In Defense of Food (IDOF) is a media and outreach project based on Michael Pollan's best-selling book of the same title. Through the lens of food science, IDOF is designed to engage diverse audiences in learning about: (1) how science research is conducted, (2) how research findings are used in media, marketing, and public policy, and (3) how to apply food science research in everyday life. IDOF will be created by Kikim Media, an independent production company, broadcast and distributed by PBS and supported by an extensive outreach campaign and interactive website. The project's educational materials will be developed, in part, by the Teacher's College at Columbia University's Center for Food and Nutrition, with dissemination supported by the Coalition for Science After School and by Tufts University's Healthy Kids Out of School initiative, which involves nine of the leading out of school time (OST) organizations, such as Girl Scouts USA, and the National Urban League. The project advisory committee includes highly respected researchers in food, nutrition, and health. IDOF will use an integrated strategy of learning resources, combining a television documentary with online/social media, community outreach, and youth activities. Knight Williams Research Communications will conduct formative and summative evaluation of all major components of the project. The results will advance the informal science community's understanding of how the combination of a documentary with outreach, website/social media, and afterschool activities impacts motivation and learning. The evaluation study will pay special attention to the degree to which participation in the community events, social media/website, and afterschool activities motivates deeper or extended engagement with the subject. Project evaluation results and educational resources will be widely disseminated to the informal science community. IDOF includes a two-hour documentary film that will be produced in both English and Spanish; a community-level outreach campaign focused on reaching underserved audiences who may not watch public television; a set of activities for use in afterschool programs, youth programs and schools; and an interactive and content-rich website with tightly integrated social media tools. IDOF will be nationally broadcast by PBS; the Spanish-language version of IDOF will be broadcast by Vme Television. The ambitious IDOF educational materials and outreach campaign, combined with interactive web and social media, will reach large and diverse audiences. The intended impacts on audiences include increased knowledge and understanding of the scientific process by learning what food scientists do, what techniques they use, and how scientists arrive at their conclusions; the development of critical thinking skills audiences can use when evaluating messages about food and nutrition in media and advertising and when making decisions about what food to buy and eat; and becoming active learners and consumers regarding food. Evaluation results will be widely disseminated to science media producers and the informal science community via professional publications and presentations at conferences. The ultimate value of the In Defense of Food documentary and learning initiative will be to enhance public understanding of the crucial importance of science in people's everyday lives and in shaping dozens of daily decisions.
Iridescent is a not-for-profit company that develops and implements informal science and engineering experiences for students by facilitating the translation of the work that scientists and engineers do in a way that makes that work accessible to families. The proposal expands the Iridescent outreach activities funded by the Office of Naval Research, to provide a blended combination of in-person and online support to the families of underrepresented populations. The project is producing twenty videos of scientists and engineers presenting their research that are closely aligned with one hundred scientific inquiry and engineering design-based experiments and lesson plans. These digital resources, collectively called the Curiosity Machine, provide opportunities for parents and children to engage in scientific inquiry and engineering design in multiple face-to-face and online environments, including mobile technologies. The evaluation findings from this project provide a model of how to engage STEM education practitioners, teachers and online communities, to substantively connect underserved communities, in both informal and more formal learning environments to develop experiences with engineering design and to improve students' perspectives about and motivations to prepare for STEM careers. The Curiosity Machine portal is designed to present scientists and engineers explaining the work that they do in a way that makes it accessible to parents and students. Iridescent is working at three sites across the country in South Los Angeles, the South Bronx in New York City, and San Francisco. Students and their families have multiple access points to the science and engineering videos and materials through after school activities, Family Science Nights and summer camps. The project is piloting the use of electronic badges, similar to those offered in the Boy and Girl Scouts as a mechanism to enhance the engagement and persistence of students in the online activities. The project is developing ways to evaluate student engagement and performance through the analysis of the products that students submit online in response to particular science and engineering challenges. Students can also gain extra credit at school for their participation in the Curiosity Machine activities. The materials that the Curiosity Machine activities and challenges use are those that are commonly available to families, and the project provides access to mobile technology to facilitate participation by families. Student access to out of school science and engineering experiences is limited by the resources in terms of time and availability science centers have available. This project develops the resources and tools to bridge the in-school and out of school activities for students through the use of videos and online participation in ways that expand the opportunity of students from underserved populations to continue to engage in substantive science and engineering experiences beyond what they might get during an intermittent visit to a science center. The research and evaluation that is part of this study provides information about how new forms of extrinsic motivation might be used to support student engagement and persistence in learning about science and engineering.
In this study, researchers investigated levels of awareness of and responsibility for global climate change in two groups of children. The researchers argue that understanding the nature of beliefs, and how they may be modified by particular influences, is important if educators are to challenge the status quo, in which “the majority of individuals do not believe that they are responsible for or can engage in any actions which will be environmentally efficacious” (Uzzell, 2000, p. 314).
The data collection for this project involves three audiences: (1) a post-event survey completed by participants at the 'Eight-Legged Encounters' event, (2) a club experience survey completed by middle school students in an after school club, and (3) focus groups, observations, and end-of-course evaluations conducted with students in the BIOS 497/897 'Communicating Science through Outreach' seminar class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Data was collected from February to April, 2013 and the evaluation was conducted by the Bureau of Sociological Research (BOSR). Appendix contains surveys
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University of Nebraska-LincolnEileen Hebets
Science Club is an after school program created in partnership between Northwestern University and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago. Every week throughout the academic year, middle school youth (grades 5-8) work in small groups with their graduate student mentors on challenging, hands-on experiments. The six Science Club curricular modules cover topics ranging from biomedical engineering to food science, all with the goals of helping youth to 1) improve their understanding of the scientific method, 2) develop scientific habits of mind, and 3) increase their interest in STEM fields, particularly health-related careers. Science Club serves 60 youth every quarter with the help of 30 trained scientist mentors. Science Club meets three days a week at the Pedersen-McCormick Boys & Girls Club in Chicago, IL.
This is a Broad Implementation proposal. Our goal is to create a vibrant, sustained community of practice around the established Café Scientifique New Mexico model for engaging high school teens in science, technology, engineering and math; scale-up will be accomplished via a national network of committed partners. The adult Cafe Scientifique model for engaging citizens in science has proven very effective and has been implemented widely. The interaction in a social setting with a scientist-presenter around a hot science topic is the key to the model’s success. With ISE funding, the model has been adapted by Science Education Solutions for the high school teen audience. Cafe Scientifique New Mexico, now starting its fifth year, has had documented success in providing teens with increased STEM literacy and a more realistic picture of scientists as real people leading interesting lives. Teens come to better understand the nature of science and are more likely to see the relevance of science to their lives. Scientists express strong satisfaction with the nature of our coaching and the resulting quality of their science communication. The program has been continually evaluated and improved, and is now ready for broad implementation. Intellectual Merit: Teenagers are the adult citizens and workforce of tomorrow. Teens are reaching a critical life juncture and are making choices that affect their future life style, life-long learning behaviors, and careers. Yet they are increasingly dropping out of the STEM pipeline in school. Even teens interested in STEM often know little about science and engineering careers and the nature of scientific research. Teen Cafés can play an important role in addressing these challenges. We have two major objectives: 1. Implement the Café Scientifique model of Teen Cafés in a national network of sites committed to adopting and adapting the program and validating its impacts with diverse audiences; and 2. Create a vibrant and sustainable community of practice comprised of ISE and STEM professionals interested in engaging teens in STEM through Teen Cafés. We have formed a core network of six initial partners: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Center for STEM Research, Education, and Outreach; The Florida Teen SciCafé Partnership; North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh; Science Discovery, University of Colorado; The Pacific Science Center in Seattle; and The Missouri AfterSchool Network (MASN) – Project LIFTOF. We will add two more core partners in Year 3. The core partners will join the Teen Cafe Network in a staged fashion in years 1 - 3. Each will reach sustainability over a three-year funding period. Each node has a local area network of partners consisting of organizations that will host local Cafes; scientific organizations with potential presenters; schools and other organizations for recruiting teens; and entities capable of contributing to financial sustainability. The network will provide a structure for a dynamic, growing, and sustainable community of practice to implement the Teen Café model, in which high school teens will gain skills in scientific discourse, thought, and exploration. STEM professionals will gain improved skills for communicating with public audiences and a new perspective on their research from a broader societal perspective. ISE professionals will gain capacity to adapt, implement, test, and further disseminate the Teen Café model and increased capability for preparing STEM experts to communicate effectively with teen audiences, along with tools, resources, and expertise to help them do so. Science Education Solutions will manage the project and provide the resources to support the community of practice, while continuing Cafe Scientifique New Mexico as a ninth network node. We will stimulate intensive ongoing communication of lessons learned across the network as partners start up their Cafe programs; external observers will be able to watch the program unfold. Broader Impacts: We will build capacity for serving teens and effective communication of science in the broad ISE and STEM communities by encouraging and nurturing others wishing to start a Cafe program and join the network. We have partnered with 10 large science and science education organizations, each with its own extensive network, which will allow us to further propagate the Teen Cafe Network. They are: National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net), The American Institute of Physics (AIP), Science Cafés.org (to include NOVA), Science Festival Alliance, Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI), Informalscience.org, Project Liftoff: Elevating Science Afterschool, ITEST Learning Resource Center, and The Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes (CMMAP). Each partner will also target underserved and diverse teen audiences for their programs.
Since August of 2011, Project iLASER (Investigations with Light And Sustainable Energy Resources) has engaged children, youth and adults in public science education and hands-on activities across the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border, from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The two main themes of Project iLASER activities focus on sustainable energy and materials science. More than 1,000 children have been engaged in the hands-on activities developed through Project iLASER at 20+ sites, primarily in after-school settings in Boys & Girls Clubs. Sites include Boys & Girls Clubs in California (Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, El Centro and Brawley); Arizona (Nogales); New Mexico (Las Cruces); and Texas (El Paso, Midland-Odessa, Edinburg and Corpus Christi). The project was co-funded between the NSF Division of Chemistry (CHE) and the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL).
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Southwestern CollegeDavid BrownDavid Hecht
This issue brief illustrates the power of strong, successful partnerships between afterschool programs and STEM-rich institutions. Additionally, the partnerships described offer promising and innovative models that can have a significant impact on both students and their instructors. Afterschool programs have a long and rich history of leveraging community resources to best meet the needs of the youth they serve. They recognize that STEM-rich institutions -- science centers and museums, universities and colleges, corporations and businesses, and government agencies -- have a lot to offer. All
The project is designed to engage Hispanic students in grades K-5 in STEM in afterschool programs within community-based organizations (CBOs). The project builds on the foundation of an NSF-supported afterschool science program--APEX (Afterschool Program Exploring Science). In collaboration with National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and ASPIRA, the project adapts APEX into a bilingual English/Spanish format and, using a train the trainer model, disseminates it nationally, using a train the trainer model. Each of the ten local project sites will build on a partnership between a science museum and a CBO affiliate of NCLR or ASPIRA. The project is designed to: (1) Build the organizational capacity of partner science museums to work with CBOs and the Hispanic community. (2) Strengthen links between science museums and Hispanic serving CBOs in their communities. (3) Engage the expertise, involvement, and collaboration of national Hispanic-serving organizations, NCLR and ASPIRA, in STEM education. (4) Increase the engagement of Hispanic children and families in STEM. The project evaluation will investigate how effectively the project builds the organizational capacity of partner museums and CBOs in engaging Hispanic children and families in STEM; the types and strength of science museum/CBO partnerships; the effectiveness of the project in increasing Hispanic student and family engagement in STEM, and the types of contributions the project makes to the field of informal STEM learning. The evaluation will use qualitative and quantitative methods, including surveys, interviews, case studies, social network and collaboration analysis, observations, activity tracking, embedded assessment, photo elicitation, and focus groups.
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.
The Westside Science Club (WSSC) is an out-of-school time opportunity that brings participant-directed STEM activities to under-resourced late-elementary and middle school students in low-income housing units in Los Angeles. WSSC and CCI Solar began a collaboration in 2012 with funding from the NSF to connect research scientists from Caltech with the underserved youth in the club. Another community partner, Wildwood School, provided high school students to act as near-peer mentors for the club members. CCI Solar's research on the efficient and economical conversion of solar energy into stored chemical fuel provides an entry point for informal science education activities designed to introduce pre-high school participants to basic chemistry and related STEM concepts such as physics and plant biology. Activities were largely student driven, though lessons were developed by the team of facilitators including the club's founder Ben Dickow, Wildwood teacher Levi Simons, and students, post-docs, and staff from Caltech. Each lesson was tied to CCI Solar's research through a mind-map of related chemistry concepts. The activities were mostly intended to be "maker-type" experiences that allowed the club members to follow their own interests and questions. Caltech students and postdocs from CCI Solar helped deliver activities while honing their science communication skills with the young WSSC audience. The team is currently adapting the model of this successful collaboration to develop another science club in a different Los Angeles community. Two-years of lessons developed from this project, an evaluation of the project by Kimberly Burtnyk of Science for Society, and a model on how to replicate such a program are available in the project final report below. This was a two-year pilot program that was completed in July 2014.
This Pathways Project connects rural, underserved youth and families in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho to STEM concepts important in sustainable building design. The project is a collaboration of the Palouse Discovery Science Center (Pullman, WA), Washington State University and University of Idaho, working in partnership with rural community organizations and businesses. The deliverables include: 1) interactive exhibit prototype activities, 2) a team cooperative learning problem-solving challenge, and (3) take-home materials to encourage participants to use what they have learned to investigate ways to make their homes more energy-efficient and sustainable. The project introduces youth and families to the traditionally difficult physics concept of thermal energy, particularly as it relates to sustainable building design. Participants explore how building materials and their properties can be used to control all three types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. The interactive exhibit prototypes are coupled with an Energy Efficient Engineering Challenge in which participants, working in cooperative learning teams, use information learned from the exhibit prototype activities to retrofit a model house, improving its energy efficiency. The project components are piloted at the Palouse Discovery Science Center, and then travel to three underserved rural/tribal communities in Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington. Front-end and formative evaluation studies will demonstrate whether this model advances participant understanding of and interest in STEM topics and careers. The project will yield information about ways that other ISE practitioners can effectively incorporate cooperative learning strategies in informal settings to improve the transferability of knowledge gained from exhibits to real-world problem-solving challenges, especially for rural and underserved audiences. This project will also provide the ISE field with: 1) a model for increasing the capacity of small, rural science centers to form collaborative regional networks that draw on previously unused resources in their communities and provide more effective outreach to the underrepresented populations they serve, and 2) a model for coupling cooperative learning with outreach exhibits, providing richer experiences of active engagement.