The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), in collaboration with neuroscientists at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), museum professionals, and community partners, proposes to create a 1,000 to 1,500-square-foot traveling exhibition, accompanying website, and complementary programming to promote public understanding of neuroscience research and its relevance to healthy brain development in early childhood. The exhibition and programs will focus on current research on the developing brain, up to age 5, and will reach a national audience of adult caregivers of young children and their families, with a special emphasis on Latino families. The project will be developed bi-culturally and bilingually (English/Spanish) in order to better engage underrepresented Latino audiences. The exhibition and programs will be designed and tested with family audiences.
The exhibition project, Interactive Family Learning in Support of Early Brain Development, has four goals that primarily target adult caregivers of children up to age 5:
Foster engagement with and interest in neurodevelopment during early childhood
Enhance awareness of how neuroscience research leads to knowledge about healthy development in early childhood
Inform and empower adult caregivers to enrich their children’s early learning experiences
Reach diverse family audiences, especially Latino caregivers and their families
A collaborative, multidisciplinary team of neuroscience researchers, experts in early childhood education, museum educators, and OMSI personnel with expertise in informal science education and bilingual exhibit development will work together to ensure that current science is accurately interpreted and effectively presented to reach the target audiences. The project will foster better public understanding of early brain development and awareness and confidence in caregivers in using play to enrich their children’s experiences and support healthy brain development. Visitors will explore neuroscience and early childhood development through a variety of forms—multi-sensory, hands-on interactive exhibits, graphic panels, real objects, facilitated experiences, and an accompanying website.
Following the five-year development process, the exhibition will begin an eight-year national tour, during which it will reach more than one million people.
There is a dearth of prominent STEM role models for underrepresented populations. For example, according to a 2017 survey, only 3.1% of physicists in the United States are Black, only 2.1% are Hispanic, and only 0.5% are Native American. The project will help bridge these gaps by developing exhibits that include simulations of historical scientific experiments enacted by little-known scientists of color, virtual reality encounters that immerse participants in the scientists' discovery process, and other content that allows visitors to interact with the exhibits and explore the exhibits' themes. The project will develop transportable, interactive exhibits focusing on light: how we perceive light, sources of light from light bulbs to stars, uses of real and artificial light in human endeavors, and past and current STEM innovators whose work helps us understand, create, and harness light now. The exhibits will be developed in three stages, each exploring a characteristic of light (Color, Energy, or Time). Each theme will be explored via multiple deliveries: short documentary and animated films, virtual reality experiences, interactive "photobooths," and technology-based inquiry activities. The exhibit components will be copied at seven additional sites, which will host the exhibits for their audiences, and the project's digital assets will enable other STEM learning organizations to duplicate the exhibits. The exhibits will be designed to address common gaps in understanding, among adults as well as younger learners, about light. What light really is and does, in scientific terms, is one type of hidden story these exhibits will convey to general audiences. Two other types of science stories the exhibits will tell: how contemporary research related to light, particularly in astrophysics, is unveiling the hidden stories of our universe; and hidden stories of STEM innovators, past and present, women and men, from diverse backgrounds. These stories will provide needed role models for the adolescent learners, helping them learn complex STEM content while showing them how scientific research is conducted and the diverse community of people who can contribute to STEM innovations and discoveries.
The project deliverables will be designed to present complex physics content through coherent, immersive, and embodied learning experiences that have been demonstrated to promote engagement and deeper learning. The project will research whether participants, through interacting with these exhibits, can begin to integrate discrete ideas and make connections with complex scientific content that would be difficult without technology support. For example, students and other novices often lack the expertise necessary to make distinctions between what is needed and what is extra within scientific problems. The proposed study follows a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach characterized by iterative cycles of data collection, analysis, and reflection to inform the design of educational innovations and advance educational theory. Project research includes conceiving, building, and testing iterative phases, which will enable the project to capture the complexity of learning and engagement in informal learning settings. Research participants will complete a range of research activities, including focus group interviews, observation, and pre-post assessment of science content knowledge and dispositions.
By showcasing such role models and informing about related STEM content, this project will widen perspectives of audiences in informal learning settings, particularly adolescents from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. Research findings and methodologies will be shared widely in the informal STEM learning community, building the field's knowledge of effective ways to broaden participation in informal science learning, and thus increase broaden participation in and preparation for the STEM-based workforce.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Todd BoyetteJill HammJanice AndersonCrystal Harden
Utah Valley University (UVU) with partners Weber State University (WSU) and American Indian Services (AIS) are implementing UTAH PREP (PREParation for STEM Careers) to address the need for early preparation in mathematics to strengthen and invigorate the secondary-to-postsecondary-to-career STEM pipeline. As the preliminary groundwork for UTAH PREP, each partner currently hosts a PREP program (UVU PREP, WSU PREP, and AIS PREP) that identifies low-income, under-represented minority, first-generation, and female students entering seventh grade who have interest and aptitude in math and science, and involves them in a seven-week, three-year summer intensive program integrating STEM courses and activities. The course content blends skill-building academics with engaging experiences that promote a clear understanding of how mathematical concepts and procedures are applied in various fields of science and engineering. Courses are enhanced through special projects, field trips, college campus visits, and the annual Sci-Tech EXPO. The purpose of the program is to motivate and prepare participants from diverse backgrounds to complete a rigorous program of mathematics in high school so that they can successfully pursue STEM studies and careers, which are vital to advancing the regional and national welfare.
UTAH PREP is based on the TexPREP program that originated at the University of Texas at San Antonio and which was named as one of the Bright Spots in Hispanic Education by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics in 2015. TexPREP was adapted by UVU for use in Utah for non-minority serving institutions and in regions with lower minority populations, but with great academic and college participation disparity. With NSF funding for a two-year pilot program, the project partners are building UTAH PREP through a networked improvement community, collective impact approach that, if demonstrably successful, has the ability to scale to a national level. This pilot program's objectives include: 1) creating a UTAH PREP collaboration with commitments to a common set of objectives and common set of plans to achieve them; 2) strengthening existing PREP programs and initiating UTAH PREP at two or three other institutions of higher education in Utah, each building a sustainable local support network; 3) developing a shared measurement system to assess the impact of UTAH PREP programs, adaptations, and mutually reinforcing activities on students, including those from groups that are underrepresented in STEM disciplines; and 4) initiating a backbone organization that will support future scaling of the program's impact.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Daniel HornsAndrew StoneVioleta Vasilevska
The Designing Our World (DOW) project centers on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) equity and addresses the need for more youth, especially girls, to pursue engineering and fill vital workforce gaps. DOW will integrate tested informal science education (ISE) programs and exhibits with current knowledge of engaging diverse youth through activities embedded in a social context. Led by teams of diverse community stakeholders and in partnership with several local girl-serving organizations, DOW will leverage existing exhibits, girls’ groups, and social media to impact girls’
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryAnne Sinkey
Genetics was developed by The Tech staff in collaboration with Stanford University and was funded by the National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program. The evaluation documents the impact and effectiveness of the exhibition using timing and tracking observations and exit interviews. It also examines the partnership between The Tech and Stanford University through interviews with graduate students, who conduct programs in the exhibition, and their supervisor (results are not included in this summary).
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi KornThe Tech Museum of Innovation
During 2007, the Exhibits Department conducted a summative evaluation of Wild About Otters to document visitors' interest in and their responses to this temporary exhibition. This study was conducted in three parts to examine visitors' behaviors and responses to aspects of the exhibition, including conservation content, emotional reactions and bilingual graphic panels. Research questions 1. How are visitors using the exhibition? Which exhibits are they attending to and for how long? 2. What did visitors think Wild About Otters was about? 3. What conservation content did visitors remember
In 2009, the Monterey Bay Aquarium began looking at new ways to interpret its Seafood Watch program. This nationwide conservation program strives to educate the public about the importance of buying sustainable seafood. As part of the program, the Aquarium publishes a printed pocket guide that lists the types of seafood consumers should buy and the types they should avoid. (For more information, visit www.seafoodwatch.org.) Over the years, several zoos, aquariums and museums that partner with the Aquarium have expressed interest in displaying an exhibit to encourage more of their visitors to
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a front-end evaluation to inform the reinstallation of the Ancient Latin America Hall. The study was conducted to examine visitors' experiences in the current exhibition, the nature of their connection with the objects on view, and their needs and preferences for interpretation. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 English-speaking and 20 Spanish-speaking visitor groups, using a quota sampling method. Visitors were intercepted as they exited the current Ancient Latin America Hall
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
The National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) at the Space Science Institute (SSI), in collaboration with the Colorado Clinical and Translational Studies Institute (CTSCI), and Colorado Area Health Education Centers (AHECs), requests support for Discover Health/Descubre la Salud (DH/DS). The bilingual (English/Spanish) project will include an interactive library exhibit supported by media and community education resources to engage underserved communities in learning about their cardiovascular and digestive systems, and how to keep them healthy. The project will target underserved communities, including rural and Latino communities, working through libraries and community institutions. The project will use a strategic combination of bilingual, interactive exhibits presented at libraries and community health fairs and festivals, career events, family nights, science camps, and mini-med schools, to engage students, families, and adults in these important health issues. Project PI Robert Russell, Senior Education Associate at NCIL, and NCIL Founder Co-PI Dusenbery, Founder of NCIL, will direct the project. Dr. Jack Westfall, who will direct the Community Engagement Core of CCTSI and also directs Colorado AHECS, he will direct their subaward. An outstanding advisory committee includes biomedical researchers, community health educators, librarians, and informal science educators. They will provide expertise on biomedical science content and help guide the project's implementation. Knight Williams, Inc., a highly experienced media and community evaluation firm, will conduct the full required project evaluation.
Overview of Clever Together/Juntos somos ingeniosos and Evaluation: As part of the National Science Foundation funded "Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Decision Making in Informal Education" project, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and its partners developed a bilingual (Spanish/English) exhibition. The goal of this and other project deliverables was to promote sustainable decision making by building skills that allow participants to weigh their choices and choose more sustainable practices. Clever Together/Juntos somos ingeniosos is a permanent, bilingual exhibition at
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryRenee B. Curtis
Overview of Sustainability
Events and Evaluation: As part of the National Science Foundation funded Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Decision Making in Informal Education project, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) project team designed and hosted seven events between September 2011 and July 2014. In line with the overall project goals: Participants will 1) capture the big idea, “We can cultivate a more sustainable community by building skills and making decisions that maximize positive impacts,” 2) practice skills necessary for making more sustainable choices that consider
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryRenee B. Curtis