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.
The SciGirls in Space: Exploring the Moon, Mars and NASA Careers Implementation Evaluation Report focuses on the STEM outreach component of the project for 15 girl-serving organizations who used research-based gender equitable and culturally responsive instructional strategies,NASA-aligned media and STEM activities with a focus on integrating of NASA women role models.
The Michigan Science Center will purchase a portable planetarium that will bring planetarium shows to more than 2,000 children through its Traveling Science Program. The museum plans to take the programs to 10 schools and 8 libraries in Metro Detroit and 6 libraries in northern Michigan. They will deliver the portable planetarium shows in coordination with the museum’s long-standing “Scopes in the City” program, which allows people to use telescopes to see the night sky. The program also will expose students to Michigan’s growing aerospace industry and help increase their interest in earth and space science.
With funding from the National Science Foundation, Secrets of the Universe (SOTU) is a multimedia project that has at its core a 40-minute 3D giant screen film directed by a collaboration of K2 Communications Inc., The Stephen Low Company, and University of California Davis Department of Physics. To support and extend the impact of the film for these audiences, the project features an educational website with a variety of resources, including online videos of science content and characters from the film.
The independent evaluation team from Knight Williams Inc. conducted a summative
EcoExploratorio: Museo de Ciencias de Puerto Rico’s In-STEM: An Inclusive STEM Museum Exhibition project will provide STEM educational material specifically for audiences with visual and hearing disabilities. In addition to an inclusive summer Moon to Mars exhibit, the museum will offer tours with American Sign Languages (ASL) interpreters and adaptations for the visually impaired. Accessible online, the museum will produce ten STEM activity videos. By being inclusive of people with disabilities, specifically focusing on people that are deaf or hard of hearing and blind or visually impaired, the museum seeks to promote lifelong access to STEM education.
The Carnegie Science Center will contribute to the reinvigoration of planetarium programming nationwide by creating and sharing three multifaceted productions combining live theatre and science education. The "Cosmic Cookbook" will be a free online digital toolkit for planetarium educators designed to delight audiences, inspire the next generation of scientists, and promote a scientifically literate community. Targeting elementary school students, each show will include theatric, character-driven scripts for presenters; digital media assets for planetarium producers, including original full-dome content; and how-to guides for live demonstrations and storytelling. The museum will pilot and evaluate each show with students from local underserved schools and incorporate feedback before distribution for other planetariums across the country. The museum will release video tutorials on teaching science and theatric presentation, webinars, and script updates throughout the lifespan of the project to foster sustained replication of the programs.
Engaging Faith-based Communities in Citizen Science through Zooniverse was an 18-month pilot initiative funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Any opinions, findings, or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sloan Foundation. The goals of this initiative were to broaden participation in citizen science (aka people-powered research) among religious and interfaith communities by establishing pathways for them to engage with science using the online Zooniverse platform, and to build positive, long-term relationships with these
The popularity of the anti-vax movement in the United States and elsewhere is the cause of new lethal epidemics of diseases that are fully preventable by modern medicine [Benecke and DeYoung, 2019]. Creationism creeps into science classrooms with the aim of undermining the teaching of evolution through legal obligations or school boards’ decisions to present both sides of a debate largely foreign to the scientific community [Taylor, 2017]. And one simply has to turn on the TV and watch so-called science channels to be bombarded with aliens, ghosts, cryptids and miracles as though they are
Reflecting on the practice of storytelling, this practice insight explores how collaborations between scholars and practitioners can improve storytelling for science communication outcomes with publics. The case studies presented demonstrate the benefits of collaborative storytelling for inspiring publics, promoting understanding of science, and engaging publics more deliberatively in science. The projects show how collaboration between scholars and practitioners [in storytelling] can happen across a continuum of scholarship from evaluation and action research to more critical thinking
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Michelle RiedlingerJenni MetcalfeAyelet Baram-TsabariMarta EntradasMarina JoubertLuisa Massarani
Scientists have long sought to engage public audiences in research through citizen science projects such as biological surveys or distributed data collection. Recent online platforms have expanded the scope of what people-powered research can mean. Science museums are unique cultural institutions that translate scientific discovery for public audiences, often conducting research of their own. This makes museums compelling sites for engaging audiences directly in scientific research, but there are associated challenges as well. This project engages public audiences in contributing to real
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mmachi God’sglory ObiorahJames K.L. HammermanWill GrangerHaley Margaret WestLaura TrouilleBecky RotherMichael Horn