In this paper, we describe our approach to designing electronic puppet-building workshops for middle to early high school students. Power Puppet uses traditional puppet building materials - paper and cloth as the main resources, together with simple circuits elements such as LED’s, batteries and magnets. We document our process of designing puppet-building workshops that include STEM education criteria. We collaborated with the Center for Puppetry Arts to design these workshops in such a way that part of the making will include basic electronic input and output components. We aim to open this
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 exploratory Pilot study project brings together a diverse set of partners that include the Watertown Children's Theatre (WCT) which is west of Boston, and, from Boston College a team of science educators, learning science researchers, and positive youth development experts. The goal is to design and develop a project for middle school-aged youth. The pilot project, which integrates hands-on science learning experiences, experiments, and field trips with the student-led production of short plays, will engage youth in expressing their beliefs, passions, and their own identities about STEM by examining how the intersection of skills and practices used in both domains (science and theatre) can enable them to learn about science concepts, principles and methods as well as to develop science-focused identities. Middle-school youth will be engaged in a three-week summer program where they will be led by science teachers, playwrights, and high school students to conduct hands-on investigations in science in conjunction with developing original, ten-minute plays around a specific scientific theme relevant to their life experience, for example, the potential impact on their lives of heavy metals in water and poor air quality. After a science theme is chosen, the principal investigators will identify the big ideas that are important for youth to understand and be able to explain. Upon identification of the key science ideas, youth will then engage in pertinent science activities, visits to local sites, reading current news articles and then in identifying the local impacts and how the underlying science relates to those local impacts. The youth will perform their ten-minute plays at the end of the summer program. Following this showcase event, they will engage in additional science learning experiences and also revise their productions throughout the academic year in preparation for a youth science festival, where their creations will be performed by professional adult actors as a part of the Cambridge Science Festival taking place in the spring. The broader impact of the work focuses on broadening participation in STEM, specifically, the engagement of youth from under-represented populations in the sciences, such as African-Americans, Latinxs, and women with partner Boston Public Schools. The Pilot study will investigate the student learning and organizational dimensions of the model being developed.
The Boston College researchers will study youth's sense of purpose and identity toward science, particularly how youth's identity discrepancy changes through participation in the project. The work places youth voice at the center of the creation of STEM-based theatre plays. The theoretical foundation of the work is grounded in part in the concept of "path to purpose." The major research questions are: How do youth perceptions (interest, science anxiety, identity) toward science shift as they participate in the project? What is the residual impact on parents (family members) and youth on their discussions about science, and how does participation in the project impact those discussions? Research methods include surveys, interviews and observations. The external evaluation study will focus on understanding project implementation and progress toward meeting the project goals, in particular, how well the initiative works to establish a model for the informal STEM learning field that the team and others can apply beyond the Pilot study.
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 innovative research project promotes the progress of science, enhances the national STEM workforce, and benefits society by helping to overcome the challenge of broadening participation of those who are underrepresented in STEM fields. Although many programs designed to broaden participation exist, few individuals in "STEM-disenfranchised" populations -- individuals who feel alienated, marginalized, or incapable of participating in STEM -- choose to make use of these opportunities, due mainly to their own self-identities. This project's focus is on three STEM-disenfranchised groups: 1) adults who have been recently released from incarceration; 2) youth who have been released from juvenile custody; and 3) refugee youth, and builds on existing science education programs. The research team will establish the "Alliance to Strengthen the STEM Tapestry (ASSiST)" -- with members from academia, workforce agencies, NGOs, and government agencies -- to explore how individuals who have an identity prematurely tied to failure in science might benefit from novel interventions that promote a shift of self-identity to becoming science learners, which will then lead them to explore STEM education and job training resources that already exist. Three novel interventions will involve drama activities, story- telling, and ecological restoration projects. This bold approach is designed to help these populations interweave their diverse ways of knowing with STEM workforce, higher education, and to become science-aware citizens, which will enhance U.S. leadership in STEM. ASSisT will create a strategic plan that can be interwoven with those of other NSF INCLUDES Alliances, and identify pathways to distribute outcomes to a national level. This work will provide pathways to bring other groups that are disenfranchised and who -- if motivated and directed -- could strengthen the STEM workforce and education tapestry.
Investments to broaden participation in science in the USA have supported abundant programs and resources, but few individual in "STEM-disenfranchised" populations -- individuals who feel alienated, marginalized, or incapable of participating in STEM -- choose to make use of these opportunities, due most significantly to their own self-identities. The proposed "Alliance to Strengthen the STEM Tapestry (ASSisT)" will carry out research on novel interventions that are designed to lead these individuals to avail themselves of the science education and training resources that already exist. The initial focus is on: 1) adults who have been recently released from incarceration; 2) youth who have been released from juvenile custody; and 3) refugee youth. Using a collective impact approach, ASSisT will carry out early-exploratory research to investigate how the project's novel interventions -- 1) ecological restoration, 2) story-telling/autoethnography, and 3) devised theater -- might shift participants towards self-identification and subsequent involvement with the STEM community. The Intellectual Merit of our approach is grounded in social science research, specifically, identity theory, social cognitive theory, and resilience theory. Using a one-group pretest-posttest design, qualitative research techniques will identify which elements are most critical to foster change, e.g., perceived competence in STEM subjects, congruence of self-perception with those in STEM, mastery of STEM workforce skills, and/or the importance of being a STEM-aware citizen. Broader impacts relate directly to NSF's call for greater STEM participation of women and underrepresented ethnic and socioeconomic minorities with impacts on the initial 30 cohort members for this pilot project. ASSisT will: create a common agenda; recruit cohorts of each STEM-disenfranchised group; design and implement research to test novel interventions; populate a STEM opportunities map; evaluate and analyze outcomes; articulate a strategic plan that can be interwoven with those of other NSF INCLUDES Alliances; and identify pathways to disseminate outcomes and benchmarks to a national level.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Nalini NadkarniJordan GertonDiane PatakiSydney Cheek-O'DonnellRussell Isabella
A survey we carried out in upper secondary schools showed that the majority of the students consider physics as an important resource, yet as essentially connected to technology in strict terms, and not contributing “culture”, being too difficult a subject. Its appreciation tends to fade as their education progresses through the grades. The search for physics communication methods to increase interest and motivation among students prompted the Department of Physics at the University of Milan to establish the Laboratory of ScienzATeatro (SAT) in 2004. Up to May 2010, SAT staged three shows and
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Marina CarpinetiMichela CavinatoMarco GilibertiNicola LudwigLaura Perini
Science Museum of Minnesota will create three live theater productions highlighting current laboratory and field research studies of science issues with strong topical relevance to families with school-age children, school groups, and adult lifelong learners. Shows will align with the appropriate grade levels of the Minnesota Science Education Standards in three age levels: early elementary (grades 1–3), upper elementary and middle school (grades 4–8), and high school students and adult learners. The shows will be performed in daily rotation at the museum to entertain, inform, and challenge visitors to reflect on current science issues. Theater staff will disseminate the shows through various national conferences, websites, and professional associations, enabling colleagues nationwide to download the scripts free of charge and present topical science issues at their own museums.
The Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) and Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG) will collaborate on a CRPA project designed to develop a dance-based performance to educate deaf and hard of hearing students on astrophysics concepts. This project seeks to address the following goals: 1) provide all audience members with access to scientific information in an inherently engaging and stimulating manner; 2) facilitate the acquisition of scientific knowledge in all audience members, including deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, with special reference to general information and basic concepts from the fields of gravitational physics and astrophysics; and 3) stimulate general interest in STEM fields within all audience members. An extensive team of physicists, arts faculty, computer scientists, performance experts, and evaluators have assembled to translate original research on gravity-based astrophysics, including collision events between black-holes and neutron-stars, entire galaxies, and the central black-hole engine that powers active galactic nuclei, into novel educational presentations. The original science to be presented was generated in part by the scientists at the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation. Project deliverables include live performances and a project website with educational materials and a virtual tour of the recorded performance. The live performances will include dance and computer generated visualizations of space phenomena, supplemented with discussion and interactive components to engage audiences both before and after the presentation. The mixed-method evaluation will provide insights into how the medium of dance can be used to engage audiences in STEM fields and increase the understanding of STEM content areas which have had little previous investigation, but may be highly relevant to the engagement of underserved audiences. Performances are planned for select sites in New York, Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania and Maryland. It is estimated that the project will directly impact 7,000 individuals, approximately half of whom will be deaf or hard or hearing. Deaf and hard of hearing populations are greatly underserved in science education. This project is an effort to bridge that gap by providing creative models for communicating to the public on contemporary science concepts. Learning outcomes for the target audience include increasing awareness and interest in STEM, acquisition of information and basic concepts from the fields of gravitational physics and astrophysics, and enhancing awareness of relationships among science and the arts. Project activities will be disseminated through the website hosted by the Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. The project will also be promoted through science festivals and media events.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Manuela CampanelliHans-Peter BischofJacob Noel-Storr
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC. Madison Area Technical College, in collaboration with the Institute for Chemical Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the American Chemical Society (ACS) and area science centers and museums will create a national program to disseminate the Fusion Science Theater (FST) model which directly engages children in playful, participatory, and inquiry-based science learning of chemistry and physics topics.
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting. It describes the radio and stage storytelling programs undertaken by the Center for Chemical Evolution, a CCI jointly funded by NSF and NASA.
The article discusses the research which showed that the usage of drama in the classroom by the educators can promote a deeper learning in the variety of verbal fields. Drama has been considered as an effective tool to improve the accomplishment in story understanding, reading achievement, reading preparedness and writing. The result has demonstrated that the drama helps the children to master the texts they enact and to practice the new materials that are not yet enacted. The study has showed that drama instruction can serve as a creative and effective instrument for learning that exceeds
Small Matters is a scientific storytelling project in response to a supplemental funding opportunity designed to pair an NSF Center for Chemical Innovation with an Informal Science Education organization. Meisa Salaita, Director for Education & Outreach for the Center for Chemical Evolution, and Ari Daniel, independent radio and multimedia producer and science journalist, collaborated on this project designed to increase chemical literacy in the general public and promote partnerships between scientists and informal science educators. In the tradition of folklore, educators have used storytelling to stimulate students’ critical thinking skills across and within disciplines, demonstrating an improvement in comprehension and logical thinking, enhancing memory, and creating a motivation and enthusiasm for learning. Within science, storytelling allows learners to experience the how of scientific inquiry, including the intellectual and human struggles of the scientists who are making discoveries. Accordingly, our project uses multimedia and live performance to engage the public in learning about chemistry through storytelling. We have developed a series audio pieces entitled Small Matters aimed at enriching public science literacy, namely within the chemical sciences. The format of these pieces includes standard public radio narrative style, short scientist-narrated nuggets, and imaginative sonic explorations of key chemistry concepts. The stories have been disseminated through a variety of broadcast media connections, including "Living on Earth" and local Atlanta public radio station WABE. In addition to the audio-based science journalism pieces that we have been producing, we have taken the stories we uncovered and brought them to live audiences, integrating chemistry, journalism, and the arts to create a human connection between our scientists and the public. The radio pieces were woven in with performances of poetry, comedy and satire in collaboration with literary performing arts group The Encyclopedia Show to create a live variety show (May 2013). In addition, scientists identified through our production of Small Matters were trained in storytelling techniques and brought together for an evening of live storytelling in Atlanta with The Story Collider (March 2014).
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
NSF/NASA Center for Chemical EvolutionMeisa Salaita
The Great Immensity is a play with music created by the New York-based theater company, The Civilians. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), this production explores humans' relationship to the environment focusing on critical issues of conservation and climate change. It premiered at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre (KC Rep) from February 17 through March 18, 2012. This summative evaluation employs the Framework for Evaluating Impacts of Informal Science Education Projects (Friedman 2008) to assess the play and its ancillary programs' impact on adult and student audiences
Bio Med Tech: Engineering for Your Health was a 2,750 square foot exhibition at the Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) that dealt with issues related to biomedical technology. Partially funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Awards program (NIH/SEPA), the project was developed through a partnership between GLSC and Case Western Reserve University. The SEPA grant also funded a variety of programming activities, including informal Exploration Cart activities in the exhibition, presentations in the exhibition's theater space, and teacher training