The Northwest Passage Project explored the changing Arctic through an innovative expedition aboard the Swedish Icebreaker Oden to conduct groundbreaking ocean science research, while it actively engaged 22 undergraduate and graduate students from the project’s five Minority Serving Institution (MSI) partners and 2 early career Inuit researchers in the research at sea. Over 35 hours of training in Arctic research techniques, polar science, and science communication was provided to these participants, who were engaged in the Northwest Passage expedition and worked with the onboard science team
In both the STEM media and entertainment sectors women are significantly unrepresented. Women account for only 21% of the upper-level positions in film (directors, writers, executive producers, cinematographers, etc.) according to a recent study. This small conference directly addresses how to expand the volume of STEM focused media and entertainment content centered on women and girls. The Creative Workforce Summit: Women Storytellers Explore STEM will be held in New York City and online (hybrid) in September 2022. The goal of the conference is to 1) encourage an infrastructure of support for the creation and distribution of informal STEM educational film, digital, and television content that is centered on women and girls and 2) to strengthen ties between women in media, entertainment, and women in STEM fields. The agenda includes keynote addresses by thought leaders in STEM disciplines and media, panels of industry leaders, a youth journalist interviews, and film screenings with filmmaker and scientist Q&As. The conference will be a hybrid event to allow for the greatest access to a broader audience. The projected 300 in-person and 1000+ virtual attendees will be drawn from New York Women in Film and Television’s extensive membership and 100+ partner organizations in entertainment and media, including Black Public Media, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Firelight Media, ReelAbilities, and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. The conference will be followed by a publication based on the convening featuring the keynotes, abridged panel discussions, additional interviews, and industry representation data analysis. In addition, a curriculum guide for high schools and colleges focused on STEM and film collaborations will be developed and distributed.
A post conference quantitative survey will be conducted with conference participants to gather data on the impacts of the conference. Questions to be asked include: What new professional connections were made by women attending the conference? What was learned related to the craft of STEM related media production and distribution? Were new and meaningful connections made with participants outside the participant’s current field/networks? Additional analysis will be done by the organizers of the conference in planning post-conference strategies for supporting and building the women in STEM infrastructure.
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 project will research core methods of science documentary film production and impact on audience engagement and understanding. The findings from this study will be used to later produce a film on how the CRISPR genome editing technology will shape agriculture, ecology, and the natural world. The research study and film to be produced will be a collaboration of science communication practitioners and researchers. The intended outcomes are to improve effective science filmmaking and increase impact on audiences. Many people rely on documentary film and videos for science information outside of formal learning environments. Research has shown that video programming can reduce knowledge gaps between those of higher and lower levels of education. But there is little research with findings about what makes a particular style of storytelling effective for engagement and learning outcomes. A recent report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine identified a significant shortage of social science research with directly applicable lessons for filmmakers. This project addresses this need by providing new frameworks for research and methods to produce science documentaries. Project partners are iBiology, a producer of video resources for learning, and science communication researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This project will examine two key questions: 1) In a science documentary film, how does the diversity of the scientists profiled and the use of a narrator shape audiences? perception of content and scientists? and 2) What are effective methods in science filmmaking to visualize the invisible (i.e. explain scientific phenomena that are not easily visualized)? The project begins by testing a recently produced film, Human Nature, that tells the story of the discovery of CRISPR (genome editing), told by the scientists who led the effort. Phase 1 testing will include screenings, focus groups, and experiments run through Amazon Mechanical Turk to test what features of the film (editorial voice and visualization styles) are most effective for communicating scientific content. In Phase 2 video test clips will be produced using a combination of narration and visualization strategies. An experimental design run through Amazon Turk will randomly assign participants to watch a clip using different combinations. Researchers will use this data to parse out what effect seems to be related to particular narration and visualization choices. This quantitative experimental data will be supplemented by qualitative data from focus groups with participants with a diverse range of science experience and demographic backgrounds. Researchers will design a survey-embedded experiment with a U.S. nationally representative sample to see how well the findings translate and change in a broader population.
This Innovations in Development 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.
DATE:
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Dietram ScheufeleSarah GoodwinElliot Kirschner
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 EAGER seeks to explore the state of research ethics in practice in science and, specifically, how ethics plays out in informal STEM institutions, through lenses of multiple cultural traditions and perspectives. By means of producing a documentary, Decolonizing Science, the project will engage scientists and informal STEM educators in considering how informal STEM institutions could re-envision their work to fundamentally embrace inclusivity and belonging. The exploratory process will challenge and inform informal STEM learning institutions and the scientists with whom they work to consider how to navigate contemporary social tensions, support research that values diverse perspectives, and promote decolonizing practices. A significant component of the project includes screenings, workshops, and difficult conversations, in conjunction with informal learning institutions that are already on the front lines of new language and knowledge creation. The project will be a collaborative process as participants' thoughts, views, and arguments will shape the project from the beginning. Once the film is made, collaboration will continue by engaging science-based practitioners at institutions that serve communities of color and that are invested in working towards greater diversity, inclusivity, equity, and access. Discussions related to the film's screenings will inform how informal learning institutions can radically re-imagine their work and their spaces, including teaching, curation, research, communication, and knowledge and literature production.
The film will explore the origins, creation, and evolution of Western science as an enterprise that can sublimate, marginalize and re-narrativize the practices, procedures, ethics, and contributions of the underrepresented people of color in science. Through focus groups, interviews, and facilitated discussions, this EAGER will document and share the interactions among scientists, informal STEM educators, and filmmakers as they explore how to practice more ethical science in communities of color, on their lands, and within their nations, as well as how science can be portrayed and enacted within informal STEM learning institutions. The project seek to challenge and shift both informal STEM learning institutions and the sciences, through a yet-untested, well-considered, and humane approach to ethical practices of science and their implementation in informal STEM learning institutions through a film and by envisioning possible futures.
This project is jointly funded by Directorate for Education and Human Resources/Advancing Informal STEM Learning Program, the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Ethical and Responsible Research program and the Directorate for Geosciences Education and Diversity program.
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.