The National Girls Collaborative Project and Education Development Center are convening “Advancing the Conversation on Scaling National Informal STEM Programs,” a two-and-a-half day knowledge-building conference that brings together key stakeholders in informal STEM education (ISE) to examine what scale looks like across informal learning settings. Currently, there is not a common definition or set of dimensions related to what it means to scale programs in informal learning settings. Approaches to scale in ISE too often center on the perspectives and needs of people who are developing and spreading programs while less consideration is given to the realities of those responsible for operationalizing programs in hyper-local contexts. This conference approaches the question of scale from the perspective of the program implementers, who are the beneficiaries of capacity building and serve as facilitators of these scaled programs. The conference also gives voice to program developers, researchers, evaluators, and funders of national informal STEM programs who study and support scale in education. The aim of the conference is to develop a new framework for scale in ISE that centers partnership and capacity building of informal educators. Such an approach to scale addresses issues of local access and diversity, equity, and inclusion, and promotes sustainability of ISE in high-need communities.
Conference discussions challenge three common misperceptions of scale across ISE: (1) simple spread and replication of turnkey programs lead to effective scale in ISE; (2) definitions of scale derived from formal learning settings should be used to scale across ISE; and (3) scale across ISE should be defined by program developers and those that seek to study it. Participants with a wide range of perspectives and who represent a diversity of organizational types will attend the conference and work together to articulate scaling success factors, barriers, diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, and intended outcomes, distilling themes, questions, and concerns about current approaches to evaluating and researching scale in ISE. Together, conference participants will co-create a framework for scale in ISE which will define new and expanded dimensions of scale that center on capacity building and diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as a Program Developer’s Guide for scaling ISE programs through the lens of the framework. These products will increase the knowledge and capacity of informal learning organizations involved in nationally scaled initiatives, STEM-rich institutions wanting to scale their own locally developed programs, informal STEM researchers and evaluators, and the broader field of ISE including program funders. Conference findings will be broadly disseminated through publications, conferences, and a national webinar co-hosted by the National Girls Collaborative Project and Education Development Center.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Tara CoxErin Stafford
resourceevaluationProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Inverness Research and Oregon State University, with support and input from CAISE, conducted an evaluation of the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting which was held virtually October 19-21, 2021. The evaluation effort included observing the meeting, participating in debriefing the meeting with CAISE co-PIs, the CAISE equity audit committee, and NSF Program Officers; developing and administering a post-event survey; and analyzing data collected through both the survey and Pathable, the virtual platform.
This report summarizes the key evaluation findings. It includes the following sections:
This project will host a workshop in order to identify and synthesize research findings from NSF awards that addressed the unanticipated effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on STEM teaching and learning. The interruptions from the pandemic had dramatic, widespread effects in education. Across the nation, teachers, students, parents, staff, and school administrators experienced extended school closures and a rapid and unexpected shift to virtual instruction. Although long-term consequences are unknown, early observations revealed deeper disparities in access and opportunity for many students of color. These inequities extend beyond STEM education and include challenges to student’s mental health and wellbeing. In spring 2020, NSF invited researchers to submit educational research proposals in response to this national crisis. Each award has its own dissemination and plans for broader impacts, yet the public is underserved by separate reports published in many different venues. To enable stakeholders to find and discern the most important insights, our research team will aggregate and organize major findings across these projects via a workshop, synthesize key findings, identify unresolved issues, and communicate overall insights to broader audiences.
To synthesize findings, Digital Promise will organize and convene a workshop with NSF awardees who conducted research on the educational impacts of the pandemic. Workshop attendees will participate in answering four questions: (1) What are the major themes and topics across the different NSF awards? (2) How were imperatives to address emerging inequities related to STEM education addressed in research plans and findings? (3) Within each topic or theme, what are the major findings, insights and recommendations for teaching and learning in STEM? (4) Across awardees, what was learned about doing RAPID research during a pandemic, and what are recommendations for improvement when subsequent needs for RAPID research in education arise? Data sources for the synthesis will be collected from project artifacts (e.g., reports, journal articles, practitioner resources, etc.), pre/post-workshop surveys, and workshop outputs from workshop presentations, panel discussions, and small group discussions. Interviews with a subset of workshop attendees will provide insight into what was learned about conducting research during a global pandemic. Data will be codified, categorized, and coded using established qualitative methods. Digital Promise’s broad network of partners and collaborators will achieve broad dissemination and outreach to education stakeholders at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels. This project is jointly funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, the Discovery Research PreK-12 program (DRK-12) program, the EHR Core Research (ECR:Core) program, and the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program.
The Researching Invention Education white paper compiles contributions from a community of individuals and organizations working in Invention Education (IvE) in the United States. IvE is a term that refers to the practice of teaching students how to problem-solve and think like inventors in order to become positive change-makers in the world. The paper was written by researchers interested in IvE who attended the 2018 InventEd convening hosted by The Lemelson Foundation. The group worked together for a year to publish their findings that were then uncovered at the 2019 InventEd convening in
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Audra SkukauskaiteStephanie CouchLeslie Flynn
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The National Science Teachers Association will convene a conference that will bring together STEM researchers and practitioners to review the growing connected science learning movement. A connected science learning environment has been described as a robust science ecology containing a wide variety of programs, across a range of institutions and places, allowing youth different and multiple ways to engage with STEM. Such environments can include small partnerships, such as a science museum and K-12 schools, or a large, community-wide network of a variety of organizations such as K-12 schools, museums, universities, government agencies, and community organizations. The conference will bring together over forty participants, who will meet in a series of several online meetings. The conference will result in a series of papers, articles in the online Connected Science Learning journal and other publications, a series of webinars and online forums where participants can engage with themes identified in the conference, and conference presentations at the annual meetings of organizations including the National Science Teachers Association, the Association of Science-Technology Centers, and others. This award is funded by the Advanced Informal STEM Learning program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.
The conference will: (1) document the research foundation that supports and demonstrates the impact and value of high-quality connected science learning experiences; (2) identify areas for which future research is recommended; and (3) provide effective, practitioner-focused resources that advance connected STEM learning. The conference will include participants that represent a wide range of researchers and practitioners in informal and formal STEM education, as well as representing gender, racial/ethnic and geographical diversity. The results and products of the conference will be instrumental in developing the understanding and appreciation for connecting STEM learning and ultimately improving connected STEM learning for K-12 youth. The importance of emphasizing diversity, equity, and accessibility will be strongly represented in the key evidence identified through the conference and will be reflected in the resources that will be disseminated to a broader audience.
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.
In 2017, the Education Development Center (EDC) received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to bring together PIs of STEM Program Resource Centers (PRC) funded under NSF’s Education and Human Resources (EHR), evaluators of NSF STEM projects and programs, and evaluation advisors to address concerns about the quality and consistency of STEM evaluations. According to the grant proposal, the goal was “to increase the capacity of evaluators to produce high quality, conceptually sound, methodologically appropriate evaluations of NSF programs and projects, specifically in the area of
The Rural Informal STEM Conference (RISC), sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and held at its headquarters on September 13–14, 2018, was the first of its kind to bring together key innovators and experts in rural STEM learning outside of school. People who live in rural settings are a frequently overlooked and significantly under-represented STEM audience, who number roughly 60 million Americans.
The conference addressed questions about the overall status of informal (out of school) STEM learning in rural places, including the following: How do we define rural places? What
The 60 million people who live in rural settings are often overlooked as a significantly underrepresented STEM audience. In Sept 2018, a small invited conference brought together innovators and experts in rural STEM learning outside of school, to share lessons learned and plan next steps.
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. A frequently overlooked but significantly under-represented STEM audience is people who live in rural settings. The proposed conference is the first of its kind to bring together key innovators and experts in rural Informal STEM education, to address this question: How can we build on recent innovations to create more effective and scalable pathways for informal STEM learning in rural communities?
The conference will focus primarily on advancing informal STEM education for rural youth, but will also include some participants who cross boundaries, to situate the work in an ecosystem perspective: informal-formal education, childhood-adult education, rural ecosystems and economic drivers for STEM related jobs. The provisional list of topics will be refined through a pre-conference survey of participants, and will be followed with a report that includes survey responses, conference discussion, and final recommendations by participants. The conference will be held in Washington D.C. to enable policymakers to attend.
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.
Scientists (and engineers) wishing to conduct public engagement do so in the context of established disciplinary norms and complex institutional systems that may support or limit their success. This report seeks to convey the known complexity, unique challenges, and opportunities for universities to better support for scientists in their public engagement work. The report is intended to drive discussion towards deeper exploration and development of actionable next steps.
This is the executive summary of report from Workshop III: Academic Institutions, part of the Support Systems for
Leading science educators from 9 South and Southeastern Asian countries and the U.S. met for three days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (October 4-6, 2017) in an effort to rethink and re-envision science education in the 21st Century. The attendees of this U.S. National Science Foundation-funded international conference reaffirmed the G8-Science Academies Joint Statement (2011) that education in science must be targeted not only to future scientists, engineers and other specialists in government and industry, but also to the general public, including school-aged children and adults. The attendees at
This is a list of participants who attended the Support Systems for Scientists' Communication and Engagement Workshop IV: Science Engagement Facilitators. This workshop was held on May 2 and 3, 2018 at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA.