The Franklin Institute (TFI) engaged Insight Evaluation Services (IES) to conduct a review of TFI museum/community partnership programs from 1993 through 2014 for the purpose of identifying "lessons learned", that is the successes and challenges of working together to achieve a common goal. IES reviewed over 40 research studies and evaluation reports for fourteen programs in which TFI was a partner in a long-term collaborative relationship with one or more community-based organizations, informal learning organizations, and/or other education-oriented public service institutions, including: The
This project will study two emerging and innovative technologies: interactive, dynamic simulations and touch-based tablet devices. The use of touch-based tablet technology (e.g., iPads) in the classroom is rapidly increasing, though little research has been done to understand effective implementation for learning science. Interactive simulations are now in use across K-16 levels of education, though what impact tablet devices have on the effective implementation of science simulations is not yet known. This project will explore this new frontier in education, over a range of contexts, providing new insight into effective interactive simulation design, classroom facilitation techniques, and the effects of tablet-based simulation use on underrepresented populations in STEM courses. Together, Dr. Emily Moore (PhET, UCB), a leader in interactive simulation design and classroom use, and Dr. Roy Tasker of the University of Western Sydney (UWS), a leader in chemistry education research, science visualizations, and teaching with technology, will research on the new technology frontier in science education - laying the groundwork for future investigations of foundational questions in technology use for learning science. This work has great potential to transform the future of science learning, making it both more engaging and more effective for diverse populations. The research findings will immediately impact 1) the design of new and existing PhET simulations - reaching millions of students and teachers using PhET simulations worldwide - and 2) the development of best practices guidelines for teachers using tablet technology to increase student learning, engagement, and participation in STEM disciplines.
This REAL project arises from the 2013 solicitation on Data-intensive Research to Improve Teaching and Learning. The intention of that effort is to bring together researchers from across disciplines to foster novel, transformative, multidisciplinary approaches to using the data in large education-related data sets to create actionable knowledge for improving STEM teaching and learning environments in the medium term and to revolutionize learning in the longer term. This project addresses the issue of how to represent and communicate data to young people so that they can track their learning and weaknesses and take advantage of what they learn through that tracking. The project team aims to address this challenge by giving young people (middle schoolers) the tools and support to create, manipulate, analyze, and share representations of their own understanding, capabilities, and participation within the Scratch environment. Scratch is a programming language and online community in which youngsters (mostly middle schoolers) engage in programming together, sometimes to make scientific models and sometimes to express themselves artistically using sophisticated computer algorithms. Scratch community participants are often interested in keeping track of what they are learning, so this population is a good one for exploring ways of helping young people make sense of data that records their participation and learning. The team will extend the Scratch programming language with facilities for manipulating, analyzing, and representing such data, and Scratch participants will be challenged to make sense of their learning and participation data and helped to use the new facilities to do write programs to carry out such interpretation. Scratch participants will become visualizers of their participation patterns and learning trajectories; research will address how such data explorations influence their learning trajectories. Scratch and its community are the place for the proposed investigations, but what is learned will apply far more broadly to construction of tools for allowing learners to understand their participation and learning across a broad range of environments. This project addresses the sixth challenge in the program solicitation: how can information extracted from large datasets be represented and communicated to maximize its usefulness in real-time educational stings, and what delivery mechanisms are right for that? The PIs go right to the learners; rather than looking for delivery mechanisms for communicating the data representations, they give young people tools and support to create manipulate, analyze, and share those representations, bringing together approaches to quantitative evidence-based learning analytics with the constructionist tradition of learning through design experiences. In addition to helping us learn about how to help youngsters analyze data about their perforance and self-assess, the PIs expect that their endeavor will help us better learn how to help young people become data analyzers, an important part of computational thinking. Learners will, in the process of engaging with data representing their development and participation, interact with visualizations, model and troubleshoot data sets, and search for patterns in large data sets. In addition, the tools being developed as part of this project will be applicable for analysis of other types of data sets. The results that will transfer beyond Scratch and the Scratch community, are (1) the kinds of tools that make such analysis possible for youngsters, (2) the kinds of challenges that will get youngsters interested in doing such analyses, (3) the kinds of data youngsters can handle, and (4) the kinds of scaffolding and coaching youngsters need to make sense of that data.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Benjamin Mako HillMitchel ResnickNatalie Rusk
This Cyberlearning Integration and Deployment (INDP) project brings together an interdisciplinary research team from the MIT Media Lab, the Digital Media and Learning Hub at University of California Irvine, and Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society to explore development and use of new types of online tools, activities, and gatherings to engage more young people in developing computational fluency, particularly youth from groups currently underrepresented in computing. The project builds on the success of the NSF-funded Scratch programming language and online community (http://scratch.mit.edu), where more than 1.5 million young people have created interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations based on their interests. The Coding for All project aims to provide new pathways into Scratch for youth from populations that are not currently drawn in easily to technological and scientific discourse and activities. The PIs are designing and refining a variety of interest-based microworlds -- introductory programming environments that are customized to particular interests of youngsters in those populations -- to provide easier and more inviting entry points for getting started with coding, and they aim to develop guidelines for designing microworlds that are simple enough not to be overwhelming, engaging enough to draw youngsters in, rich enough to allow creative expression, and tuned well enough to the interests and prior knowledge of new participants to foster curiosity and learning. In addition, the team is exploring how to use personnel in libraries and other spaces where low-income youth congregate to support initial introduction to and engagement with these microworlds and developing and refining tools to support interest-based on-line hangouts and unconferences, where young people who become engaged through these microworlds can meet peers and mentors to share ideas, form collaborations, and increase their programming and expressive capabilities. The PIs are collecting much data about the engagement and participation of youngsters, the development of their skills and understanding, and the development of their interests, and their analysis will contribute to deeper understanding of needed supports, pathways, and outcomes related to computational fluency. This project addresses the need to draw in and promote learning among those in populations not served well by current educational practices and important national priorities in workforce development, equity, and the need for a technologically fluent public. The project's tools and activities will provide alternative pathways into coding, increasing opportunities for young people in non-dominant communities to develop computational fluency. The focus on public libraries explores how to use public educational institutions most geared towards serving the technology needs and diverse interests of non-dominant communities in taking advantage of new online learning opportunities. The findings from this research will inform researchers and practitioners concerned with STEM-related learning, online educational resources, equity in education, and cyberlaw.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Mizuko ItoMitchel ResnickNatalie RuskUrs Gasser
Although studies in a variety of settings suggest that participant reactions to the research context can threaten the validity and generalizability of study findings, there have been almost no investigations of participant reactivity in museums. In this experimental study, the authors compared the behaviors and learning outcomes of visitors at two versions of an interactive mathematics exhibit who had either been actively recruited by a data collector or passively recruited using posted signage. They assessed the amount of time visitors spent at the exhibit, the number of mathematical exhibit
This workshop convened a group of thought leaders from across the nation, sectors, and academic disciplines on June 3, 2015 at the National Science Foundation for one day of brainstorming and prioritizing of ideas, strategies (such as collective impact), and actions that could be aggressively pursued by the NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners that have been Underrepresented for Diversity in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) initiative.
This project develops an interdisciplinary and transformative in- and out of-school science education and technology program that engages high school aged youth and their teachers in 1) the production of food using hydroponics, and 2) the use of green energy technologies (solar, and wind) to power hydroponic systems. This distinctive program integrates food production, a novel model of parental outreach, a focus on green career development, and an authentic reason (growing their own produce for selling at a market) for learning how and why to use alternative energy technologies. The project creates an approach to sustainability in which students not only give back to their community, but are in a position to provide a continuous revenue stream to the school in order to operate their indoor urban garden indefinitely. The partnership with the Boston Youth Environmental Network provides youth opportunities for summer internships with green energy companies. The project builds upon a learning progressions model in which youth gradually learn about complex scientific systems and economic principles throughout their years in the program. Rather than a onetime experience, youth are engaged in a long-term experience building their knowledge and skills regarding science, economics, and college preparedness. This project has the potential to impact thousands of students informally and over 2000 students (in classrooms) directly with a minimum of 60 students receiving focused and in depth learning experiences during the summer and on weekends during the school year. With the passage of laws encouraging local schools to partner with local farms, the need for locally grown produce will increase; in that context, the program brings the farm to the school in a way that allows food to be grown year round. Thus, a model is developed that any school or informal learning center could adopt to grow their own food while simultaneously creating a living and learning laboratory for youth in their own program.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
George BarnettEric StraussDavid BlusteinCatherine WongElizabeth Bagnani
This report, prepared by Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) presents evaluation findings for the final year of the Environmental Exhibit Collaborative (EEC)—made up of the EcoTarium, The Discovery Museum (TDM), ECHO, and the Children’s Museum and Theater of Maine (CMTM). Evaluation in the final year was comprised of periodic journal entries by individual participants, environmental scans completed by each institution, and a Learning Circle facilitated by Randi Korn & Associates. Journal entries reflect a select number of participants’ responses to specific aspects of the EEC, like workshops
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.Betsy Loring
The four New England museums of the Environmental Exhibit Lab (EEC) set out in the Fall of 2011 to create a replicable model of collaborative professional development for small museums. The project, Exhibit Lab (sometimes called “EEC 2”), was funded by a 3-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services [2011 21st Century Museum Professionals Program; IMLS Log Number: MP-00-11-0049-11]. At small institutions, impending deadlines, budget and staffing limitations, and professional isolation all too often get in the way of true innovation. The goal of Exhibit Lab was to help staff
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Betsy LoringAlexander GoldowskyDenise LeBlancJulie SilvermanLucia StancioffChris Sullivan