The National Science Festival Network project, also operating as the Science Festival Alliance, is designed to create a sustainable national network of science festivals that engages all facets of the general public in science learning. Science Festivals, clearly distinct from "science fairs", are community-wide activities engaging professional scientists and informal and K-12 educators targeting underrepresented segments of local communities historically underserved by formal or informal STEM educational activities. The initiative builds on previous work in other parts of the world (e.g. Europe, Australasia) and on recent efforts in the U.S. to create science festivals. The target audiences are families, children and youth ages 5-18, adults, professional scientists and educators in K-12 and informal science institutions, and underserved and underrepresented communities. Project partners include the MIT Museum in Cambridge, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, and the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The deliverables include annual science festivals in these four cities supported by year-round related activities for K-12 and informal audiences, a partnership network, a web portal, and two national conferences. Ten science festivals will be convened in total over the 3 years of the project, each reaching 15,000 to 60,000 participants per year. STEM content includes earth and space science, oceanography, biological/biomedical science, bioinformatics, and computer, behavioral, aeronautical, nanotechnology, environmental, and nuclear science. An independent evaluator will systematically assess audience participation and perceptions, level/types of science interest stimulated in target groups, growth of partnering support at individual sites, and increasing interactions between ISE and formal K-12 education. A variety of qualitative and quantitative assessments will be designed and utilized. The project has the potential to transform public communication and understanding of science and increase the numbers of youth interested in pursuing science.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Loren ThompsonJeremy BabendureBen Wiehe
This project is being developed for science journalists to increase and improve the reporting of the science of polar environmental change. It is modeled after the existing science journalism program run by the Marine Biological Laboratory since 1986. This project will enable 30 science journalists to travel to the Arctic and ten journalists to Antarctica over three years to study and experience polar research in an intensive, hands-on manner. The program has 3 components: a week long Polar Hands-On course at the Toolik Field Station in Alaska in which the journalists conduct science; a one-week period in which journalists will be teamed to work with polar research scientists; and travel for journalists to travel to Palmer Station in Antarctica to spend two weeks participating in Antarctic research. Journalists will submit regular dispatches about their work in the form of a Polar Science Blog and will produce stories about their experience.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Christopher NeillBruce PetersonJohn HobbieGaius ShaverHugh Ducklow
"Have You Spotted Me? Learning Lessons by Looking for Ladybugs" is an innovative citizen science project that targets children from Native American, rural, farming, and disadvantaged communities. While most citizen science efforts target teens and adults, this project enables youth ages 5-11 to contribute to the development of a major ladybug database. Adult mentors in youth programs introduce children to topics such as ladybugs, invasive species, biodiversity, and conservation. Youth not affiliated with a program may participate independently. Project deliverables include a self-contained education program, an Internet portal and project website, a dedicated corps of volunteers, and the largest, accessible biological database ever developed. The database is made more reliable by utilizing records accompanied by an identifiable data image as a certified data point. Partners include the NY State 4-H, South Dakota State 4-H, Migrant Worker Children's Education Program, Cayuga Nature Center, Seneca Nation Department of Education Summer Programs, Seneca Nation Early Childhood Learner Centers After School Program, and the Onondaga Nation After School Program. Strategic impact will be realized through the creation of a citizen science project that provides hands-on interactions, field experiences, and accessible data that creates unique learning opportunities for youth. It is estimated that nearly 10,000 youth will be impacted by this work.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
John LoseyLeslie AlleeLouis HeslerMichael CatanguiJohn Pickering
Stroud Water Research Center (SWRC) will partner with Longwood Gardens (LG) to develop educational materials that help visitors understand the links between the hydrologic and carbon cycles. The goal is to demonstrate how landscape aesthetics can influence land-use decisions, and to offer carbon-neutral methods the public and others can employ to reduce the impact of storm runoff. The intended audience is primarily adults among the 800,000 annual visitors to the Gardens who are landowners as well as professionals such as engineers, regional planners, landscape architects, developers and municipal officials. This project will also communicate research to public audiences through SWRC and LG websites.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Louis KaplanJ. Denis NewboldSusan GillAnthony Aufdenkampe
Exploring the Euteleost Tree of Life represents the education and outreach of the Euteleost Tree of Life assembling the tree of life research grant (NSF DEB Grant No. 0732819; PI: Ed Wiley) it includes a curriculum activity and a interactive fish tree. Investigating a Deep Sea Mystery, a curriculum module for high school and undergraduate students follows the research of project collaborator Dave Johnson (Smithsonian Institution) to explore deep sea fish phylogeny. The module includes an investigation of What is a fish?, fish anatomy and morphology, and how different lines of evidence (morphological and molecular) can be used to study evolutionary relationships. A fisheye view of the tree of life is a web module featuring an interactive fish tree of life highlight with a series of mini-stories Web material is still in the early stages of development, and will include a splash page with a simplified clickable fish tree through which the different.
The investigators will collect data on a broad range of informal science education activities of an existing sample of approximately 3,500 adults across the U.S. It will relate these activities to prior forms of science involvement and to various indicators of lifelong STEM learning. The proposed work is an extension of the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY), a study funded by NSF since 1986 and still ongoing. Prior work has tracked two national cohorts of students who were originally representative of public middle and high schools, focusing on their science and mathematics course enrollment, content, achievement, and career choices, and informed by data from their parents and teachers. The project team has maintained very high levels of continued participation by the approximately 5,000 students, now aged 34-38, many of whom have families of their own. The project will extend the planned surveys for 2009 and 2010 to examine how these adults use informal science education resources such as museums, libraries, books, magazines, newspapers, television, and the Internet. The project will provide baseline data on informal science education resource use in the Internet era for a large and diverse sample. It will allow investigation of the relationships of current informal science learning behaviors, both individual and intergenerational, to prior learning variables such as school science achievement, parental involvement, college experience, career choice, and prior use of informal learning resources while respondents were school-aged.
The goal of this project is to extend the impact of the nationally broadcast weekly radio program, Science Friday to a new, young audience through the various new cyber-space platforms and interactive tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Second Life as well as new emerging social networking tools. The STEM content over the course of the two year project will include a wide variety of topics in all disciplines. The relationship between art and science will also be a focus. The NPR radio broadcasts currently reach 1.3 million listeners every week, and that audience is expected to increase. In addition to that audience, this project will target a new audience of adults under the age of 35 using various cyber platforms and new social networking tools such as Second Life, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Audiences will also be reached through remote broadcasts from science centers and art centers around the country. Over 30 science centers will use this project's web content on their own web sites, reaching their audiences as well. The web content will be translated into Spanish and widely disseminated to Hispanic audiences. Each Friday afternoon, Ira Flatow, the PI will produce and host the nationally broadcast Science Friday radio program interviewing scientists and engineers in a lively engaging format. In addition, the Science Friday digital media team will be producing and inviting others to create and post digital content and commentary on the Science Friday web site for further dissemination through Second Life, Facebook, as well as other emerging networking platforms. The evaluation will use a quasi-experimental design to study the appeal of both the radio broadcasts and the cyber-platforms with both older and younger audiences. Proposed audience impacts include increased STEM knowledge, interest, and behaviors. Partner organizations include the Self Reliance Foundation, the New York Hall of Science, LA Theatreworks, and Tribeca Film Festival.
The University of Minnesota is partnering with several nature centers in the Midwest to transform citizen "technicians" into citizen "scientists." The Driven to Discover project will use existing citizen science programs with strong educational components to engage 12-14 year old youth and their adult mentors in authentic research. The goal of the project is to develop a training model for adults who work with youth in a variety of informal education settings to involve them in authentic scientific inquiry via citizen science rather than just data collection activities. In the proof-of-concept phase, teams consisting of 4-H youth, adult leaders, and several scientists are conducting participatory action research to understand what factors lead youth to full engagement in ecological research. In phase two, project personnel are training 4-H educators, naturalists, and teachers how to engage youth and their adult leaders in other 4-H programs and other informal education programs to conduct ecological research with scientists in advisory roles. Phase one involves approximately 10 adults and 70 youth, whereas phase two involves approximately 40 adults and 300 youth. A front-end study defined the project's target audiences and partners. Formative evaluation study will monitor interactions among members of the research teams and summative evaluation will measure impacts on participants' knowledge, skills development, attitudes, and behavior. Project deliverables include youth-generated ecological research findings, web-based program implementation materials, an annual conference, and a model for engaging youth groups in informal settings in authentic scientific inquiry. The model is expected to impact more than six million youth nationwide.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Karen OberhauserNathan MeyerAndrea Lorek StraussPamela NippoltKatie ClarkRobert Blair
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The University of Minnesota and the University of Florida are collaborating on the creation of a Master Naturalist Program for adults that will serve as a model for nationnwide dissemination. This program, which builds on the existing Florida Master Naturalist Program, will provide intensive 40-hour training sessions in ecology, natural/cultural history and the environment for volunteers in Minnesota. Participants will then complete 40 hours of supervised volunteer service at local natural history centers while volunteers in both Florida and Minnesota will have the option of participating in advanced training workshops. Staff members at informal science education institutions and natural history centers take part in train-the-trainer workshops to assist with dissemination. Deliverables include three training modules (Big Woods, Big Rivers; Prairies and Potholes; North Woods, Great Lakes), advanced training workshops, local Master Naturalist Chapters, annual conferences, training materials and workshops for Master Naturalist Instructors, and a project website. It is anticipated that this project will result in the implementation of 64 Master Naturalist workshops, directly reaching 1,280 volunteers, while 750 participants are anticipated for advanced training workshops. It is estimated that 130 staff will participate as Master Naturalist Instructors. Indirect impacts will be realized as volunteers contribute more than 51,000 hours in service to nature centers and informal science institutions interacting with public audiences while conducting natural history activities. Strategic impact will be realized in the outcomes of the comprehensive evaluation plan that will assess immediate and longitudinal impacts on public and professional audiences.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert BlairMartin MainAmy RagerKaren Oberhauser
TERC is partnering with the Toxics Action Center to enhance the capacity of environmental organizations to teach mathematical literacy skills to low-income citizens, mostly women of color. Secondary collaborators include four environmental organizations around the country. The project is (1) developing math- and statistics-rich educational materials that help non-scientists interpret environmental test results, (2) developing training materials that help environmental organization personnel provide quantitative literacy training to citizens, (3) helping environmental organizations institutionalize project resources, and (4) evaluating the impact of project activities on environmental organizers, community members, and the general public. Project deliverables include bilingual, print- and web-based instructional materials (including videos) for environmental organizations to use with staff and community members; training sessions to create a cadre of environmental organization leaders who can conduct environment-focused, math training workshops; a communications toolkit for dissemination to journalists who cover environmental issues; and a resource-rich project web site.
Hopa Mountain, in collaboration with Blackfeet Community College, One Step Further, and Ogala Lakota College, will develop "Native Science Field Centers (NSFC)" to provide year-round informal science education for youth ages 8-18 and adults. Informal science education professionals are also served through the publications and materials designed to support programs targeting Native communities. The "NSFCs" will be located on the Blackfeet, Fort Belknap, and Pine Ridge reservations. The centers will develop "TribalWatch" environmental science programs that will be disseminated to six other tribes in the Missouri River Watershed. The "Tribalwatch" programs create a STEM career ladder for youth and adults to develop scientific expertise, knowledge of monitoring and an understanding of management of local lands. New technologies will be created for the evaluation of Native science programs that incorporate indigenous evaluation methodologies. Key partners include the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), the Field Museum of Natural History and the Science Museum of Minnesota. Deliverables include "Native Science Field Centers, ""TribalWatch" programs and a "TribalWatch" toolkit and training plan. Strategic impact will be realized through capacity building within Native communities, research and documentation of programming practices and dissemination of the toolkit and publications to informal science education professionals, 32 tribal colleges and other educational organizations that serve Native communities. It is anticipated that this project will reach 100,000 Native and non-Native youth, adults and informal science education practitioners in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bonnie Sachatello-SawyerHelen AugareMichael Fredenberg
Girl Scouts of Western Washington and Seattle University have collaborated to develop an innovative model for science learning in youth programs. By embedding training and support on science inquiry facilitation directly into existing Girl Scout systems, the project is empowering volunteers to effectively facilitate inquiry science explorations with youth. We are engaging a new audience in the delivery of informal science education: volunteers, predominantly adult women and mothers, in community settings beyond typical science environments. New volunteers participate in science inquiry at Girl Scout recruiting events and in their ongoing support meetings, and also receive training through a project-developed curriculum adapted from the NSF-funded Fundamentals of Inquiry. These classes engage volunteers (who may not be science content specialists) in direct experiences with inquiry, and teach them specific skills to help youth plan, carry out, and synthesize learning from inquiry investigations. Science inquiry processes are seamlessly integrated into broader lessons about implementing Girl Scout programming, thus positioning scientific inquiry as a normal, expected part of Girl Scouting. This sustainable, replicable model enables community youth programs to build volunteers' skills to support inquiry, while at the same time increasing the organizational capacity to sustain quality science programming. Three Girl Scout councils are currently replicating the project, and their experiences will inform the final designs of the curriculum and supporting documentation. The project's mixed-methods evaluation is being conducted by Evaluation & Research Associates.