Implementation of a permanent exhibition, on-line content, educational materials, and public programs exploring the history and cultural impact of video games.
Through the design, fabrication, and implementation of a 24,000-sq. ft. permanent, long-term gallery—tentatively entitled Digital Worlds—The Strong National Museum of Play will explore and share the history, influence, and experience of video games as they relate to culture, storytelling, human development, and the broader evolution of play. This gallery, the centerpiece of a transformational museum expansion, will include complementary and cohesive interactive exhibit spaces that showcase the history of video games through: (1) display of rare and unique historical artifacts; (2) use of multiple media formats that allow guests to discover the history of video games and their impact on society and culture; and (3) inclusion of one-of-a-kind interactive experiences that bring the history, art, and narrative structures of video games to life.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jon-Paul Dyson
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Center for Integrated Quantum Materials pursues research and education in quantum science and technology. With our research and industry partners, the Museum of Science, Boston collaborates to produce public engagement resources, museum programs, special events and media. We also provide professional development in professional science communication for the Center's students, post-docs, and interns; and coaching in public engagement. The Museum also sponsors The Quantum Matters(TM) Science Communication Competition (www.mos.org/quantum-matters-competition) and NanoDays with a Quantum Leap. In association with CIQM and IBM Q, the Museum hosted the first U.S. museum exhibit on quantum computing.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert WesterveltCarol Lynn AlpertRay AshooriTina Brower-Thomas
This Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) project is supported by the Division of Research on Learning in the Education and Human Resources Directorate and by the Division of Computing and Communication Foundations in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate. This interdisciplinary project integrates historical insights from geometric design principles used to craft classical stringed instruments during the Renaissance era with modern insights drawn from computer science principles. The project applies abstract mathematical concepts toward the making and designing of furniture, buildings, paintings, and instruments through a specific example: the making and designing of classical stringed instruments. The research can help instrument makers employ customized software to facilitate a comparison of historical designs that draws on both geometrical proofs and evidence from art history. The project's impacts include the potential to shift in fundamental ways not only how makers think about design and the process of making but also how computer scientists use foundational concepts from programming languages to inform the representation of physical objects. Furthermore, this project develops an alternate teaching method to help students understand mathematics in creative ways and offers specific guidance to current luthiers in areas such as designing the physical structure of a stringed instrument to improve acoustical effect.
The project develops a domain-specific functional programming language based on straight-edge and compass constructions and applies it in three complementary directions. The first direction develops software tools (compilers) to inform the construction of classical stringed instruments based on geometric design principles applied during the Renaissance era. The second direction develops an analytical and computational understanding of the art history of these instruments and explores extensions to other maker domains. The third direction uses this domain-specific language to design an educational software tool. The tool uses a calculative and constructive method to teach Euclidean geometry at the pre-college level and complements the traditional algebraic, proof-based teaching method. The representation of instrument forms by high-level programming abstractions also facilitates their manufacture, with particular focus on the arching of the front and back carved plates --- of considerable acoustic significance --- through the use of computer numerically controlled (CNC) methods. The project's novelties include the domain-specific language itself, which is a programmable form of synthetic geometry, largely without numbers; its application within the contemporary process of violin making and in other maker domains; its use as a foundation for a computational art history, providing analytical insights into the evolution of classical stringed instrument design and its related material culture; and as a constructional, computational approach to teaching geometry.
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.
African American and Latinx youth are often socialized towards athletic activity and sports participation, sometimes at the expense of their exploration of the range of potential career paths including those in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This project will immerse middle school youth in the rapidly growing world of sports data analytics and build their knowledge of statistics concepts and the data science process. The project will focus on the STEM interests and knowledge development of African American and Latinx youth, an underrepresented and underserved group in STEM. Researchers will explore the ways youths' social identities can and should serve as bridges towards future productive academic and professional identities including those associated with STEM learning and the STEM professions. The outcomes of the project will advance knowledge in promoting elements of informal learning experiences that build adolescents' motivation and persistence for productive participation in STEM courses and careers. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program (AISL), which seeks to advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning opportunities for the public in informal environments, and the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers program (ITEST), which funds projects that leverage innovative uses of technologies to prepare diverse youth for the STEM workforce, with a focus on broadening participation among underrepresented and underserved groups in STEM fields.
Over a three-year period, 250 middle school learners in the West Baltimore, Maryland and Hyattsville, Maryland areas will engage in three main learning activities: Summer Camp (three weeks), Sports Day Saturdays, and a Spring Summit. Through a partnership between the University of Maryland and Coppin State University, the project will utilize resources in multiple departments and units across both universities, and engage with youth sports leagues such as the American Athletic Union (AAU) to support participants' engagement in the data science process including collection of raw data, exploration of data, development of models, visualization, communication, and reporting of data, and data-driven decision making. Furthermore, youth participants will attend local AAU, college, and professional sporting events, and interact with members of coaching staffs to better understand the ways performance data technologies are utilized to inform recruitment and team performance. The mixed-methods research agenda for this project is guided by three main questions: (1) What elements of the project's model are most successful at supporting congruence of adolescents' academic identity, including STEM identity and social identity including athletic identity? (2) What elements support adolescents' motivation, and persistence for productive participation in current and future STEM courses? (3) To what extent did the project appear to influence participants' perceptions of their future professions? At multiple points throughout the experience, participants will complete surveys designed to document and assess statistics and data science knowledge; interest in STEM careers; academic, social and athletic identity development; and STEM course taking patterns. Researchers will also observe project activities, interview a focal group of participants, and survey participants' parents to identify elements of learning experiences that encourage and support adolescents' interest in STEM disciplines and STEM professions. The project team will develop conceptual and pedagogical frameworks that support middle school youth' engagement and interest in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics through repurposing spaces where these youths frequent. A major outcome of the project will be workforce preparation and offers a promising approach for encouraging youth to persist along STEM pathways, which may ultimately result in broadened participation in STEM workforces.
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.
Despite the ubiquity of Artificial Intelligence (AI), public understanding of how it works and is used is limited This project will research, design, and develop innovative approaches focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for under-represented youth ages 14-24. Program components include live social media chats with AI leaders, app development, journalistic investigations of ethical issues in machine learning, and review of AI-based consumer products. Youth Radio is a non-profit media and tech organizations that provides youth with skills in STEM, journalism, arts, and communications. They engage 250 youth annually through free after-school classes and work shifts. Participants are 90% youth of color and 80% low income. Project partners include the MIT Media Lab which developed App Inventor which allows novice users to build fully functional apps. Staff from Google will serve as a project advisor on the curriculum. The project has exceptional national reach through the dissemination of its media and apps through national outlets such as NPR and Teen Vogue as well as various platforms including online, on-air, as well as presentations, publications, and training tools. The project broadens participation by engaging these low income youth of color in developing skills critical to the workforce of the future. It will help prepare an upcoming generation of Artificial Intelligence creators, users, and consumers who understand the technology and embrace and encourage its potential.It will give them the necessary knowledge and opportunities for careers in an AI-driven future.
This project is grounded in sociocultural learning theory and practice and is interdisciplinary by design. The theoretical framework holds that Computational Thinking plus Critical Pedagogy leads to Critical Computational Literacy. Also, Digital Age Civics plus Participatory Culture leads to Civic Imagination helping youth build a better world through technology. The driving research questions include: What do underrepresented youth understand about AI and its role in society? What are the ethical dilemmas posed by AI from their vantage point? What are the features of an engaging ethics-centered pedagogy with AI? What impact do the AI products developed by the youth have on the target audience? The research design will use ethnographic techniques and design research to study and analyze youth learning. Data sources will include baseline surveys, audio recordings and transcriptions from learning sessions with the participants, research analytic memos, focus group interviews, student-generating artifacts of learning and finished products, etc. The design-based approach will enable systematic, evidence-based iteration on the initiative's activities, pedagogical approach and products. An independent summative evaluation will provide complementary data and perspective to triangulate with the research findings.
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.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elisabeth SoepEllin O'LearyHarold Abelson
Increasingly, scientists and their institutions are engaging with lay audiences via media. The emergence of social media has allowed scientists to engage with publics in novel ways. Social networking sites have fundamentally changed the modern media environment and, subsequently, media consumption habits. When asked where they primarily go to learn more about scientific issues, more than half of Americans point to the Internet. These online spaces offer many opportunities for scientists to play active roles in communicating and engaging directly with various publics. Additionally, the proposed research activities were inspired by a recent report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that included a challenge to science communication researchers to determine better approaches for communicating science through social media platforms. Humor has been recommended as a method that scientists could use in communicating with publics; however, there is little empirical evidence that its use is effective. The researchers will explore the effectiveness of using humor for communicating about artificial intelligence, climate science and microbiomes.
The research questions are: How do lay audiences respond to messages about scientific issues on social media that use humor? What are scientists' views toward using humor in constructing social media messages? Can collaborations between science communication scholars and practitioners facilitate more effective practices? The research is grounded in the theory of planned behavior and framing as a theory of media effects. A public survey will collect and analyze data on Twitter messages with and without humor, the number of likes and re-tweets of each message, and their scientific content. Survey participants will be randomly assigned to one of twenty-four experimental conditions. The survey sample, matching recent U.S. Census Bureau data, will be obtained from opt-in panels provided by Qualtrics, an online market research company. The second component of the research will quantify the attitudes of scientists toward using humor to communicate with publics on social media. Data will be collected from a random sample of scientists and graduate students at R1 universities nationwide. Data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression modeling.
The broader impacts of this project are twofold: findings from the research will be shared with science communication scholars and trainers advancing knowledge and practice; and an infographic (visual representation of findings) will be distributed to practitioners who participate in research-practice partnerships. It will provide a set of easily-referenced, evidence-based guidelines about the types of humor to which audiences respond positively on social media.
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.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sara YeoLeona Yi-Fan SuMichael Cacciatore
Robots and robotics excite and challenge youths and adults. Unfortunately, the cost of purchasing robots or building useful robots is prohibitive for many low resource individuals and groups. This project will relieve this expense and provide an opportunity for resource limited individuals to experience the thrilling aspects of robotics by building a computer game that simulates robotic action. This project uses co-robotics wherein the participating player programs an avatar to assist in a symbiotic manner to achieve the goals of the game and participant. The game will provide access to the ideas and concepts such as programing, computational thinking and role assumption. The overarching goals are (1) to engage low-resource learners in STEM education through robotics in out-of-school spaces, and (2) to update the field of robotics-base STEM education to integrate the co-robotics paradigm.
This project is designed to gain knowledge on how co-robotics can be used in the informal education sector to facilitate the integration of computational science with STEM topics and to expand the educational use of co-robotics. Because the concept of co-robotics is new, a designed-based research approach will be used to build theoretical knowledge and knowledge of effective interventions for helping participants learn programing and computational thinking. Data will be collected from several sources including surveys, self-reports, in game surveys, pre and post-tests. These data collection efforts will address the following areas: Technology reliability, Resolution of cognitive tension around co-play, Accelerate discovery and initial engagement, Foster role-taking and interdependence with co-robots, Investigate social learning, and Validate measures using item response theory analysis. The DBR study questions are:
1.What design principles support the development of P3Gs that can effectively attract initial engagement in a free-choice OST space that offers large numbers of competing options? 2.What design principles support a P3G gameplay loop that enables learning of complex skills, computational thinking and co-robotics norms, and building of individual and career interest over the course of repeated engagement?
3.What design principles support P3Gs in attaining a high rate of re-engagement within low-resource OST settings? 4.What kinds of positive impact can P3Gs have on their proximal and distal environment? In addition, the project will research these questions about design: 1.What technical and game design features are needed to accommodate technological interruption? 2.What design elements or principles mitigate competition for cognitive resources between real-time play and understanding the co-robotic's behavior in relation to the code the player wrote for it? 3.What design elements are effective at getting learners in OST settings to notice and start playing the game? 4.What designs are effective at encouraging learners to engage with challenging content, particularly the transition from manual play to co-play? 5.What design elements help players develop a stake in the role the game offers? 6.What social behaviors emerge organically around a P3G prototype that is not designed to evoke specific social interactions?
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.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. This AISL project investigates how informal programs can broaden participation by building social capital in STEM for youth from underrepresented groups. The project integrates social network analysis with research on informal learning, and draws on a framework to connect learning across a variety of sectors. It builds on evidence that sponsorship of youth interest, affinity-based mentorship, and brokering connections to other settings and opportunities can build social capital and support interest and persistence in STEM. It represents a strategic and timely investment into research that solidifies these emerging insights from research and practice, conducting focused investigation into relational supports for STEM interests that are particularly well suited to informal programs.
The project is guided by two research questions: (1) What forms of social capital are tied to persistence in and connecting across informal STEM programs for youth from underrepresented groups? (2) What program features--specifically sponsorship, mentorship, and brokering--grow these social supports for persistence in and connecting across informal STEM programs for underserved youth? These questions are addressed through a mixed methods 18-month cross-sectional study of 200 students in three informal programs in Orange County, California that offer project-based engineering and coding programs, support mentorship, and focus on groups underrepresented in STEM. The sample will include three age categories, capturing the transition to high school, persistence during high school, and transition to college and career. Teens will be interviewed three times at 6-month intervals, spanning these transitions. The goal of this research and effort is to determine if social capital plays an extra ordinary role in learning by this group.
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.
This Research in Service to Practice 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.
The project will research the educational impact of social robots in informal learning environments, with applications to how social robots can improve participation and engagement of middle-school girls in out-of-school computer science programs in under-resourced rural and urban areas. The use of robots to improve STEM outcomes has focused on having learners program robots as tools to accomplish tasks (e.g., play soccer). An alternate approach views robots as social actors that can respond intelligently to users. By designing a programmable robot with social characteristics, the project aims to create a culturally-responsive curriculum for Latina, African American, and Native American girls who have been excluded by approaches that separate technical skill and social interaction. The knowledge produced by this project related to the use and benefits of social programmable robots has the potential to impact the many after-school and weekend programs that attempt to engage learners in STEM ideas using programmable robot curricula.
The project robot, named Cozmo, will be programmed using a visual programming language and will convey emotion with facial expressions, sounds, and movements. Middle school girls will engage in programming activities, collaborative reflection, and interact with college women mentors trained to facilitate the course. The project will investigate whether the socially expressive Cozmo improves computer science outcomes such as attitudes, self-efficacy, and knowledge among the middle school female participants differently than the non-social version. The project will also investigate whether adding rapport-building dialogue to Cozmo enhances these outcomes (e.g., when a learner succeeds in getting Cozmo to move, Cozmo can celebrate, saying "I can move! You're amazing!"). These questions will be examined research conducted with participants in multi-session after-school courses facilitated by Girl Scout troops in Arizona. The project will disseminate project research and resources widely by sharing research findings in educational and learning science journals; creating a website with open source code for programming social robots; and making project curriculum and related guidelines available to Girl Scouts and other educational programs.
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.
Cities and communities in the U.S. and around the world are entering a new era of transformational change, in which their inhabitants and the surrounding built and natural environments are increasingly connected by smart technologies, leading to new opportunities for innovation, improved services, and enhanced quality of life. The Smart and Connected Communities (SCC) program supports strongly interdisciplinary, integrative research and research capacity-building activities that will improve understanding of smart and connected communities and lead to discoveries that enable sustainable change to enhance community functioning. This project is a Research Coordination Network (RCN) that focuses on achieving SCC for medium/small size, remote, and rural communities through a polycentric (multiple centers) integrated policy, design, and technology approach. The communities served by the RCN have higher barriers to information, resources, and services than larger urban communities. To reduce this gap, the PIs propose to develop need-based R&D pipelines to select solutions with the highest potential impacts to the communities. Instead of trying to connect under-connected communities to nearby large cities, this proposal aims to develop economic opportunities within the communities themselves. This topic aligns well with the vision of the SCC program, and the proposed RCN consists of a diverse group of researchers, communities, industry, government, and non-profit partners.
This award will support the development of an RCN within the Commonwealth of Virginia which will coordinate multiple partners in developing innovations utilizing smart and connected technologies. The goal of the research coordination network is to enable researchers and citizens to collaborate on research supporting enhanced quality of life for medium, small, and rural communities which frequently lack the communication and other infrastructure available in cities. The research coordination network will be led by the University of Virginia. There are 14 partner organizations including six research center partners in transportation, environment, architecture and urban planning, and engineering and technology; two State and Industry partners (Virginia Municipal League and Virginia Center for Innovative Technology); four community partners representing health services (UVA Center for Telemedicine), small and remote communities (Weldon Cooper Center), neighborhood communities (Charlottesville Neighborhood Development), and urban communities (Thriving Cities); and two national partners which support high speed networking (US-Ignite) and city-university hubs (MetroLab). Examples of research coordination include telemedicine services, transportation services, and user-centric and community-centric utilization and deployment of sensor technologies.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ila BermanT. Donna ChenKaren RheubanQian Cai
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. This Research in Service to Practice project will address the issues around Informal Education of rural middle school students who have high potential regarding academic success in efforts to promote computer and IT knowledge, advanced quantitative knowledge, and STEM skills. Ten school districts in rural Iowa will be chosen for this study. It is anticipated that new knowledge on rural informal education will be generated to benefit the Nation's workforce. The specific objectives are to understand how informal STEM learning shapes the academic and psychosocial outcomes of rural, high-potential students, and to identify key characteristics of successful informal STEM learning environments for rural, high-potential students and their teachers. The results of this project will provide new tools for educators to increase the flow of underserved students into STEM from economically-disadvantaged rural settings.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology predicts a rapid rise in the number of STEM jobs available in the next decade, describing an urgent need for students' educational opportunities to prepare them for this workforce. In 2014, 62% of CEOs of major US corporations reported challenges filling positions requiring advanced computer and information technology knowledge. The project team will use a mixed methods approach, integrating comparative case study and mixed effects longitudinal methods, to study the Excellence program. Data sources include teacher interviews, classroom observations, and student assessments of academic aptitude and psychosocial outcomes. The analysis and evaluation of the program will be grounded in understanding the local efforts of school districts to build curriculum responsive to the demands of their high-potential student body. The project design, and subsequent analysis plan, utilizes a mixed methods approach, incorporating case study and longitudinal quantitative methods to analyze naturalistic data and build robust evidence for the implementation and impact of this program. This project will provide significant insights in how best to design, implement, and support informal out-of-school learning environments to broaden participation in the highest levels of STEM education and careers for under-resourced rural students.