The Orlando Science Center (OSC) in partnership with BASE Camp Children's Cancer Foundation and the University of Central Florida (UCF) will engage chronically ill children (cancer, sickle-cell, HIV/AIDS, etc.) and other Orlando area youth ages 10-18 who face the greatest educational disparities in NASA-themed Aeronautics, Space Exploration, and Space Science exhibits through a STEM engagement and educator professional development project entitled STEM Satellites: A Mobile Mathematics and Science Initiative for Orlando Metropolitan Area Children's Hospitals. OSC will partner with educational researchers, evaluators, and planetary scientists from the University of Central Florida to create three mobile exhibits for each of the three children's hospitals in the Orlando metropolitan area. Two additional sets of the three mobile carts will be used at OSC and UCF. The three mobile exhibits will be based on the planned NASA missions that the UCF planetary scientists are leading including a Mars-themed exhibit focusing on space exploration, an asteroid-themed exhibit, and an exhibit on microgravity. Each cart will include multiple STEM activities that incorporate NASA data and artifacts from prior NASA missions, UCF planetary science collections, and Kennedy Space Center. OSC will provide professional development and training to BASE Camp volunteers who will supervise the use of the mobile exhibits in the hospitals. These exhibits will provide authentic experiences that mirror current and planned NASA missions at a level that the children can understand. These hands-on and engaging exhibits will not only help motivate children to pursue STEM careers but will also help educate the general public about the exciting and important work that NASA carries out. Providing this level of engaging and authentic STEM activities through the mobile exhibits to this historically underrepresented population is unprecedented.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
JoAnn NewmanJosh ColwellBrandan LanmanMegan Nickels
Life on the Edge will be a 1,500-sq-ft traveling exhibition to engage museum guests with space, space exploration, and the search for life beyond our home planet through the lens of Earth's extremophiles. The exhibition will explore life forms in extreme, harsh environments on Earth, and how studying these creatures informs the search for extraterrestrial life and habitable environments within and beyond our solar system. This exhibition will provide open-ended challenges and hands-on activities that utilize NASA research and educational materials to inspire elementary-aged youth ages 5-11 and their families. Based in Ithaca, NY, Sciencenter will focus the tour on small, rural museums, including SpectrUM Discovery Area (Missoula, MT), Flathead Reservation (MT), Science Zone (Casper, WY), and Imagination Place Children's Museum (Gadsden, AL). Schools and other community partners of the host museums will be leveraged in presenting family science nights, field trips, and facilitated science programs. These activities will provide additional opportunities for learners to increase their knowledge of core STEM content and science-process skills related to astronomy and astrobiology. In this institutional engagement project, Sciencenter will partner with (1) Cornell University's Department of Astronomy throughout the 5-year grant period to develop the scientific content and to ensure that content remains current and relevant with up-to-date NASA research, and (2) the University of Montana's SpectrUM Discovery Area, who will serve as the STEM outreach hub for the region, including outreach with youth of the Flathead Reservation. The expected short-term outcomes for youth ages 5-11, after visiting Life on the Edge are (1) 75% of participants will have increased understanding of basic principles of astrobiology and astronomy, along with the breadth of NASA scientific research and missions, and (2) 50% of participants will have increased awareness of career possibilities in STEM, specifically astrobiology, astronomy, and related space sciences.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Michelle KortenaarAlexander HayesLisa KalteneggerHolly TruittAdrienne TestaCharlie Trautmann
Pacific Science Center (Science Center) has been a pillar of science education programming in Seattle, Washington since 1962. Through interactive exhibits, planetarium shows, IMAX movies and outreach, the Science Center works to inspire a lifelong interest in science, math and technology. In 2010, the Science Center joined forces with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through NASA Now: Using Current Data, Planetarium Technology and Youth Career Development to Connect People to the Universe. NASA Now was designed to increase the awareness, knowledge and understanding of
Prototype exhibits of "The Universe by the Powers of Ten" illustrated in three dimensions an exponential journey away from earth. The goal of the summative evaluation, implemented by Multimedia Research, was to assess the educational impact of the exhibits and accompanying interpretive techniques, for both non-school adult and teen samples and 6th grade school samples in the Maryland Science Center and the Montshire Museum of Science. Two interpretive conditions were compared - a printed handout and an explainer presentation. Further, the Montshire non-school sample experienced a third
The idea to link European citizenship and science education is surely new and uncommon in Poland, but we think, as SEDEC project, that can enrich both the panorama of science popularization outside and inside school system. I checked carefully curricula for every stage of school education looking for the topics concerning the developing of the European citizenship. I found that they are usually connected to the history, geography and some activities developing of the knowledge about generally defined citizenship. The spare topics connected directly to the science are present especially in
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. The third season of the national PBS series, SciGirls, is the first national children’s television series and website designed to engage and educate millions of children about citizen science. In each half-hour episode, a female mentor guides a group of ethnically diverse middle school girls as they learn about citizen science protocols and collect and share data for an established citizen science project. In addition to the videos, the SciGirls website presents
In 2011 the Bishop Museum and two collaborating organizations, University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UH) and the Pacific Voyaging Society (PVS), were awarded a multi-year grant from the Native Hawaiian Education Program (NHEP) to develop classroom and dockside curricula, an online resource center for educators, teacher workshops, a planetarium show, and a field-trip program for middle school students. The overall goal of these educational products and programs is to make STEM content accessible to Native Hawaiian students by presenting it through the lens of ancient Hawaiian navigational systems.
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.
Bathgate, Schunn, and Correnti investigate students’ motivation toward science across three dimensions: the context or setting, the way in which students interact with science materials or ideas, and the activity topic. Findings point to the importance of understanding children’s perceptions of specific science topics, not just science in general.
Flying Higher will develop a permanent hands-on exhibit that conveys the fundamentals of flight, technology, materials science, and NASA’s role in aeronautics for learners ages 3-12 years and their parents/caregivers and teachers. The exhibit, public programs, school and teacher programs, and teacher professional development will develop a pipeline of skilled workers to support community workforce needs and communicate NASA’s contributions to the nation and world. An innovative partnership with Claflin University (an historically black college) and Columbia College (a women’s liberal arts college) will provide undergraduate coursework in informal science education to support pre-service learning opportunities and paid employment for students seeking careers in education and/or STEM fields. The projects goals are:
1) To educate multi-generational family audiences about the principles and the future of aeronautics; provide hands-on, accessible, and immersive opportunities to explore state-of-the-art NASA technology; and demonstrate the cultural impact of flight in our global community.
2) To provide educational standards-based programming to teachers and students in grades K–8 on NASA-driven research topics, giving the students opportunities to explore these topics and gain exposure to science careers at NASA; and to offer teachers support in presenting STEM topics.
3) To create and implement a professional development program to engage pre-service teachers in presenting museum-based programs focused on aeronautics and engineering. This program will provide undergraduate degree credits, service learning, and paid employment to students that supports STEM instruction in the classroom, explores the benefits of informal science education, and encourages post-graduate opportunities in STEM fields.
Moving Beyond Earth Programming: “STEM in 30” Webcasts. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM) will develop nine “STEM in 30” webcasts which will be made available to teachers and students in grades 5-8 classrooms across the country. The primary goal of this program is to increase interest and engagement in STEM for students. Formative and summative evaluations will assess the outcomes for the program, which include the following:
Increased interest in STEM and STEM careers, Increased understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Increased awareness and importance of current and future human space exploration, and Increased learning in the content areas.
This series of live 30-minute webcasts from the National Air and Space Museum and partner sites focus on STEM subjects that integrate all four areas. The webcasts will feature NASA and NASM curators, scientists, and educators exploring STEM subjects using museum and NASA collections, galleries, and activities. During the 30-minute broadcasts, students will engage with museum experts through experiments and activities, ask the experts questions, and answer interactive poll questions. After the live broadcasts, NASM will also archive the webcasts in an interactive “STEM in 30” Gallery.
The purpose of the Lenses on the Sky project is to create diverse skywatching-related experiences for youth across Oregon with a special focus on underserved Hispanic, African American, Native American, and rural communities. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) will create and implement the project in collaboration with Portland’s Rose City Astronomers amateur astronomy club, Rosa Parks Elementary School in Portland, the Libraries of Eastern Oregon (LEO), and ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum in southern Oregon. The goals of the project are for participants to 1) understand the “big idea” that “humans have used observational tools and techniques across culture and time to understand space phenomena”, 2) recognize the relevance, value, and scientific achievements of NASA missions, and 3) be inspired to learn more about topics related to space science, STEM careers, and NASA. Audiences will explore these topics through three main “lenses” or frames: a NASA lens, a tools lens, and a cultural lens. The project will result in 1) a small, permanent, bilingual (Spanish/English) exhibition in OMSI’s free, public spaces adjacent to its planetarium, 2) three observational astronomy events held in Portland, Southern Oregon, and Eastern Oregon, 3) hands-on activities conducted at partner museums/libraries and shared with other educational institutions, 4) an Educator's Guide including lesson plans aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and 5) over 150 email communications to hundreds of recipients featuring space news updates.