The Self-Reliance Foundation will develop a conference that has the overarching goal of laying the groundwork for the development of strategic partnerships for involving Latino audiences in informal science learning, led by informal science institutions nationwide. Numbering over 42 million, Latinos are now the largest ethnic/racial minority group in America; in recent years, 1 of every 2 new Americans has been Latino. Educational opportunities, formal and informal, are not keeping pace. Latino students score lower on math and science achievement tests than national averages, enroll at disproportionately lower levels, and are underrepresented in undergraduate and graduate science and engineering programs. Latino families are under-represented among those who visit science centers and other like institutions. Latino students are under-enrolled in after-school programs. There is no Spanish-language NPR or PBS; there is little science available on Spanish-language media, including radio, television, and newspapers. The conference will bring together informal science institutions and science research organizations together with Hispanic organizations, media, and educational projects to review current ISE resources, identify needs and gaps, learn about best practices in designing culturally effective programs and resources, and develop new strategies and resources to enrich the informal science learning environment for Latinos.
Building upon extensive prior work, the Institute of Learning Innovation is developing and implementing a conference to bring together media professionals, researchers, and policymakers that work in ISE to reflect upon recent research and develop frameworks for future practice and evaluation. Various media-related groups (print, broadcast, electronic gaming, etc,) usually have professional conferences in isolation from each other with little sharing of information and research findings. Despite the rapid blurring of boundaries between various media types in the marketplace, researchers and practitioners remain within traditional silos. This conference will bring together 80 media practitioners and researchers for a two-day national conference in order to consolidate and synthesize the research-based theories presented in a pre-conference publication. A series of 3 post-web conferences will build on the momentum generated during the initial conference and generate broader participation within the science learning media community. Rockman et al will evaluate the conference and post conference web community.
An Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) has been given to The ASTA Group, LLC to create a blueprint for an International Conference on Cyberlearning that would explore radically different approaches to both formal and informal learning at a national level. The EAGER will bring together essential individuals and organizations across a range of STEM disciplines committed to advancing Cyberlearning for the improvement of STEM education and how to use technology to connect underrepresented groups with resources and tools to which they have never before been exposed. ASTA and the national defense industrial community have encountered and solved many of the same implementation issues arising now in education and have actively sought ways that technology can improve education and training effectiveness, efficiency, and accessibility. The Defense and Defense-related industries operate at the scale necessary for successful transfer of small research projects to wide-scale application. Through ASTA's extensive R&D knowledge of advanced technologies, most specifically their work in multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs), modeling and simulation (M&S), and game-based learning as applied in the military's education, training, and workforce development programs, they will bring the highest level of expertise to the development of a blueprint for an international conference on Cyberlearning that will forge unprecedented partnerships across government, academia, and industry. ASTA and the National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA) as Principal Investigator, will submit a proposal for an international conference in 2010 based upon the blueprint developed by the EAGER grant. It is anticipated that technology will be used during the EAGER phase to plan the conference, disseminate conference-related information, and serve as an interface for activities. A website and/or Internet portal will be established and will be used to facilitate on-going partnerships, monitoring, and information sharing. It may have both public and participant levels of access. Details, as well as partners for development, maintenance, and funding will be determined through the EAGER planning period.
Abstract: The Liberty Science Center will organize a one-day symposium linked to the Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA) International Conference and Trade show in September 2008. The symposium will focus on the greater potential of gian screen experiences to connect society with science, building on the GSTA's symposium "Giant Screen Films and Lifelong Learning held in 1999. The program will bring together science and education experts with filmakers to stimulate and enhance more effective approaches to science learning in future giant screen films. Symposium results will be disseminated through publication and the internet, as well prepared for submission to peer-reviewed journals. An industry-specific listserv focused on lifelong learning will be created to serve as a new community-building tool for exchange among producers, distributors and exhibitors. Emlyn Koster (Liberty Science Center) and Mary Nucci (Rutgers University) will serve as aymposium chair/PI and symposium manager/Co-PI, respectively; in partnership with GSCA staff, they will be responsible for symposium management, evaluation, and dissemination of results.
The Conference on Cyberlearning Tools for STEM (CyTSE) brings together scientists, cyberlearning developers, educational researchers, STEM educators (formal and informal), curriculum developers and other stakeholders that contribute to the agenda on K-12 STEM cyberlearning and workforce preparation. Collaborators include Northwestern University, University of Colorado at Boulder, and the WGBH Educational Foundation. This informative meeting will be held as a NSTA pre-conference workshop. The conference plan includes keynote presentations by prominent cyberinfrastructure and cyberlearning professionals, an expert panel on cyberlearning and the future of STEM education, hands-on demonstrations of cyberlearning tools for participants, and interactive poster sessions. Potential tracks for the poster sessions include emerging technologies, design and development, technical challenges and solutions, implementation and integration, and research and evaluation. The second day of the conference will include teacher professional development workshops, as well as in-depth design focus groups, developer integration and interoperability workshops, and a session emphasizing the development of a cyberlearning research agenda. Additional deliverables include a video overview of the conference (for those unable to attend), a white paper proposing a cyberlearning research agenda, and an evaluation study to measure the impact of the conference on participants. A series of post-conference webinars will be hosted by WGBH's Teachers' Domain and publicized on their Facebook, Classroom 2.0, and Science Ning sites to encourage ongoing collaboration. It is anticipated that this two-day conference will bridge gaps between the stakeholder communities and expose important trends and issues that will contribute to a comprehensive research agenda.
The Franklin Institute (TFI), in collaboration with the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI), will conduct a research effort that explores the role that informal science learning plays in supporting girls' long-term interest, engagement and participation in science communities, hobbies and careers. Five longstanding programs for girls, begun 5-20+ years ago, will be the focus of the proposed study and include the National Science Partnership (NSP), Girls at the Center (GAC), Wonderwise, and Women in Natural Sciences (WINS). The selected study projects have access to girl participants who are high-school aged or older and represent diverse race, ethnicity and SES. A national Research Advisory Council will ground the investigation and review the findings at each stage of the research. The Community of Practice (CoP) literature (Lave and Wenger, 1991) will provide the theoretical frame for the overarching research question. Findings will document long-term impacts of girls' participation in identified informal science programs, determine how informal contexts in general contribute to girls' science learning and achievement, and develop a model for understanding the impact of informal science learning initiatives. Deliverables will include specific examples of informal learning experiences that support girls' long-term participation in science and evidence of the types of influences, including significant adults and particular activities, that contribute to girls' trajectories of participation. Dissemination tools will be a national conference, a research monograph and a series of workshops conducted in conjunction with professional conferences for informal science educators. By better understanding the impact of informal programs in science, specifically and more generally, and by developing and demonstrating an effective model for understanding such impact across projects, the proposed research stands to inform the field and provide a base for future project development and research efforts. The research results will improve the understanding of practice in these arenas and will document the significant role that informal programs place in influencing girls' vocational and avocational choices and participation in STEM fields. The study will also demonstrate the applicability of the CoP research model and its lessons to other informal science programs.