The Exploratorium, in collaboration with the city of San Francisco, the Tenderloin and Civic Center communities, and national museum-community partners, are excited to announce Middle Ground: Experiments in Urban Social Science (fka Street Smarts), a project to bring research on social psychology to public urban environments. Middle Ground combines recent work by the Exploratorium in social science exhibitry and urban learning spaces to develop a novel contribution to science learning in public spaces. The project will produce an outdoor learning installation in front of San Francisco City Hall that will serve the exceptionally diverse audiences that frequent the area. The installation will be populated with exhibits that engage this public in social observation and participatory experiences, promoting learning about the science of social polarization, social dilemmas, and social norms. The project will also produce an online "Guide to People Watching" for the general public, with additional materials to support professionals in the creation of social science learning experiences. The project will be supported by a community of practice of professionals engaged in educational place-making. Finally, Middle Ground will produce new research on how to design experiences that prompt structured, quasi-scientific social observation skills and foster empathy for the social experience of others.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. This proposed effort embraces broad participation by the three Ute tribes, History Colorado, and scientists in the field of archaeology to investigate and integrate traditional ecological knowledge and contemporary Western science. The project will preserve knowledge from the Ute peoples of Colorado and Utah, including traditional technology, ethnobotany, engineering and math. Results from this project will inform educational efforts in similar communities.
This project will build on the long-standing collaborations between History Colorado (HC), the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Ute Indian Tribe, Uintah & Ouray Reservation, and the Dominguez Archaeological Research Group DARG). HC will implement and evaluate a regional informal learning collaboration focused on Ute traditional and contemporary STEM knowledge serving over 128,000 learners through tribal programs, local history museums and educational networks. This project will advance the understanding of integrated knowledge and the role of Ute people as STEM learners and practitioners. This Informal Science Learning project will increase lifelong STEM learning in rural communities and create a replicable model for collaboration among tribes, history museums, and scientists.
As a part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds research and innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. In this project, the primary goal of Geo-literacy Education in Micronesia is to demonstrate the potential for effective intergenerational, informal learning and development of geo-literacy through an Informal STEM Learning Team (ISLT) model for Pacific island communities. This will be accomplished by means of a suite of six informal learning modules that blend local/Indigenous approaches, Western STEM knowledge systems, and active learning. This project will be implemented across 12 select communities in the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia - which consists of the four States of Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap - and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Jointly, these entities are referred to as the Freely Associated States (FAS). Geo-literacy refers to combining both local knowledge and Western STEM into a synthesized understanding of the world as a set of interconnected, dynamic physical, biological, and social systems, and using this integrated knowledge to make informed decisions. Applications include natural resource management, conservation, and disaster risk reduction. The project will: (1) demonstrate that the recruitment and development of an ISLT model is an effective method of engaging communities in geo-literacy activities; (2) increase geo-literacy knowledge and advocacy skills of ISLT participants; (3) produce and disseminate geo-literacy educational materials and resources (e.g., place-based teaching guides, geospatial data systems, educational apps, 2-D and 3-D models, and digital maps); and (4) provide evidence that FAS residents use these geo-literacy educational materials and resources to positively influence decision-making.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Corrin BarrosKoh Ming WeiDanko TabrosiEmerson Odango
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. This project will study why (or why not) young career adults, aged 18-35 engage with the PBS NewsHour science content via broadcast and/or online avenues to advance their STEM knowledge and skills. This age group has shifted away from viewing traditional broadcast news media and increasingly looks to social media channels for science content. Multiple layers of STEM digital content delivered across multiple platforms (including social media) will be used to identify the attributes that engage and motivate these 18-35 year olds. Deliverables include 12 broadcast segments each year with STEM research coverage and a range of transmedia efforts (e.g. additional formats distributed via Instagram, Vine, YouTube, etc.) for testing with the target audience. A complementary component of the project will be an apprenticeship program in which each year five college age students from journalism schools join the professional reporters at the NewsHour to produce STEM content using new and innovative strategies engage to 18-35 year olds. The PBS NewsHour broadcast is currently viewed by 1.4 million adults each night and the website has 2.6 million unique visitors each month. The research will attempt to define the learning ecologies of 18-35 year olds using psychographic profiles and case studies to illustrate the range of science learners including those in underrepresented groups. The first research component uses a quantitative approach to assess the reaction of the early career adults to the 12 STEM broadcast segments in their original form and after repackaging for social media. A control group audience will watch the original broadcast of each STEM segment and respond to an online questionnaire that will establish how viewers use and/or pass on STEM content and to whom. The test audience will view the content that has been repackaged and presented on a different media platform responding to the same online questionnaire and allowing comparisons of the two groups. The second research component will focus on the college-age journalism apprentices and use participatory action research. The apprentices will collect data about their experiences and reflect on their contributions to STEM reporting. The third research component will be an ethnographic study of the post-production and editorial teams at the PBS NewsHour using focus groups to elicit feedback and evaluate their metacognitive thinking about how to produce stories for early career adults. Data will be collected and analyzed from three groups: early career adults 18-35 years of age; journalism apprentices; and the PBS NewsHour editorial teams. Overall the research will provide new knowledge about producing and distributing digital STEM media that engages and impacts early career adults.
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 study will contribute to these goals by providing empirical evidence about how and under what circumstances science museums, science centers, and other designed settings for informal science education (ISE) can change so that they will reach more diverse audiences with the full range of their educational activities. This study will deepen understanding of equity norms and practices at ISE organizations, as well as the internal and contextual factors that shape them. The project builds on a unique opportunity provided by the widely known and critically acclaimed exhibition "RACE: Are We So Different?" After traveling to dozens of museums and science centers, and being seen by over three million people, RACE is returning home to the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) where it was created. Strand 1 of this study will examine the processes underlying organizational change at SMM as it attempts to use RACE to leverage organization-wide change. In Strand 2, the project team will compare the experiences of ISE organizations around the country that hosted RACE, focusing on the conditions that influence reflection and lead to (or prevent) lasting impact. These two studies will inform the design of Strand 3: a national survey on equity norms and practices, and the potential for equity-related change, in designed settings for ISE. Four research questions guide all project activities: 1)How can such Informal Science Education organizations leverage an unusual event, such as a traveling exhibition, to catalyze and sustain change in their equity-related norms and practices? 2) How and when does the deep reflection required to change entrenched norms and practices manifest itself in ISE organizations that attempt to change their equity norms and practices? 3) What contextual factors support or oppose the achievement and maintenance of organization-wide changes in equity norms and practices? 4) How common are these supportive and opposing conditions in the institutional field of museums and science centers, and how prevalent are different norms and practices related to equity?
A recent report by the Association for Computing Machinery estimates that by decade's end, half of all STEM jobs in the United States will be in computing. Yet, the participation of women and underrepresented groups in post-secondary computer science programs remains discouragingly and persistently low. One of the most important findings from research in computer science education is the degree to which informal experiences with computers (at many ages and in many settings) shape young people's trajectories through high school and into undergraduate degree programs. Just as early language and mathematics literacy begins at home and is reinforced throughout childhood through a variety of experiences both in school and out, for reasons of diversity and competency, formal experiences with computational literacy alone are insufficient for developing the next generation of scientists, engineers, and citizens. Thus, this CAREER program of research seeks to contribute to a conceptual and design framework to rethink computational literacy in informal environments in an effort to engage a broad and diverse audience. It builds on the concept of cultural forms to understand existing computational literacy practices across a variety of learning settings and to contribute innovative technology designs. As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in these settings. This CAREER program of research seeks to understand the role of cultural forms in informal computational learning experiences and to develop a theoretically grounded approach for designing such experiences for youth. This work starts from the premise that new forms of computational literacy will be born from existing cultural forms of literacy and numeracy (i.e., for mathematical literacy there are forms like counting songs -- "10 little ducks went out to play"). Many of these forms play out in homes between parents and children, in schools between teachers and students, and in all sorts of other place between friends and siblings. This program of study is a three-phased design and development effort focused on key research questions that include understanding (1) how cultural forms can help shape audience experiences in informal learning environments; (2) how different cultural forms interact with youth's identity-related needs and motivations; and (3) how new types of computational literacy experiences based on these forms can be created. Each phase includes inductive research that attempts to understand computational literacy as it exists in the world and a design phase guided by concrete learning objectives that address specific aspects of computational literacy. Data collection strategies will include naturalist observation, semi-structured, and in-depth interviews, and learning assessments; outcome measures will center on voluntary engagement, motivation, and persistence around the learning experiences. The contexts for research and design will be museums, homes, and afterschool programs. This research builds on a decade of experience by the PI in designing and studying computational literacy experiences across a range of learning settings including museums, homes, out-of-school programs, and classrooms. Engaging a broad and diverse audience in the future of STEM computing fields is an urgent priority of the US education system, both in schools and beyond. This project would complement substantial existing efforts to promote in-school computational literacy and, if successful, help bring about a more representative, computationally empowered citizenry. The integrated education plan supports the training and mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students in emerging research methods at the intersection of the learning sciences, computer science, and human-computer interaction. This work will also develop publically available learning experiences potentially impacting thousands of youth. These experiences will be available in museums, on the Web, and through App stores.