We used a youth focused wild berry monitoring program that spanned urban and rural Alaska to test this method across diverse age levels and learning settings.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Katie SpellmanDouglas CostChristine Villano
In this study, we examined how two different CCS models, a contributory design and a co-created design, influenced science self-efficacy and science interest among youth CCS participants.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Sarah ClementKatie SpellmanLaura OxtobyKelly KealyKarin BodonyElena SparrowChristopher Arp
The Arctic Harvest-Public Participation in Scientific Research (which encompasses the Winterberry Citizen Science program), a four-year citizen science project looking at the effect of climate change on berry availability to consumers has made measurable progress advancing our understanding of key performance indicators of highly effective citizen science programs.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Angela LarsonKelly KealyMakaela Dickerson
The goal of this evaluation was to determine how museum visitors responded to the museum's existing live animal exhibits and identify recommendations for their new Live Animal Garden exhibit.
This is a compilation of front-end, formative, and a partial summative evaluations, and an exploratory study using the xMacroscope, a data visualization technology developed for generating data from an exhibit using data captured from visitor actions.
National Foundation for the Blind (NFB) Engineering Quotient (EQ) for Teachers is a free, online curriculum and collection of resources for educators who want to teach NFB EQ, the National Federation of the Blind’s week-long engineering program designed for blind and low-vision youth.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Natalie ShaheenWade GoodridgeSarah LopezPeter AndersonAnn CunninghamDavid Nietfeld
The Montshire Museum of Science in partnership with The Family Place will facilitate the program “Families Learning Together: Strengthening a Local System of Support for STEM Learning” for young parents and their children. Informed by a pilot partnership, the program will provide families with hands-on math and science instruction and informal learning opportunities. Programming for young parents ages 15 to 25 will develop their relevant academic knowledge and core life skills to prepare them for parenthood and the workplace. Participating families will receive free admission to accessible exhibits and programming.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Katherine Price
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley, will launch the Learning Technology Studio project to improve the ability of its staff to create digital technology tools and experiences that help youth, families, and adults learn about STEM topics. The museum will design and implement a professional learning program for staff from multiple departments to build their understanding of best and innovative practices for using digital technology to support STEM learning. The program will empower a subset of staff will to collaboratively design, test, and revise technology experiences using simulations, digital media, and AR that can elevate visitor engagement and enhance learning. The museum will create an institution-wide Learning Technology Framework that captures the findings and resources developed through the project to guide long-term professional learning and collaboration in digital technology design and integration.
The Maryland Science Center (MSC), in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), and Morgan State University (MSU), has sought the support of the National Institutes of Health SEPA (Science Education Partnership Award) Program to develop "Cellular Universe: The Promise of Stem Cells," a unique exhibition and update center with related programs that highlight the most current science in cell biology and stem cell research. Visitor surveys have shown that science museum visitors are very interested in learning about stem cell research, but know little about the science of stem cells or cell biology, which form the basis of stem cell research. The goal of this project is to help visitors learn about advances in cell biology and stem cells so that they will make informed health-related decisions, explore new career options, and better understand the role of basic and clinical research in health advances that affect people's lives. Topics to be covered include the basic biology of cells, the role of stem cells in human development, current stem cell research and the clinical research process. This exhibition will also address the controversies in stem cell research. Our varied advisory panel, including cell biologists, physiologists, adult and embryonic stem cell researchers and bioethicists, will ensure the objectivity of all content. "Cellular Universe: The Promise of Stem Cells" will be a 3,500 square-foot exhibition to be planned, designed and prototyped in Fall 2006-Winter 2009, and installed in MSC's second-floor human body exhibition hall in Spring 2009. This exhibition will build on the successful model of "BodyLink," our innovative health science update center funded by a 2000 SEPA grant (R25RR015602) and supported by partnerships with JHU and UMB.
Makerspaces are learning environments that engage participants in authentic science and engineering practices, using hands-on and collaborative approaches to support activities and projects that foster creativity, interest, and skill development. Recently there has been a rapid growth of makerspaces in schools and in informal places like museums, libraries, and community centers. However, many of these spaces are not accessible to all members of society. This project will produce a model for a STEM makerspace that focuses on increasing access. The model has four critical components that operate together: affordable housing, informal STEM learning, maker education, and multi-generational learning. This project will develop and study the community-based, multigenerational makerspace model for Bayview Towers, a 200-unit affordable housing complex in Connecticut. The Multi-Gen STEM Makerspaces project brings together CAST, a non-profit education research organization, the NHP Foundation/Operation Pathways, a national affordable housing provider, and the Boston University Social Learning Lab, which researches the social context for STEM learning. The project will produce a Multi-Gen Maker Playbook comprised of an educational guide for a series of four-week workshops around different themes and modes of making. The Playbook will also serve as a program model that guides similar communities on how to create and run sustainable and thriving maker programs of their own. Families in the Bayview Towers community will build an understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts through participation in an onsite makerspace. Families will relate what they are doing through making to longer-term goals connected to STEM learning, education, and careers. The project will also enable the engagement of individuals in the co-design (individuals provide creative contributions) of making that can be translated into community structures and values that support a sustainable makerspace. The affordable housing context will provide understanding of individual and other social factors that impact learners' sense of STEM identity. The project will support mobility from poverty by including STEM learning as part of the resident services.
The research will examine how low income communities access, engage, and learn in makerspaces, and relate their learning to relevant goals. The team will use design-based research (DBR) whereby participants and researchers work together to design interventions intended to explore theory through cycles of enactment, analysis, and revision. The DBR research will answer the following questions:
In what ways, if any, does the model support residents experiencing STEM learning as consequential?
What kind of making goals do residents set and how do they embed STEM in these goals?
If residents experience STEM learning as consequential through the workshops, do they also see the relationship between their making goals and longer term goals?
Do those residents that use the makerspace more frequently experience more positive outcomes in terms of consequential STEM learning?
How do the various makerspace structures - training of facilitators, dedicated space and equipment, Playbook - support the model?
Are groups of residents participating regularly in the makerspace and if so, who is in these groups? Do these groups start to identify as a maker community? Is the community finding the makerspace of value?
In what ways does the organization and operations of the makerspace support building a sustainable model for multigenerational and consequential learning?
Participants will include 90 youth and 90 adults from the resident community at Bayview Towers. Research data to be collected includes open-ended response measures for scoring residents' interpretation, analysis and understanding of each workshop elements. Also, interview protocols will be used to guide the refinement of the Multi-Gen Maker Playbook features and analyze usability, feasibility, engagement and user experience of the Multi-Gen Maker Playbook within the platform. The program will use semi-structured interview protocols on participants' goals and STEM identity and focus group protocols on community maker values and makerspace structures. Additionally, a Likert-style survey on STEM identity will also be adapted from the Science Identity Scale. Project evaluation will examine the overall achievement of program goals and objectives. Project results will be communicated by traditional means of dissemination to scholars and practitioners. The team will also create targeted digital media, including online articles, podcast interviews, and blog posts, to reach a broader audience.
This Innovations in Development award is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which 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.
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.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Sam Catherine JohnstonKathleen CorriveauJess GropenKim DucharmeKenneth White