Although virtual conferences have become commonplace in the age of COVID-19, this format poses both challenges and opportunities for organizers to design, implement, and engage participants in productive and connected ways. We created this brief to share an example of the process and lessons learned as we designed and hosted a virtual NSF-funded conference called: Mapping Connections Between STEM and Social-Emotional Development (SED) in Out-of-School Time (OST) Programs. This conference focused on identifying outcomes at the interface of STEM and SED in OST research and practice (e.g
Everyone--government agencies, private organizations, and individuals--is facing a changing climate: an environment in which it is no longer prudent to follow routines based on past climatic averages. State and local agencies in particular, as well as the federal government, need to consider what they will have to do differently if the 100-year flood arrives every decade or so, if the protected areas for threatened species are no longer habitable, or if a region can expect more frequent and more severe wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, water shortages, or other extreme environmental events
Since 2008, Natasha Ray, New Haven Healthy Start Consortium Coordinator and physician researchers from the Yale Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program (YRWJFCSP) have partnered on a series of research projects to address maternal health issues in New Haven, CT. During these partnerships, Natasha Ray, Kenn Harris, Director of New Haven Healthy Start and community research faculty from the YRWJFCSP reflected on what they experienced as best practices in community partnered research. An opportunity arose between these two long standing research partners to gain a greater understanding of
In the summer of 2010, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) spearheaded an effort to bring together a group of Denver Metro Area cultural institutions as part of an informal network of professionals interested in visitor evaluation (hereafter referred to as “the Network”). The founding purpose of the Network was to utilize the existing resources of DMNS to build evaluation capacity in other institutions, share instruments and data between cultural institutions, and to embark on citywide evaluation projects that would be of benefit to all institutions involved in the group. The Network
Archaeology education activities in informal science learning settings are an underutilized, but effective strategy for teaching science inquiry skills in socially and culturally relevant contexts. This project investigated the potential for archaeological content and inquiry strategies to help informal science learning institutions increase learning with diverse ISE audiences. The project was based on foundational research for the development of a national research framework for archaeology education and a plan for developing high-quality science learning opportunities for under-represented
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Michael BrodyJohn FisherJeanne MoeHelen Keremedjiev
This report offers an account of the evidence we have found of social impacts arising from participation in the arts, and of some of the methods used in the research. It is the first large-scale attempt, in the UK at least, to come to grips with these issues, and our intention has not been to give definitive answers but, as Brian Eno put it in a similar context, to ask the questions more clearly (Eno 1996: 14). If others, and especially those who work in the field, are encouraged to take forward this general study into more specific areas, it will have succeeded in its purpose. The study is
The goal of this article is to provide an integrative review of research that has been conducted on the development of children's scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning (SR), broadly defined, includes the thinking skills involved in inquiry, experimentation, evidence evaluation, inference and argumentation that are done in the service of conceptual change or scientific understanding. Therefore, the focus is on the thinking and reasoning skills that support the formation and modification of concepts and theories about the natural and social world. Major empirical findings are discussed
This paper lays out a theory of (re-)generative learning to explain how families and communities socialize young learners into thinking like scientists and mathematicians. Cultural communities and their families orient their young in varied ways toward the language, behaviors, and self-theories about the future presupposed in the learning of science and mathematics. Certain socialization processes and norms correspond closely with those that scientists and artists use in laboratories, studios, and rehearsals. Certain norms of politeness and patterns of language differ significantly from habits
This report proposes a comprehensive study to answer the question: How does conversation as a socially mediating activity act as both a process and an outcome of museum learning experiences? The study will examine museum learning across six kinds of museums and across different kinds of visiting groups. This proposal describes a model of museum learning that puts conversation among different kinds of coherent conversational groups at the core of museum learning. It focuses on ways that conversations are elaborated, enriched, and extended as a consequence of museum activity. The model recasts
Women have made tremendous progress in education and the workplace during the past 50 years. Even in historically male fields such as business, law, and medicine, women have made impressive gains. In scientific areas, however, women’s educational gains have been less dramatic, and their progress in the workplace still slower. In an era when women are increasingly prominent in medicine, law, and business, why are so few women becoming scientists and engineers? This study tackles this puzzling question and presents a picture of what we know—and what is still to be understood—about girls and
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Catherine HillChristianne CorbettAndresse St. Rose
In this paper, research on interest and motivation is revisited in the context of informal science learning (ISL) settings such as museums, out-of school or after-school clubs or groups, science camps, and enrichment programs1. The ISL context differs from traditional school "cookbook" science in a number of critical ways: rather than emphasizing science information, it is designed to engage participants in inquiry-informed and free-choice opportunities to work with authentic science2. Productive participation in the ISL setting should enable the development of scientific literacy and