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 RAPID project was submitted in response to the NSF Dear Colleague letter (NSF 17-128) related to Hurricane Harvey along the Gulf Coast. The PBS NewsHour team will produce 9 stories for national distribution using multiple broadcast and online channels that will engage the public and increase their understanding of the science and engineering research being conducted to better predict and mitigate the impact of future storms. Hurricane Harvey was the first of several storms in 2017 that hit first Texas then Florida and the Caribbean creating unprecedented devastation. This project aims to help the public better understand the science behind storms, and how scientists and engineers are actively collecting data, developing new models, using new technologies, and studying the environmental recovery. The PBS NewsHour team has in place experienced science journalists, production facilities, and a distribution network that can quickly develop media stories based on the work of scientists and engineers in the field, many of whom are funded by NSF. The NewsHour has a strong track record of telling stories that are scientifically accurate yet highly engaging and understandable to a diverse audience. Researchers from several universities including Texas A&M, Rice University, and Norfolk State University are advising the NewsHour team and may also be featured in some of the media. The team will also use their existing collaboration with education researchers at New Knowledge, Inc. to seek audience feedback on proposed/produced media.
The potential audience reach of these stories is extensive. Stories that are broadcast on the nightly PBS NewsHour reach 1.6 million people. The NewsHour's website currently reaches 6 million while their YouTube channel has 40 million views. They have a growing audience of younger viewers who mainly get their news on social media channels such as ScienceScope and Apple News. EXTRA is another service offered just for teachers.
Girls met to engage with Through My Window twice each week after school. The afterschool program format provided a freer, less structured atmosphere than a classroom setting. Students extensively debated and investigated the questions and themes posed by the novel, Talk to Me. The meeting space had plenty of space for students to move around, as well as teachers who encouraged the expression of full emotional and intellectual enthusiasm for the story at hand.
East Longmeadow implemented Through My Window in two seventh grade classrooms, each teaching different subjects—creative reading and STEAM. Students used the print and audio versions of Talk to Me, and read or listened to the book independently and together, in class and at home. They also participated in both online and offline activities that, along with the book, helped them engage with ideas and propose solutions related to engineering challenges.
Purpose: This project team will fully develop and test an open online platform that posts student-led engineering project challenges for Kindergarten to grade 12 classrooms. Research demonstrates that improved attitudes towards engineering in elementary and middle school are imperative to increase the pursuit of STEM degrees and careers. This project intends to address a shortage of tools and curricula in K-12 engineering today, in order to meet the learning objectives new the Next Generation Science Standards and to engage students in STEM.
Project Activities: During Phase I, (completed in 2016), the team developed a prototype, including a content management platform to host challenges on a broad range of STEM topics, such as computer coding, digital modeling, or producing simulations. At the end of Phase I, researchers completed a pilot study with 100 students and two teachers. Results demonstrated that the prototype operated as intended, that students were highly engaged with challenges on the platform, and that teachers were able to incorporate challenges within instructional practice. In Phase II, the team will refine the landing page, further develop the system architecture to accommodate a larger number of challenges, and upgrade the teacher portal to build capacity for the effective integration into instructional practice. After development is complete, the research team will conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility and usability, fidelity of implementation, and promise of the platform to improve learning. The study will include 40 high school classrooms with a minimum of 25 students per class. Half of the classrooms will be randomly assigned to use the platform to conduct a challenge and half to follow business-as-usual procedures. Researchers will compare pre-and-post scores of students' science and engineering self-assessments, which measure ability to engage in science and engineering practices such as asking questions, modeling, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing data, and constructing explanations, as well as content-specific measures depending on the specific challenge with which classes engage.
Product: The project team will develop a platform that will facilitate design challenges in K-12 classrooms across STEM academic topics and career paths within the field of engineering. The platform will enable classes to post their projects to the site and for other classes around the country to participate in the project. Each challenge (and the associated education resources curated for that challenge) will be publicly displayed on the Future Engineers platform and offered free for student participation and classroom facilitation. The content management system will be developed to enable the platform to host a high volume of challenges simultaneously and will allow for a diverse array of student-generated submissions. The platform will also include teacher resources to support the alignment of game play with learning goals and to support implementation.
DESIGN SQUAD GLOBAL (DSG) is a web-based, mobile-accessible digital hub and outreach initiative that creates new opportunities to empower middle school youth to solve real-world problems and understand the impact of engineering in a global context. The project builds on the Design Squad model for engineering education (including a television show and website). The ultimate goals of Design Squad Global are to: (1) develop innovative ways to incorporate effective engineering education into informal learning environments; (2) inform the field about promising practices in cross-cultural
SciGirls Strategies is a National Science Foundation–funded project led by Twin Cities PBS (TPT) in partnership with St. Catherine University, the National Girls Collaborative, and XSci (The Experiential Science Education Research Collaborative) at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for STEM Learning. This three-year initiative aims to increase the number of high school girls recruited to and retained in fields where females are traditionally underrepresented: technical science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM) pathways. We seek to accomplish this goal by providing career and
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Rita KarlBradley McLainAlicia Santiago
Although major growth in engineering and computing jobs is expected in the next 10 years, students are not majoring in sufficient numbers to meet this demand. These impending workforce demands cannot be met without developing the skills of racial and ethnic minorities: however, Hispanics and Black/African Americans make up only a small percentage of doctoral students in the United States. The goal of the Consortium of Minority Doctoral Scholars (CMDS) Design and Development Launch Pilot is to broaden the participation of minorities in these fields. This pilot project will create a data portal that will allow the research team to study and understand the efficacy of various mentoring strategies that might be piloted across institutions and minority doctoral scholars programs.
Part II
The Consortium of Minority Doctoral Scholars (CMDS) will unite three of the nation's oldest and most prominent minority doctoral scholars programs (GEM, SREB and McKnight); organizations with a long history of impact in increasing the numbers of minorities obtaining advanced degrees. The CMDS Design and Development Launch Pilot will conduct extensive studies using data from these three programs. The research team will conduct a mixed method analysis of the data to discover commonalities and distinctions about the three programs' mentoring efforts as compared to students not involved in the three programs. This will result in a data-driven strategy for researching the efficacy of mentoring programs that can be applied across the three CMSD member and other minority doctoral scholars programs. By utilizing data from successful programs to pinpoint effective mentoring strategies, the project will create opportunities for larger numbers of minorities to be successful. This approach has implications not only with respect to equity and access, but also the development of a workforce that will drive future advances.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Juan GilbertShaundra DailyJerlando Jackson
This Research in Service to Practice project, a collaboration of Pepperdine University and the New York Hall of Science, will establish a network of STEM-related Media Making Clubs comprised of after-school students aged 12 - 19 and teachers in the U.S. and in three other countries: Kenya, Namibia and Finland. The media produced by the students may include a range of formats such as videos, short subject films, games, computer programs and specialized applications like interactive books. The content of the media produced by the students will focus on the illustration and teaching of STEM topics, where the shared media is intended to help other students become enthused about and learn the science. This proposal builds on the principal investigator's previous work on localized media clubs by now creating an international network in which after-school students and teachers will collaborate at a distance with other clubs. The central research questions for the project pertain to three themes at the intersection of learning, culture and collaboration: the impact of participatory teaching, virtual networks, and intercultural, global competence. The research will combine qualitative, cross-cultural and big data methods. Critical to the innovation of the project, the research team will also develop a network assessment tool, adapting epistemic network analysis methods to the needs of this initiative. This work 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.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Eric HamiltonKatherine McMillanPriya Mohabir
Moving Beyond Earth Programming: “STEM in 30” Webcasts. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM) will develop nine “STEM in 30” webcasts which will be made available to teachers and students in grades 5-8 classrooms across the country. The primary goal of this program is to increase interest and engagement in STEM for students. Formative and summative evaluations will assess the outcomes for the program, which include the following:
Increased interest in STEM and STEM careers, Increased understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Increased awareness and importance of current and future human space exploration, and Increased learning in the content areas.
This series of live 30-minute webcasts from the National Air and Space Museum and partner sites focus on STEM subjects that integrate all four areas. The webcasts will feature NASA and NASM curators, scientists, and educators exploring STEM subjects using museum and NASA collections, galleries, and activities. During the 30-minute broadcasts, students will engage with museum experts through experiments and activities, ask the experts questions, and answer interactive poll questions. After the live broadcasts, NASM will also archive the webcasts in an interactive “STEM in 30” Gallery.
This full scale research and development collaborative project between Smith College and Springfield Technical Community College improves technical literacy for children in the area of engineering education through the Through My Window learning environment. The instructional design of the learning environment results from the application of innovative educational approaches based on research in the learning sciences—Egan's Imaginative Education (IE) and Knowledge Building (KB). The project provides idea-centered engineering curriculum that facilitates deep learning of engineering concepts through the use of developmentally appropriate narrative and interactive multimedia via interactive forums and blogs, young adult novels (audio and text with English and Spanish versions), eight extensive tie-in activities, an offline teachers’ curriculum guide, and social network connections and electronic portfolios. Targeting traditionally underrepresented groups in engineering—especially girls—the overarching goals of the project are improving attitudes toward engineering; providing a deeper understanding of what engineering is about; supporting the development of specific engineering skills; and increasing interest in engineering careers. The project will address the following research questions: What is the quality of the knowledge building discourse? Does it get better over time? Will students, given the opportunity, extend the discourse to new areas? What scaffolding does the learning environment need to support novice participants in this discourse? Does the use of narrative influence participation in knowledge building? Are certain types of narratives more effective in influencing participation in knowledge building? Evaluative feedback for usability, value effectiveness, and ease of implementation from informal educators and leaders from the Connecticut After School Network CTASN) will be included. The evaluation will include documentation on the impact of narrative and multimedia tools in the area of engineering education. Currently, there is very little research regarding children and young teen engagement in engineering education activities using narrative as a structure to facilitate learning engineering concepts and principles. The research and activities developed from this proposed project contributes to the field of Informal Science and Engineering Education. The results from this project could impact upper elementary and middle-school aged children and members from underrepresented communities and girls in a positive way.
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. The project will further develop, roll out, and conduct research on a set of materials that will introduce middle school age youth to innovative and engaging engineering challenges in the Boys and Girls Club (B&GCs) context. Building on substantial prior work and evaluation-based learning, WISE Guys and Gals - Boys & Girls as WISEngineering STEM Learners (WGG) will: (1) combine engineering design activities with the (open source, online) WISEngineering infrastructure; (2) scale-up the infrastructure; (3) engage youth in informal afterschool experiences; and (4) collect a wealth of rich data to further our understanding of how youth learn through these experiences. This work will be conducted by Hofstra University's Center for STEM Research in conjunction with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), The CUNY Graduate Center's Center for Advanced Study in Education (CASE), the Boys & Girls Club of America, and 25 B&GCs in New York and New Jersey. The underlying theoretical framework builds on proof-of-concept work supported by NSF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. An open source, on-line interface (WISEngineering) provides numerous virtual tools (e.g., social networking, Design Journal, embedded assessments) that promote learning and collaboration through challenging, thoughtful, and creative work. WGG will explore how to incorporate creativity, social networking, connections to real-world STEM needs/careers, and teamwork into challenges that can be completed in a one-hour period, an activity time constraint in many B&GC settings. Staff from the clubs will participate in face-to-face and virtual professional development in an effort to build their capacity as facilitators of STEM learning. Research will focus on: (1) how activities developed for 60-minute implementation and guided by informed engineering design and interconnected learning frameworks support youth learning and engagement; and (2) characteristics of the professional development approach that support B&GC facilitators' capacity development. By the end of the project, over 6,000 middle school aged youth, the majority from groups underrepresented in STEM areas, will gain experience with engineering design as they develop engineering thinking, new STEM competencies, STEM career awareness, and an appreciation for the civic value of STEM knowledge.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
David BurghardtXiang FuKenneth WhiteMelissa Rhodes
This project will help address the urgent need for a new engineering workforce. Middle school students will be entering a workforce that is increasingly global. They will need not only technical skills but also global competencies including: the ability to investigate the world, recognize perspectives, communicate ideas, and take action. This model integrates engineering with global competencies and will provide new knowledge about how this type of learning experience impacts students and educators. This project builds on the success of the previous Design Squad project funded by NSF and developed by WGBH, which has implemented a national model for engineering education for middle school youth. This project expands the model internationally, connecting U.S. based youth with those in Southern Africa (including South Africa, Botswana, and Swaziland). The project partners are FHI 360, a non-profit organization in 60 countries around the world that helps build capacity for improving lives. They will facilitate the implementation of the afterschool programs in Southern Africa . The US dissemination partners include Promise Neighborhoods Institute, Middle Start, Every Hour Counts, and the National Girls Collaborative Project. Project deliverables include a global engineering curriculum; a web platform with videos, games, activities; an afterschool Club Guide; and a Community of Practice for informal engineering educators. A knowledge building component will provide new evidence on how high quality accessible resources and strategies can impact students' development of global competencies and engineering skills to solve real world problems. An iterative approach will be used to develop the resources including the global engineering afterschool curriculum, Club guide, and other components. The methodology uses a continuous cycle of improvement including: assess/design, test/ implement, synthesize/reflect, and utilize/disseminate. The Summative Evaluation will generate evidence about whether and how this kind of collaborative work builds children's understanding of engineering, motivation to participate, and confidence in taking informed action on behalf of pressing global problems. This will contribute to a larger body of work about whether and how engaging with global, collaborative engineering problems leads to greater self-efficacy for children with very different backgrounds, experiences, and opportunities. This project will add new knowledge about how the well-honed Design Squad model in the U.S. can be expanded with a global context and global partners. This proposal was co-funded by EHR/DRL, Engineering/EEC, and International Science and Engineering. During the project period approximately 125,000 children in the US and 5000 children in southern Africa will be reached. In the long term, with the continued global access to the resources, the reach will potentially be in the millions.