This project will research and develop the Circuit, a mobile phone and web-based application that will empower families and the general public to discover the broad spectrum of informal Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) opportunities that exist in most communities. These informal STEM resources include science and children's museums, science and computer camps, maker spaces, afterschool programs, citizen science and much more. There is currently no "one-stop" searching for these resources. Instead, participants must conduct multiple, inefficient Internet searches to find the sought for STEM resources. The Circuit will enable users to efficiently search a rich informal STEM database, identifying resources by location, geography, age levels, science discipline, type of program and other factors. The Circuit builds on SciStarter, an existing online platform that connects thousands of prospective and active citizen scientists to citizen science projects. SciStarter has made possible the collection and organization of several thousand citizen science projects that would otherwise be scattered across the web. The Circuit will build on SciStarter's technical achievements in the citizen science sector, while systematically encompassing the offerings of established national networks. By integrating existing networks of informal STEM resources, the app will afford the public with unrivaled access to informal STEM opportunities, while collecting data that reveals patterns of engagement towards understanding factors of influence between different types of STEM experiences.
The app will provide researchers with new opportunities for researching how families and adults participate in the ecosystem of informal STEM resources in their communities. The Circuit will develop web tools to aggregate and organize digital content from trusted, currently siloed, informal STEM networks of content providers. These include science festivals, science and children's museums, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Discover Magazine (3 million readers), the largest general interest science publication. Each content partner will feed the app with information directly or through their membership and encourage adoption of The Circuit within their respective communities. The project will design digital tools, including APIs (application program interfaces) to acquire and share digital content, embeddable tools to record and analyze data about movement, engagement, and persistence across domains, and social media tools and related APIs to distribute, track, and analyze content, engagement and demographics. (An API is a code that allows two software programs to communicate with each other.) The project will conduct small-scale, proof-of-conduct studies, to test the viability of the platform to support future, independent full-scale research. An analytics dashboard will be designed and tested with partners, researchers, and evaluators to ensure access to data on patterns of visits, clicks, referrals, searches, "joins," bookmarks, shares, contributions, user-locations, persistence, and more, within and across domains. Because each partner will feed their analytics into the shared dashboard, this will provide unprecedented and much-needed data to advance research in informal STEM learning. The Circuit will allow the tracking of patterns of engagement across networks and programs. Anonymized analytics of behavioral data from end users of The Circuit will support new approaches to advance evidence-based understanding of connected informal STEM learning by exhibiting engagement patterns across informal STEM domains. Through volunteer participation by the public, the Circuit will explore the geographic and demographic patterns of participants in the system, and derive important design lessons for its own and future efforts to create curated systems of connected learning across STEM education in informal settings.
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.
Museums, science centers, zoos and other informal science education (ISE) institutions often focus on the idea of "authenticity" to engage the public. Authenticity includes providing something real, original, or even awe-inspiring to the visitor or learner--be it an object, a context, or an experience. While those educators, exhibit designers, and program developers who work in ISE settings often recognize authenticity as an important part of many informal learning experiences, this may be simply be an assumption driven by tradition in practice versus a strategy supported by evidence. This project seeks to better understand how and/or why "the real thing" may (or may not be) important for supporting informal science learning. By examining what is already known about authenticity and learning, the project will inform best practices in ISE as well as point to gaps in knowledge that might need further research. It 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 research synthesis takes a systematic approach to identify and compile both theoretical and empirical literature to better understand the role authenticity may play in supporting informal science learning. This project will gather ISE literature related to the effects of "authenticity" on learner outcomes, and will look to neighboring disciplines such as psychology, anthropology, media studies, linguistics, marketing and others to seek relevant theoretical perspectives and empirical work that might further understanding of the potential role of authenticity in ISE. The initial phase of the project will focus on gathering theoretical perspectives and positions that help explain the value or importance (or perhaps non-importance) of "realness" as it relates to learning, interest, and experience. A panel of experts from multiple disciplines will convene to help identify key perspectives and frameworks that may clarify the role or impacts of authenticity. A second phase focuses on gathering and assessing empirical studies that support (or refute) the relevant perspectives and theories identified from the initial multi-disciplinary foray into authenticity. To ensure breadth and depth of review, the PIs, research librarians, graduate students, and special topics classes will engage in identifying, evaluating, summarizing, and synthesizing the relevant research (including gray literature) to produce an initial synthesis report that will be reviewed by select experts from the earlier panel. A second convening of practitioners (exhibit developers, educators, program designers, etc.) will be used to further contextualize the findings in ways that may better inform current practices in providing effective ISE. The resulting products include a peer-reviewed research synthesis and a practitioner handbook.
The proposed project's Broader Impacts lie in the potential to inform ISE practice in exhibit and program design and in the delivery of ISE-related experiences. Although the importance of the authenticity of an object or experience may ultimately be determined by the individual, this study will be able to provide guidance to help practitioners and scholars in making sometimes difficult design choices. Such insights may also inform other learning environments (e.g. the classroom) as well as other disciplinary areas (e.g. history, anthropology, art).
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.
Familiarity with statistical and data literacy is important in many areas of modern life, but there is little research on how adults continue to build mathematical literacy beyond formal schooling. Mass media science news stories contain much data, assuming that adults will understand the content.This 4-year project will first map the landscape of adult statistical literacy in the US, particularly as it relates to news consumption. The second phase will build on results from the first phase through a longitudinal study. In the third phase, the project will develop a range of experiments to manipulate mathematical explainers embedded in STEM news stories and test techniques with adult audiences, with the goal of identifying the attributes and affordances that best improve confidence and competence in the underlying math principles and their meaning to news stories. in addition to the research, project components include 12 broadcast video and social media pieces each year that will form the basis for testing with audiences, a one-day symposium for professional science journalists, and a written best practice guide that summarizes key findings and implications for practitioners.
Critical research questions are: How do mathematical competence and confidence differ among different segments of the adult population? How can STEM journalists improve adult mathematical competence and confidence through their reporting techniques? Phase 1 of the research will be a landscape review of mathematical content in the news including a baseline study of adult statistical literacy. Phase 2 will be a longitudinal study with news audiences recruited to participate in a panel study. Phase 3 will be iterative testing of the digital content based on the findings from Phases 1 and 2 and will use both focus groups and online testing. External evaluation will be conducted by TERC including an evaluation of the symposium for professional journalists.
The broader impacts of this project are twofold: the science videos created will be broadcast and made available free to a national audience including those in rural areas; and the training of science journalists has the potential for multiple, long term impact by increasing their ability to communicate statistics meaningfully to their readers/viewers.
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.
This project aims to broaden participation in STEM education among underserved populations through innovative and inclusive approaches to technology education. The project is designed to enhance knowledge and comfort with technology and develop computational thinking among women who were formerly incarcerated and are now seeking to reenter the workforce or adjust to their lives outside the criminal justice system ("women in transition") in the Midwest. While women have become the fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population, prison education and reentry programs are not well prepared to respond to this influx. Women in transition are rarely exposed to STEM education and they are generally isolated from the digital world while in prison. Consequently, they face post-incarceration challenges in accessing and using rapidly changing digital technologies. Against this backdrop, this three-year technology education project will aim to help women in transition in Kansas and Missouri develop STEM skills relevant to job applications and post-incarceration adjustments. The project may serve as a template for building evidence-based workforce preparation efforts in informal settings, and the concurrent online peer networking and app development may also facilitate adaptation for and scaling to other regions and other similarly digitally disadvantaged populations. This project is funded by the 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.
The project design is informed by the research team's past experiences offering technology education to women in transition and other underserved populations in the Midwest. The design includes three interrelated aspects: (1) technology education, (2) web/mobile app development, and (3) original empirical research. The research team will offer hybrid (online and offline) technology training programs to 300 women in transition in Kansas and Missouri. Learners will attend weekly face-to-face technology classes at different levels (introductory, intermediate, and advanced) at public libraries. A member-only online site and an accompanying mobile application for online tutorials and virtual meet-ups will enhance exposure to different types of technologies. Starting with interest-based technology topics including online resume building, information verification, and identity protection, the team will introduce women to deeper STEM topics including elementary coding skills and computational thinking. Empirical research will examine how different modalities of offering technology education are associated with learning outcomes for women participating in the program and the association of increasing knowledge and skills in digital technologies with self-efficacy, perceived social support, employment, and reduced recidivism.
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:
Hyunjin SeoHannah BrittonMegha RamaswamyBaek-Young ChoiSejun Song
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
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 program will derive knowledge on extreme weather and its concepts to be shared with youth in the Boston and Kansas City areas. Subsequently, the youth will share this knowledge by displaying it as art work on the rapid transit systems. The art projects will culminate in broad-based exhibition at the end of each group's sessions. The project will involve 200 youth per region resulting in an impact of 1000 youth per year, 80 adult mentors and 20,000 adult transportation riders in learning about extreme weather concepts. Participant organizations are the University of Mass-Boston, University of Mass-Lowell, The Massachusetts College of Art, the University of Kansas Center for Research Inc., and the Goodman Research Group Inc.
The goals of this project are to bring the topic of extreme weather to the foreground by educating youth and in turn having them educate a selected group of adults that use the rapid transit system. Groups of youths will learn about the topic through a series of meetings with mentors who are experts on the issues around extreme weather. The youth will derive their own art-works with their interpretation. These art-works will be displayed on the rapid transit systems in New England (Merrimack Valley and Worcester regions) and the Mid-West (Topeka and Kansas City areas). Using a quasi-experimental mixed methodology (demographics, bus ridership, initial level of science awareness, and interest) the goal is to understand science learning outcomes associated with the creation and public display of youth art. Research questions of importance in this regard are 1. In what ways does blending art with the science enhance youth learning about extreme weather concepts? 2. To what extent does youth art support adult learning of science? and 3. How does regional context affect learning about extreme weather?
Broader impacts will result from the youth diversity as well as the diversity of riders of the rapid transit systems where the art of extreme weather is displayed.
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:
Robert ChenLois HetlandJill LohmeierStephen MisholSteven SchrockClaudia Bode
Cultivating Confidence: Young Women's Self-Efficacy in Science Museums is an NLG Diversity and Inclusion research project that studies the impact of a single science museum visit on "emerging adult" learners (young adults aged 18-29, not yet married, no children). Cultivating Confidence builds directly on prior IMLS-funded research that found that a science museum visit mitigated a pre-existing gender gap in science self-efficacy: Young women entered the museum with significantly lower science self-efficacy (confidence to do or learn science) than men, experienced a significant increase over the course of the visit, and remained at that same level, equal to men's, three months after the visit. Cultivating Confidence will replicate and investigate this effect further by observing male and female young adults during their visit and over the course of the following three months. The study will attempt to understand how museum visits help young women build crucially important science self-confidence. What happens during the visit and how does that affect young women's subsequent behavior and beliefs? The study will also attempt to untangle the confound between gender and initial science self-efficacy (SSE), since the women in the prior study tended to have lower pre-visit SSE than men.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program 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 Research in Service to Practice project examines how informal place-based collaborative learning can support local communities' planning processes related to current environmental changes. As a part of this study workshops will be conducted in 8 communities that have a range of planning mandates based on recent extreme environmental changes such as drought/wildfires, flooding, invasive species, or loss of native wildlife. Place-based adaptation workshops will be designed to be locally relevant and empower people to learn and act on their newly acquired understandings. Local community collective actions may include a range of decisions (e.g., infrastructure changes such as building defenses against sea level rise in coastal communities or improving the quality of roads to withstand higher temperatures.) Collective action may also lead to community wide behavioral changes such as individuals using less water or farmers planting different crops. The study will focus on the efficacy of the methods used in 8 workshops in communities throughout the country. Research objectives include: 1) identifying experts' belief about the most critical components of successful workshops; 2) Understanding of prior workshop outcomes and 3) test hypothesized effective practices and understand how learning takes place and collective action does or does not take place. The project addresses key AISL solicitation priorities including strategic impact on the field of informal STEM learning, advancing collaboration, and building professional capacity. It engages both public and professional audiences as described in the solicitation. Public audiences include stakeholders in each of the 8 communities such as community environmental groups, NGOs, businesses, landowners, and local government planners. Professional audiences include the workshop scientists and facilitators who will be trained in the experimental workshop approach. The project builds upon and expands the existing AISL portfolio of science communication projects such as science cafes, science festivals, science media, and library based projects. This is a collaborative project of EcoAdapt and Virginia Tech with participants from the National Parks Conservation Association, the Desert Research Institute, and the Wildlife Conservation Society and others. The research will progress through two phases. Phase 1 is designed to identify consensus-based effective practices for promoting learning and action in adaptation workshops. It includes a Delphi study to synthesize beliefs about effective practices held by experienced workshop facilitators across the United States. Phase 2 includes iterative design and research of eight adaptation workshops in various communities with a range of planning mandates and recent extreme weather experience. By iteratively revising the workshop design, the study will elucidate how different workshop components influence participant learning, individual behavioral intentions, and subsequent efforts toward collective action. The overall research design will examine the relationships of pedagogical and collaborative techniques to learner outcomes and collective action. Many of these lessons are likely relevant to other collaborative informal science learning contexts. 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.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program 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 Innovations in Development project will research and produce science media based on the role that interest, motivations, identify, and values play in engaging diverse, millennial audiences in a dynamic media environment. Using a design-based research approach the project team will develop Millennial Science Media Engagement Profiles (a set of categories describing different audience types who engage with science media in different ways). It will design and test science media content (text, audio, graphics, video), placement and platform use for millennials; and make conclusions around science media storytelling and outreach tactics that spark interest and engagement, the precursors to learning. Broader impacts include contributing significant new knowledge about millennials interest and engagement in science while they are at a stage in life making critical career decisions. It will also provide a model for other science media producers providing new protocols for creating targeted digital media for this specific audience. And further impacts include reaching a large national audience through social media. The project is a collaboration between KQED and researchers at Texas Tech.
The research will focus on the distinctive experience and interest of "millennial" science consumers. It builds on a previously funded national survey and series of focus groups with millennials looking at their science media preferences versus other generations. With these survey results this project will build profiles of millennial audiences based on two factors: level of science curiosity and level of science media engagement. The researchers will use a previously validated Science Curiosity Scale. The Millennial Profiles will be validated in two ways: through performance-based survey questions and through internet audience behavior analysis using existing digital analysis tools. KQED will produce different science media content and send it to certain groups conducting A/B testing to validate profiles online. The profile assumptions will continue to be tested until the team can effectively predict the kinds of science content that different profile groups prefer. The research will use a study protocol used in other domains to bridge the gap between lab and real-world settings. The protocol involves four steps: initial hypothesis development; ante experimental simulation; real-world communication; and ex post experimental simulations. Following the profile validation, the protocol will be used to test the efficacy of new KQED Science content, testing the variables that contribute to millennial engagement.
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.
Northern ecosystems are rapidly changing; so too are the learning and information needs of Arctic and sub-Arctic communities who depend on these ecosystems for wild harvested foods. Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) presents a possible method to increase flow of scientific and local knowledge, enhance STEM-based problem solving skills, and co-create new knowledge about phenology at local and regional or larger scales. However, there remain some key challenges that the field of PPSR research must address to achieve this goal. The proposed research will make substantial contributions to two of these issues by: 1) advancing theory on the interactions between PPSR and resilience in social-ecological systems, and 2) advancing our understanding of strategies to increase the engagement of youth and adults historically underrepresented in STEM, including Alaska Native and indigenous youth and their families who play an essential role in the sustainability of environmental monitoring in the high latitudes and rural locations throughout the globe. In particular, our project results will assist practitioners in choosing and investing in design elements of PPSR projects to better navigate the trade-offs between large-scale scientific outcomes and local cultural relevance. The data collected across the citizen science network will also advance scientific knowledge on the effects of phenological changes on berry availability to people and other animals.
The Arctic Harvest research goals are to 1) critically examine the relationship between PPSR learning outcomes in informal science environments and attributes of social-ecological resilience and 2) assess the impact of two program design elements (level of support and interaction with mentors and scientists, and an innovative story-based delivery method) on the engagement of underserved audiences. In partnership with afterschool clubs in urban and rural Alaska, we will assess the impact of participation in Winterberry, a new PPSR project that investigates the effect of changes in the timing of the seasons on subsistence berry resources. We propose to investigate individual and community-level learning outcomes expected to influence the ability for communities to adapt to climate change impacts, including attributes of engagement, higher-order thinking skills, and their influence on the level of civic action and interest in berry resource stewardship by the youth groups. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, we compare these outcomes with the same citizen science program delivered through two alternate methods: 1) a highly supported delivery method with increased in-person interaction with program mentors and scientists, and 2) an innovative method that weaves in storytelling based on elder experiences, youth observations, and citizen science data at all stages of the program learning cycle. This project 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. The project also has support from the Office of Polar Programs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Katie SpellmanElena SparrowChrista MulderDeb Jones
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. The project will conduct research designed to deepen our fundamental knowledge about culture, experience, and ecosystems cognition and to develop innovative practices and approaches to support learning about changing ecological systems and environmental decision making. Work on cultural differences in the production of complex systems knowledge is severely lacking. This gap in knowledge may contribute to the continued reproduction of inequities in science education. More broadly findings from this project will have clear implications for theories of cognitive development, especially those pertaining to how knowledge is shaped by culture and experience. Focusing on ecosystems may represent an opportunity to not only increase engagement and achievement in science among non-dominant communities and Native youth specifically, but also advance effective learning for all communities. The primary deliverables for the project are conference presentations and research publications. However, the project will also develop additional resources freely available to researchers, educators, and the general public. These will include summer curricular materials and teaching tools, professional development workshops, practitioner briefs about research findings that can be used in professional development workshops and shared share more broadly, and evaluation reports.
A deeper understanding of cultural influences on conceptions of the natural world can serve to advance the educational needs of children, including children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Project research will include two interrelated series of studies designed to expand knowledge about human cognition of complex ecosystems and the affordances of informal STEM learning environments in developing and supporting the critical 21st century skill of ecological systems level reasoning. The first consists of a series of experiments focused on ecological cognition and the role of humans in nature. The second consists of design-based research interventions in informal settings, summer workshops for youth and the communities, focused on ecological systems level thinking and socio-environmental decision making. The project will recruit and engage both child and adult participants from two broad cultural communities, Native Americans and European Americans living in urban and suburban communities, in part because it affords a sharp test of human-nature relations. Sampling from two different urban communities will avoid simple Native-non-Native comparative binaries and to conduct Native-to-Native comparative analysis. Based on results from this, the project will result in: 1) foundational knowledge about human learning and reasoning and ecosystems and environmental decision making, 2) culturally responsive models of learning and practice about complex ecosystems for indoors and outdoors informal learning environments, and 3) insights about research-practice-community partnerships. One important objective of the research is to broaden participation and close opportunity gaps for under-represented groups in STEM fields broadly and more specifically for Indigenous people. Members of Indigenous communities, who provide strong role models for other aspiring scholars, will be involved as postdoctoral fellows, research assistants and graduate fellows.