This evaluation brief summarizes the kinds of formative feedback and resources that Rockman et al evaluators provided to inform content and marketing of two science cafés, and support the construction, refinement, and dissemination of a questionnaire about café participants understanding of Science Technology and Society (STS). REA staff members served as educational assessment consultants who worked with the project team to (a) qualitatively assess the validity of and refine the constructs for the science café assessment tool; and (b) construct and refine the summative assessment
The Science Fairs Under the 'Scope Study's key findings are summarized here on the topics of:
Models And Elements Of Middle School Science Fairs
Science And Engineering Practices
Cost Of Science Fairs
Parent Involvement In Science Fairs
Science Interest And Identity.
We collected data from middle school science fairs held in schools across the country to understand:
What are the basic models and elements of middle school science fairs;
If and how science fairs increase students’ interest in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) and/or STEM careers
If and how participation in select models of middle school science fairs enhance students’ mastery of the science and engineering practices; and
What costs and resources are required to implement an effective middle school science fair?
In this paper we share an emerging analytical approach to designing and studying STEAM programs that focuses on how programs integrate the respective epistemic practices—the ways in which knowledge is constructed—of science and art. We share the rationale for moving beyond surface features of STEAM programs (e.g., putting textiles and electronics on the same table) to the disciplinary-specific ways in which participants are engaged in creative inquiry and production. We share a brief example from a public STEAM event to demonstrate the ways in which this approach can foster reflection and
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. In this project, Science Cafe's have emerged over the years as a useful mechanism for exposure of scientific information to the public. More recently, this forum has been successfully used as a communication mechanism for teens. While this mechanism is successful with urban and suburban youth, it has not been efficacious with rural teens. Thus, this project is designed to ferret out the challenges faced by Teen Science Cafe's(TSCs) in rural settings and find ways to surmount them. The long-term goal is to engage a large number of teens who will enter adulthood as citizens with a sophisticated understanding of the science process and who will follow a myriad of pathways into the U.S. STEM workforce. The research will focus on what works, for whom, and where with respect to the key components and outcomes of teen science cafe's in rural areas.
At the broadest level, the project will strengthen infrastructure and build capacity by producing a national model for bringing OST (out of school time) STEM to rural communities. Over the two project years, approximately 600 unique participants will participate in teen science cafe's that engage their curiosity in STEM, provide leadership opportunities, and make STEM occupations more visible, participatory and approachable for rural teems who often lack access to high quality STEM programs in school.
Specific goals of the project for rural settings are: (1) To test the feasibility and effectiveness of a national model of professional development centered on an in-person and virtual community of practice for informal STEM educators leading teen science cafe's. (2) Form research-practice partnerships involving the PIs and the leaders of cafe's to: i) identify and document existing local conditions, resources, and challenges and their significance for OST STEM education; ii) work collaboratively with peers and the PIs to systematically test new strategies for engaging rural teens in TSCs; (3) Cultivate a mindset among teens that STEM IS EVERYWHERE. Rural teens are often isolated and the STEM careers in their communities are largely invisible to them. To date, 19 geographically and demographically diverse active teen cafe's sites have committed to the project. The PIs will use a multifaceted approach to characterizing rurality, They will use the established Index of Relative Rurality (IRR) which includes four spatial variables (remoteness, overall population size, density, and proportion of built-up land). The impact of the Cafe's series at each site will be determined via multiple methods, including: (1) pre-post-surveys with teens, employing the measure of STEM attitudes and engagement; (2) detailed blog postings by adult leaders describing the challenges/successes of teen and (3) interviews with leaders to uncover their perceptions of the reasons associated with success of the strategy.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
This commentary explores the kinds of audiences who attend science festivals in the United States by examining data from nearly 10,000 attendees from 24 festivals. Findings are presented to describe festival audiences overall and in comparison to national census and polling data. Results are similar to those for other public science events, with the majority of attendees being well-educated and middle-class. Even so, approximately two thirds of festival-goers are new each year. The findings are discussed in relation to evidence that begins to establish a typology of public science event
The Year in ISE is a slidedoc designed to track and characterize field growth, change and impact, important publications, and current topics in ISE in 2018. Use it to inform new strategies, find potential collaborators for your projects, and support proposal development. Scope This slidedoc highlights a selection of developments and resources in 2018 that were notable and potentially useful for the informal STEM education field. It is not intended to be comprehensive or exhaustive, nor to provide endorsement. To manage the scope and length, we have focused on meta analyses, consensus reports
In partnership with the Digital NEST, students engage in near to peer learning with a technical tool for the benefit of a nonprofit that tackles issues the youth are passionate about. Youth build first from an 'internal’ Impactathon, to planning and developing an additional Impactathon for a local partner and then traveling to another partner elsewhere in the state. Participants range from 14 to 24 from UC Santa Cruz students to middle schoolers from Watsonville and Salinas.
This poster was presented at the 2019 AISL Principal Investigators Meeting.
The STEM + Digital Literacies (STEM+L) project investigates science fiction composing as an effective mechanism to attract and immerse adolescents (ages 10-13) from diverse cultural backgrounds in socio-scientific issues related to environment.
The participating students (G5-8) work in small groups to design and produce STEM content rich, multimedia science fictions during the summer (1 week) and the academic year (4-6 2.5hr sessions). Culminating activities include student presentations at a local science fiction film festival.
The research component employs an iterative, design-based
This poster was presented at the 2019 NSF AISL Principal Investigators meeting.
The poster describes the Rural Activation and Innovation Network, in which four Arizona regions were selected for their uniqueness in geography and demographics to provide insights about barriers and solutions to implementing ISE experiences in rural communities.
Outreach activities at the interface of science and art present a unique opportunity to connect and engage with “latently interested” publics who do not otherwise take part in science activities like visiting science museums. In this paper, the authors present “Guerilla Science” as one model that supports the hypothesis that well-designed science + art (STEAM) programming in informal settings can broaden participation in, and facilitate engagement with STEM-related topics. This paper describes a range of interactive events featuring scientists and artists and accompanying research into the