Lobato, Rhodehamel, and Hohensee investigated how learners “transferred” knowledge from one situation to another. They found that both individual cognition and the social organization of the class drove the learners’ process of selecting, interpreting, and working with particular features of mathematical information. They also found the social arrangements of the class influenced what pieces of information students noticed and focused on.
This study examined the validity of the Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST), which is commonly used to capture students’ perceptions of scientists. Findings suggest that the DAST is not valid as a sole measurement. The originally identified stereotypical traits are no longer widely held by students.
To support learning across settings, educators need to develop ways to elicit student interests and prior experiences. McClain and Zimmerman describe how, during outdoor walks at a nature center, families talked about prior experiences with nature, which were mostly from non-school settings. They used the prior experiences to remind, prompt, explain to, and orient one another during shared meaning-making activity.
Adams, Gupta, and Cotumaccio examine the STEM interest and identity development of a small group of young women of color who participated in a multi-year, museum-based, out-of-school time program as middle and high school students. Through their positive experiences in the program, participants developed positive STEM identities, which supported their persistence as STEM college majors.
Technology has dramatically changed learning opportunities in planetaria. In this paper, Plummer and Small examine planetarium professionals’ goals for their audiences and their pedagogical choices. The findings indicate that planetarium professionals place a high value on teaching interactively to achieve their primary goal of increased science interest and learning.
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) make important strides to address equity in science education. However, lessons from past reform efforts should encourage us to pause to ask if they do enough. Rodriguez provides a three-pronged critique of the K–12 Framework and NGSS and suggests steps to make issues of equity more central moving forward
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The new standards posit that “scientific argumentation,” in which students use data to argue from evidence, is a key practice for student science learning. However, a mismatch in expectations about the purpose of classroom discussions can inhibit productive forms of argumentation. Berland and Hammer compare forms of class discussions to identify how best to support students’ engagement in argumentation.
In order to reframe how learning is organized in traditionally male-dominated areas of STEM education, the authors show how collaborative girl-boy pairs engaged with an “e-textiles” making activity. E-textiles are circuit activities combining needles, fabric, and conductive thread, challenging traditional gender practices related to both sewing and electronics.
This paper investigates how intentionally designed features of an out-of-school time program, Studio STEM, influenced middle school youths’ engagement in their learning. The authors took a connected learning approach, using new media to support peer interaction and engagement with an engineering design challenge in an open and flexible learning environment.