In 2015, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Fairchild), located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, entered into partnership with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to help advance NASA’s plant research through classroom-based STEM citizen science with a project entitled, Growing Beyond Earth (GBE). The project, initially launched with 3,600 students at 97 middle and high schools primarily in Miami-Dade County, has expanded to include 10,639 students at 210 schools in 26 states and Puerto Rico. GBE is designed to:
a) Increase middle and high school students’ interest and skills in science by
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Catherine RaymondMarion LitzingerYang WenAmy PadolfCarl Lewis
WGBH received funding to develop and create NOVA Labs, an online environment that provides teen audiences with an online research lab, educational content, and the opportunity to engage with authentic data, tools, and processes to investigate scientific questions. This work has begun with the development of a first pilot lab, called The Sun Lab. NOVA Education created and launched this lab in early summer 2012. Examining the site in its pilot form, the Lifelong Learning Group (LLG) engaged in a formative evaluation to support refinements and improvements in the design of subsequent NOVA Lab
NOVA Labs (www.pbs.org/nova/labs) is a web-based platform designed for use by educators, students, and teens to engage learners with authentic data, processes, and tools of working scientists. The present evaluation study sought to investigate the outcomes achieved by users of the third NOVA Labs platform developed: Cloud Lab. The intended outcomes identified for student users were that they would: • Be able to successfully work with the real data provided in the Cloud Lab; • Demonstrate ability to interpret and use scientific data and tools; • Engage with real scientific data through the