This project continues the work of "Tinkering EU: Contemporary Education for Innovators of Tomorrow" that introduced Tinkering methodology in Europe. It also builds upon the work of "Tinkering EU: Building Science Capital for ALL" that explored Tinkering and Science Capital with a specific focus on teachers and students from disadvantaged communities. "Tinkering EU: Addressing the Adults" focusses on fostering the socio-educational and personal development of adults.
Tinkering, inspired by the USA-based experience of the Exploratorium of San Francisco, is proven to be a powerful tool that contributes to the improvement of key competences and skills, and connects science knowledge and skills with the requirements of the contemporary labour market.
The project aims to foster the socio-educational and personal development of adults, as well as their participation in civic and social life, focusing on the following priorities:
Stronger science engagement
Need for 21st Century skills
Low science capital
Coordinator: NEMO Science Museum - The Netherlands
Partners:
National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci – Italy
University of Cambridge – UK
Science Center Network – Austria
Traces – France
Centrum Nauki Kopernik – Poland
Tinkering is an approach to learning increasingly adopted within informal learning settings to engage people with STEM learning (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). It builds on ideas in inquiry-based pedagogy and exploits some of the most engaging and motivational elements of learner-centered, immersive and hands-on learning approaches to develop 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, problem solving, communication, responsibility, self-confidence, digital literacy and entrepreneurship. In a Tinkering activity, the learner is presented with
While prior research has explored the reasons adults seek learning opportunities, little is known about the factors that moderate older adults' desire to participate in particular learning experiences. This study will contribute to understanding strategies that engage older adults in STEM learning in informal settings. The specific informal STEM Learning (ISL) experience to be studied here involves the innovative use of a carefully structured multigenerational team engineering design challenge that incorporates the engineering design process, recognized as integrative approach to STEM. The project will develop and pilot new tools to measure the impacts of the ISL experience on older adults. The work will ultimately generate new knowledge that supports general measurement practices through the rigorous, systematic development of measures of older adult learning.
During the 18-month pilot study, the team will: (a) develop and test methods for measuring engagement in informal STEM learning and STEM advocacy in adults 50+ years of age; and (b) explore factors that lead to the engagement of this population in ISL and that moderate the outcome of enhanced STEM advocacy. For research purposes, engagement is being defined as focus, participation, and persistence on a task. STEM advocacy is defined as a stance toward personal actions that supports or promotes a cause or policy. The study design includes use of an intergenerational team engineering design challenge involving 48 older adults as the focal ISL activity of the research. Findings from this pilot study will inform a future large-scale study of ISL environments, including specific instructional practices and resulting outcomes, for older adult learning. Defining the construct of STEM advocacy and examining its validity as a potentially measurable outcome will better position the field to design and evaluate more effective older adult learning experiences.
Project results will be disseminated widely through the literature on ISL, adult education and research tool development, as well as existing practitioner networks. The project's connection with networks of lifelong learning institutes creates additional infrastructure opportunities for ISL experiences, including the broader use of intergenerational learning methods and informal STEM design challenges. This Pilot & Feasibility study 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, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
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 Research in Service to Practice project, a collaboration of Pepperdine University and the New York Hall of Science, will establish a network of STEM-related Media Making Clubs comprised of after-school students aged 12 - 19 and teachers in the U.S. and in three other countries: Kenya, Namibia and Finland. The media produced by the students may include a range of formats such as videos, short subject films, games, computer programs and specialized applications like interactive books. The content of the media produced by the students will focus on the illustration and teaching of STEM topics, where the shared media is intended to help other students become enthused about and learn the science. This proposal builds on the principal investigator's previous work on localized media clubs by now creating an international network in which after-school students and teachers will collaborate at a distance with other clubs. The central research questions for the project pertain to three themes at the intersection of learning, culture and collaboration: the impact of participatory teaching, virtual networks, and intercultural, global competence. The research will combine qualitative, cross-cultural and big data methods. Critical to the innovation of the project, the research team will also develop a network assessment tool, adapting epistemic network analysis methods to the needs of this initiative. This work 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.
DATE:
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Eric HamiltonKatherine McMillanPriya Mohabir