This article describes discussions about the relationship between afterschool programs and the Common Core Standards at a networking meeting sponsored by the Robert Bowne Foundation for out-of-school time (OST) providers in New York City in the fall of 2013. The meeting was entitled "Introducing the Common Core Learning Standards: What Are They? What Do We Need to Know?"
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Suzanne MartenSara HillAnne Lawrence
Over the last ten years, out-of-school-time (OST) science programs have multiplied to increase young people’s exposure to science. However, there are still not enough opportunities for long-term engagement, which is essential to move youth from having interest in science to having the skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy to pursue careers in science. This article describes findings from exploratory research conducted to document the experiences of a small group of young women of color who participated in a museum-based OST program during their middle and high school years.
Increasing evidence suggests that individuals develop their understanding of science concepts in and out of school, using varied community resources and networks. Thus in contrast to historic research approaches that focus exclusively on single organizations and/or educational events, the current paper presents exploratory research in which we utilized specific community ecology analytical tools and approaches to describe and analyze the UK science education community as a whole. Data suggest that overall the UK science education community is highly interconnected and collaborative within
This paper from Phi Delta Kappan describes how growing inequality threatens American education. One of the leading indicators is the amout of resources spent on young people during their out-of-school time.
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics(STEM) programs in out-of-school time (OST) are designed to supplement school work, ignite student interest, and extend STEM learning. From interactive museum exhibits to summer-long science camps, opportunities for informal student engagement in STEM learning abound. What difference do these programs make, and how can we improve them? These questions preoccupy educators and funders alike. OST program developers and providers can benefit from understanding why evaluation is critical to the success of STEM OST programs, what data collection
This longitudinal study examined whether premedical students’ educational orientation contributed to their chances of completing a STEM degree. Two different orientations were tested; a narrow one grounded by interests in obtaining status and a more expansive orientation grounded by interests in engaging with a broader set of learning goals and communities. The primary source of data came from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program’s 2004 Freshman Survey (TFS) and 2008 College Senior Survey (CSS). The main analyses included 613 students who reported interest in pursuing a medical
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mitchell ChangMichael SohKevin EaganSylvia Hurtado
If we truly wish to promote science or STEM education, then it would seem that the joining of resources and expertise from the communities of formal schooling and informal science education institutions or ISEIs (museums, aquariums, and the like) would be an important early step. Yet creating such connections between teacher and museum remain a challenge for both teachers and informal educators. This study employs a communities of practice lens (Wenger, 1998) to provide a deeper explanation for the challenges inherent in those programs and experiences (field trips, outreach programs, teacher
This paper explores how participating in a program spanning an informal science institution and multiple school sites engaged youth with science in a different way. In particular, teens in the program selected and researched science topics of personal interest, and then authored, revised, and published science news stories about those topics in an authentic publication venue with an outside editor. Through five case studies analyzed according to a sociocultural framework for engagement understood as involving actions, interests and identifications, the authors describe how the news story
From October 1965 to May 1966, the Science Museum in London displayed the American spacecraft Freedom 7, the first capsule in NASA’s Mercury programme to take a human on a suborbital flight. Archival records concerning this temporary display are extensive and contain photographic sources as well as written ones. This case therefore lends itself to a study aimed at evaluating the comparative merits of these two types of records, for understanding the logic at play in the display, and for retrieving at least part of the visitors’ experience. Visual sources emerge from this comparison as