the project could lay the foundation for a new genre of science shows, helping transform video watching into more interactive and engaging learning experiences. 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 understandings of deeper learning by participants.
This project will develop interactive videos incorporating a conversational agent in three 11-minute episodes of a future children's animated television program. The videos will enable children to speak with the main character of the show as the character solves everyday science mysteries, thus priming children to engage in observation, prediction, pattern finding, and problem solving through scaffolded conversation. This study will be carried out in two iterative cycles with the goal of developing and testing the embedded conversational function for each episode. In each cycle, the project team, which includes experts in children's TV production, as well as educational and HCI researchers will develop the storyboard and conversation prompts and follow-ups, create animated videos based on the revised script, and create a mobile application of the interactive video integrated with the conversational agent. Field testing with 10 children will be conducted to iteratively improve the embedded conversational function. In the pilot testing stage, a controlled study will be conducted with 30 children in each group (N=120): 1) watching the episode with the embedded conversational function; 2) watching the episode with a human partner carrying out the dialogue in the script rather than the virtual character; 3) watching the episode with pseudo-interaction, in which the animated character asks questions but does not attempt to understand or personally respond to children's answers; and 4) watching the episode with no dialogue. Data collected from the experiments will be used to examine whether and in what ways use of a conversational agent affects children's engagement, attention, communication strategies, perceptions, and science learning, and whether these effects vary by children's age, gender, socioeconomic status, language background, and oral language proficiency in English. The project will provide a comprehensive evaluation of the feasibility and potential of incorporating conversational agents into screen media to foster young children's STEM learning and engagement.
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.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark WarschauerDaniel WhitesonSara DeWittAndres BustamanteAbby Jenkins