Expanding on the encouraging outcomes of an NSF-funded conference, this three-year project led by the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences, will explore and evaluate ways to support new collaborations between professionals in institutions of higher education and informal STEM education around areas of common interest. The primary goal is to develop the educational infrastructure to grow and efficiently sustain multiple cross-organizational partnership activities at the intersection of learning about science, society and civic engagement around such possible topics as energy, environment, genetics, earth resources, computers and ethics, nanotechnology, etc. The initiative is: 1) creating a joint organizing "secretariat" to provide communications and support through low-cost shared services for at least six partnerships around the country; 2) providing partnership support and technical assistance to seed the six national partnerships, and 3) sharing evaluation and analysis services across all the partnerships. The outcomes of the work pertain to improvements in professional knowledge and practice in higher education and informal science education, as well as the improvement of learning by undergraduates and by the general public.
This summative evaluation study examines visitors' experiences of the "Plastics Unwrapped" exhibit at the Burke Museum of Natural History, Seattle, WA. The exhibit explores the complicated legacy of plastic, and the ways in which it has improved life, but not without serious impact on people and the environment. Within a framework of four evaluation questions, this study used multiple methods to assess what visitors do and where they spend their time in the exhibit, what knowledge they take away, and whether the exhibit impacts visitors' attitude toward plastic and their perception of the
Research in experimental and developmental psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience, suggests that tool fluency depends on the merging of perceptual and motor aspects of its use, an achievement we call perceptuomotor integration. We investigate the development of perceptuomotor integration and its role in mathematical thinking and learning. Just as expertise in playing a piano relies on the interanimation of finger movements and perceived sounds, we argue that mathematical expertise involves the systematic interpenetration of perceptual and motor aspects of playing mathematical
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ricardo NemirovskyMolly KeltonBohdan Rhodehamel
This paper explores how a school-day science and nutrition curriculum, Choice, Control and Change (C3), shaped student thinking, decision making, and actions outside the classroom. The curriculum taught health science content and engaged students in activities focused on analyzing and changing their personal health choices.
Informal science educators play a key role in promoting science literacy, safety, and health by teaching pesticide toxicology to the large, at-risk Latino farmworker population in the United States (US). To understand the experiences of informal science educators and the nature of farmworker education, we must have knowledge of farmworker educators' beliefs, yet little is known about these beliefs and how beliefs about teaching, pesticide risk, and self-efficacy might influence teaching environments and practices and potentially inform the field of informal science education. In this
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Catherine LePrevostMargaret BlanchardW. Gregory Cope
The article presents a lesson plan for eighth-grade students on neuromuscular control and biomedical engineering based on the engineering and design of prosthetic hands.
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Justin RyanDavid FrakesTirupalavanam GaneshChristine Zwart
One of the problems in science education is students' low motivation and difficulty to see the connection between science learning and their daily life. In addition, many science concepts are not intuitive, and involve complicated relations between parameters. We previously presented (Weizman & Broza, 2012) evaluation of a model integrating digital educational games with interactive learning units, where we found that students reported experiencing both learning and enjoyment. The current study focused on games in science, and examined the relation between the game design parameters and the
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), with six science centers across the U.S., will develop, implement, and evaluate the National Center for Blind Youth in Science (NCBYS), a three-year full-scale development project to increase informal learning opportunities for blind youth in STEM. Through partnerships and companion research, the NCBYS will lead to greater capacity to engage the blind in informal STEM learning. The NCBYS confronts a critical area of need in STEM education, and a priority for the AISL program: the underrepresentation of people with disabilities in STEM. Educators are often unaware of methods to deliver STEM concepts to blind students, and students do not have the experience with which to advocate for accommodations. Many parents of blind students are ill-equipped to provide support or request accessible STEM adaptations. The NCBYS will expose blind youth to non-visual methods that facilitate their involvement in STEM; introduce science centers to additional non-visual methods that facilitate the involvement of the blind in their exhibits; educate parents as to their students' ability to be independent both inside and outside the STEM classroom; provide preservice teachers of blind students with hands-on experience with blind students in STEM; and conduct research to inform a field that is lacking in published material. The NCBYS will a) conduct six regional, two-day science programs for a total of 180 blind youth, one day taking place at a local science center; b) conduct concurrent onsite parent training sessions; c) incorporate preservice teachers of blind students in hands-on activities; and d) perform separate, week-long, advanced-study residential programs for 60 blind high school juniors and seniors focused on the design process and preparation for post-secondary STEM education. The NCBYS will advance knowledge and understanding in informal settings, particularly as they pertain to the underrepresented disability demographic; but it is also expected that benefits realized from the program will translate to formal arenas. The proposed team represents the varied fields that the project seeks to inform, and holds expertise in blindness education, STEM education, museum education, parent outreach, teacher training, disability research, and project management. The initiative is a unique opportunity for science centers and the disability population to collaborate for mutual benefit, with lasting implications in informal STEM delivery, parent engagement, and teacher training. It is also an innovative approach to inspiring problem-solving skills in blind high school students through the design process. A panel of experts in various STEM fields will inform content development. NCBYS advances the discovery and understanding of STEM learning for blind students by integrating significant research alongside interactive programs. The audience includes students and those responsible for delivering STEM content and educational services to blind students. For students, the program will demonstrate their ability to interface with science center activities. Students will also gain mentoring experience through activities paired with younger blind students. Parents and teachers of blind students, as well as science center personnel, will gain understanding in the experiences of the blind in STEM, and steps to facilitate their complete involvement. Older students will pursue design inquiries into STEM at a more advanced level, processes that would be explored in post-secondary pursuits. By engaging these groups, the NCBYS will build infrastructure in the informal and formal arenas. Society benefits from the inclusion of new scientific minds, resulting in a diverse workforce. The possibility for advanced study and eventual employment for blind students also reduces the possibility that they would be dependent upon society for daily care in the future. The results of the proposed project will be disseminated and published broadly through Web sites; e-mail lists; social media; student-developed e-portfolios of the design program; an audio-described video; and presentations at workshops for STEM educators, teachers of blind students, blind consumer groups, researchers in disability education, and museum personnel.
SciGirls CONNECT is a broad national outreach effort to encourage educators, both formal and informal, to adopt new, research-based strategies to engage girls in STEM. SciGirls (pbskids.org/scigirls) is an Emmy award-winning television program and outreach program that draws on cutting-edge research about what engages girls in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning and careers. The PBS television show, kids' website, and educational outreach program have reached over 14 million girls, educators, and families, making it the most widely accessed girls' STEM program available nationally. SciGirls' videos, interactive website and hands-on activities work together to address a singular but powerful goal: to inspire, enable, and maximize STEM learning and participation for all girls, with an eye toward future STEM careers. The goal of SciGirls is to change how millions of girls think about STEM. SciGirls CONNECT (scigirlsconnect.org) includes 60 partner organizations located in schools, museums, community organizations and universities who host SciGirls clubs, camps and afterschool programs for girls. This number is intended grow to over 100 by the end of the project in 2016. SciGirls CONNECT provides mini-grants, leader training and educational resources to partner organizations. Each partner training session involves educators from a score of regional educational institutions. To date, over 700 educators have received training from over 250 affiliated organizations. The SciGirls CONNECT network is a supportive community of dedicated educators who provide the spark, the excitement and the promise of a new generation of women in STEM careers. Through our partner, the National Girls Collaborative Project, we have networked educational organizations hosting SciGirls programs with dozens of female role models from a variety of STEM fields. The SciGirls CONNECT website hosts monthly webinars, a quarterly newsletter, gender equity resources, SciGirls videos and hands-on activities. SciGirls also promotes the television, website and outreach program to thousands of elementary and middle school girls and their teachers both locally and nationally at various events.
Roto, an exhibition design and production firm, contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a front-end evaluation of Speed, an exhibition being developed for The Science Museum of Virginia (SMV) in Richmond, Virginia. RK&A explored visitors’ thoughts, perceptions, and understandings of exhibition concepts related to speed, defined as change over time. How did we approach this study? RK&A worked closely with Roto to identify the goals and objectives for the Speed exhibition. Findings from the front-end evaluation were designed to help Roto and SMV find common ground between
This project will develop a prototype intelligent cyberlearning platform for middle school audiences at a museum location to test and evaluate the use of virtual learning technologies. The content for this test is focused on sustainability issues that enable students to develop an age-appropriate understanding of the relationships between specific conservation decisions, energy use, human health, and population growth within Earth's ecosystem. The prototype cyberlearning system will demonstrate how users can learn about science topics by interacting with a display of environmental factors that enable them to explore the impact of social, economic, and technological forces that may change one existing state and condition to another. The system will enable users to understand the interrelationships of those elements by enabling them to change conditions and then observing the effect of the changes they make on the conditions presented in the initial model. The prototype intelligent cyberlearning system will provide a unique integration of a sophisticated agent-based modeling simulation of environmental, social, and economic phenomena with three advanced learning technologies: game-based learning systems, intelligent tutoring systems, and narrative-centered learning systems. The game-based and narrative aspects of the project are embodied in the interactive time-travel focus of the 3D display on a multi-touch surface computing table in which users will play the role of environmental scientists who have been charged with helping earth become a thriving green planet. They will go back in time and be given the opportunity to make different decisions on any range of options. After they make their decisions, they will travel forward in time to see the results of their decisions. All of the interactions will be used to dynamically generate their time-travel adventures. The intelligent tutoring system will track user\'s problem-solving activities in the simulated world. As users make decisions, the intelligent tutoring system will draw inferences about their level of understanding of key environmental concepts. Given the current problem-solving goal (e.g., reduce green house gases) and the current state of the environment (e.g., climatological state, earth's population, factory emissions), the intelligent tutoring system will draw on its knowledge of common environmental misconceptions to assist students as they progress through the sustainability narratives. The intelligent tutoring system will receive the updated state from the agent-based simulation, which will then provide explanatory commentary and advice through the virtual human to the users about the causal connections underlying the results of the decisions they have made. Similarly, during the course of decision-making, users will be able to request advice, and the same computational framework will drive the virtual human\'s advice generation functionalities. The project will design, development, deploy, and evaluate a prototype intelligent cyberlearning platform for sustainability that supports independent, but guided, exploration of science topics. Because all users interactions will be accompanied by a virtual environmental scientist who will narrate their journeys and offer problem-solving advice, users will be afforded rich learning opportunities that support independent inquiry but also provided guided exploration of complex science topics. With a focus on group learning experiences in the out-of-school setting, the virtual environmental scientist will answer questions that will engage groups of users in a collaborative effort to understand the rich interrelationships of sustainability. The project will demonstrate the transformative potential of intelligent cyberlearning systems that integrate agent-based modeling with game-based learning, intelligent tutoring systems, and narrative-centered learning in an out-of-school setting to enable users to experience science in fundamentally new ways.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
James LesterBradford MottJames MinoguePatrick Fitzgerald
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of engaging children ages 8 to 13 in the wonders of science and the application of scientific principles through the transmedia SCIENTASTIC! project. The study will also demonstrate that the television series will help students answer questions and solve problems for themselves and their community. The American public supports the advancement of scientific knowledge and our investment in scientific research leads the world. However, Americans are falling behind in educating the next generation of scientists. Late elementary school is an ideal time to capture students' attention and engage them in STEM activities. Using rigorous evaluation techniques we will show that SCIENTASTIC! encourages hands-on learning by exploration, questioning and thinking. The innovative television program and integrated companion resources provide scientific role models and demonstrate the scientific process in an entertaining way. The associated web site, Apps, Web 2.0 repository and teaching aids allow students, teachers, and parents to further explore concepts introduced in the show. Preliminary analysis reveals that the SCIENTASTIC! target audience liked the show, would watch the show and learned from the show. Further analysis will demonstrate that the transmedia approach increases viewer interest and learning. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will play a transformative role in encouraging students to take STEM courses in college, pursue scientific careers, and become a scientifically informed electorate. By developing the story beyond the story, transmedia SCIENTASTIC! has strong commercial value. Dissemination through public television allows for a potential audience of 250 million people. Commercial and noncommercial sponsorships will be sold with associated on-air credits. Additional direct funding will be sought from industries with interests in promoting science and health literacy. A commercial version of the program will be offered to cable networks on a licensing basis, with DVDs, Apps and study guides sold to schools, homeschoolers, and parents. With a broad and commercially viable dissemination, SCIENTASTIC! will show children the joys of science by demonstrating and engaging in hands-on, team- based learning in real-world contexts. This process will improve student retention and will show that SCIENTASTIC! introduces new ways to learn. The SCIENTASTIC! project will evaluate teaching techniques information that will be shared with policy-makers, educational institutions, and teachers to improve education nationwide. By spreading successful methods for engaging children in math and science, SCIENTASTIC! shoiuld have significant societal benefit creating a generation of scientifically educated decision-makers.