This five-year project is designed to provide urban youth in grades 4-8 with innovative, hands-on science experiences in an after-school environment that will enhance their science competencies, while increasing the capacity of after-school leaders. In Years 1-3, nine science modules will be developed, field-tested and evaluated in collaboration with 12 after-school programs in Boston, Massachusetts, serving diverse populations of low-income youth. Each module includes a full color activity book, comprehensive facilitation guide and guidelines that enable students to share results of their investigations on the project website. Topics to be addressed include electricity, planets, invention and habitats. A comprehensive training program will include training for coaches who will provide assistance with the implementation of science modules and offer ongoing professional development for after-school providers. In Years 4-5, the project will be disseminated to after-school programs in Los Angeles, CA, Columbus, OH, and Philadelphia, PA. Additionally, the PI will partner with the National Institute on Out of School Time (NIOST) to disseminate the project nationally using the Cross-Cities Network. All materials will be printed in both English and Spanish, while the website will offer the option of downloading materials in a variety of other languages. It is anticipated this project will serve more than 3,000 youth and 400 after-school providers.
The Lunar and Planetary Institute will expand a successful pilot program in which libraries in Texas and Louisiana are used as community learning centers. The program is two-fold and includes both "Explore!" resource materials and "Fun with Science" modules. "Explore!" materials are a collection of space science posters, brochures, fact sheets, videotapes and references. These resources are disseminated to librarians for use as part of their collections and to support the "Fun with Science" modules. "Fun with Science" consists of eight space science modules that librarians are trained to use in after-school and summer youth programs. Module topics include rocketry, comets, impact cratering, remote sensing and space capsule design. Each year, 3-4 new modules will be produced. Librarians receive training on content, activities and NASA resources in 2-3 day sessions. The dissemination plan would enable the program to expand to include public libraries in Texas, Illinois (Chicago) and South Carolina, as well as school libraries as a secondary audience. Rural sites will be targeted and distance learning will be used for training when possible. CD ROMs containing the modules, training videos and a website will be developed to support this project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Stephanie ShippPamela ThompsonMary Noel
This project is a collaboration by the Children's Museum, Museum of Science, and Franklin Park Zoo designed to provide hands-on science activities and increase interest in science as a career for children in grades 6-8 who attend community agency after school programs. Groups of 20-25 students will attend 8-week courses at each institution, rotating to all three during the year. After completing the courses, selected students will become interns for summer training and work at the institutions. The goals of the project are to offer engaging science to underserved children and motivate them to further study; to build a bridge to community groups from the three institutions; to bolster science programs at community centers through training their staff; and to create a replicable model for other science centers, children's museums and nature centers to work with community agencies and to involve parents in their children's activities. Videotapes, to be produced by WGBH-PBS will be distributed to science centers: tapes will document finding effective ways to work in the children, the particular experiences of the three institutions, and the children's experiences with and attitudes toward science. A summer institute will be held for museum professionals from other institutions.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bernard ZubrowskiPaul Evans
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This is a two-session science communication workshop targeted to undergraduate students participating in university-based research programs such as NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, which typically occur during the summer months. University faculty and science museum staff integrate the sessions into the research program curriculum to enhance the students’ science communication skills, with an emphasis on professional oral, powerpoint, and poster presentations. Each session takes a half-day, but they can be shortened.
The Museum of Science partnered with the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing to create a sequence of professional development experiences in science communication and hands-on learning for graduate students and post-docs. The Sharing Science Workshops were intended to help graduate students who work with the CHN program to improve their abilities to present their research to a variety of scientific and nonscientific audiences. The sequence included a half-day "Sharing Science" workshop, a half-day guided "Practicum" with museum visitors, and optional participation in NanoDays events at MOS
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Donahue Institute Research and Evaluation Group
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Does the public trust science? Scientists? Scientific organizations? What roles do trust and the lack of trust play in public debates about how science can be used to address such societal concerns as childhood vaccination, cancer screening, and a warming planet? What could happen if social trust in science or scientists faded? These types of questions led the Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a 2-day workshop on May 5-6, 2015 on public trust in science. This report explores empirical evidence on
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Helaine ResnickKeegan SawyerNancy Huddleston
This project's interdisciplinary team will carry out research and training that will identify ways for professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to engage with public audiences that currently lack the community connections, resources, time, or know-how to gain access to science education and to scientists. The project will create real and on-line materials for scientists to convey the excitement, content, and relevance of their own research to public groups whose values, professions, or aesthetic and cultural backgrounds are connected to that research topic. The project will also foster ways for scientists to understand that members of the public can provide valuable input to science. Research and evaluation on the development of this innovative public engagement model "the STEM Ambassador Program (STEMAP)" will be conducted to provide insights into the effectiveness and extensibility of the STEMAP model. This approach integrates three existing elements of science engagement that have previously not been linked: design thinking, informal science education communication skills from museum work, and connecting scientists' research with the existing values of particular community groups. Robust evaluation will enhance effectiveness of in-person and online trainings; research will provide understanding of how different science learning models can be integrated and enhanced for public audiences and for scientists. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. Science and society need innovative and transformative ways to interact synergistically. Given the deep knowledge and contagious passion for their research, STEM professionals can bring unique assets to directly engage public audiences, especially important the traditionally underserved public groups. Members of the public in turn have the potential to provide novel ideas, data, and insights to support researchers. The project's exploratory research will help understand how STEM professionals can broaden participation by themselves engaging unengaged publics with the excitement of science and science knowledge in ways that are congruent with academic rewards. The project team will integrate three existing NSF-funded models: a) Research Ambassador Program, b) Portal to the Public, and c) Design Thinking. A cadre of faculty and graduate students will be trained in "STEM Ambassadors" workshops, in which social scientists and community group representatives will help STEM Ambassadors identify public groups with interests that connect to the scientist's research. Engagement events will occur in community venues, e.g., churches, factories, and day care centers, etc. Case studies and evaluation instruments answer research questions about: the role of empathy in the formation and change of identity; relationships between public audiences, mode of engagement, and identity shifts; and motivational drivers for STEM Ambassadors and public audiences. The intellectual merit is the training and evaluating of 50 STEM Ambassadors (via 100 outreach events involving approximately 5000 individuals from community groups); strategies that encourage STEM professionals to engage with underrepresented publics; and insights on how to integrate multiple education models. STEMAP will disseminate its findings and new resources through the STEMAP website. In addition, the dissemination efforts will be extended through: collaboration with the NSF-funded PoPNet Expansion Project and the Centers for Science and Mathematics Education (CSMEs); presentations at national science professional organizations, such as the AAAS, as well as through the CAISE Wiki and the National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI). STEMAP will create a process for other NSF PIs to generate, evaluate, and articulate their research and its applications to public groups that lie far outside academia.
Due to geographical isolation, rural communities are often underserved by the informal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education system. As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings including rural communities. Thus, this project will help to develop rural libraries and librarians into STEM learning centers and facilitators who will use community assets providing new horizons for youth on career choices and adults on an enhanced STEM knowledge base. Through online professional development exercises, the library staff will enhance their knowledge, enabling them to develop and support new STEM learning mechanisms in their communities. In this project, 110 rural libraries will be chosen from applicants to obtain advanced knowledge of how to facilitate STEM learning. It is anticipated that the staff will change from being resource persons to facilitators of STEM knowledge transfer. The project is a collaboration between Dartmouth College, Dominican University, the Institute of Learning Innovation, Dawson, Media Group, and the Califa Group. The research questions address: a quantitative assessment of rural librarian's STEM efficacy and professional identity, and a determination of the efficacy and impact of multiple forms of professional development and learning tools on rural librarians' ability to participate in and facilitate informal STEM learning.
Research shows that participation and interest in science starts to drop as youth enter high school. This is also the point when science becomes more complex and there is increased need for content knowledge, mathematics capability, and computer or computational knowledge. Evidence suggests that youth who participate in original scientific research are more likely to enter and maintain a career in science as compared to students who do not have these experiences. We know young people get excited by space science. This project (STEM-ID) is informed by previous work in which high school students were introduced to scientific research and contributed to the search for pulsars. Students were able to develop the required science and math knowledge and computer skills that enabled them to successfully participate. STEM-ID builds on this previous work with two primary goals: the replication of the local program into a distributed program model and an investigation of the degree to which authentic research experiences build strong science identities and research self-efficacies. More specifically the project will support (a) significant geographic expansion to institutions situated in communities with diverse populations allowing substantial inclusion of under-served groups, (b) an online learning and discovery environment that will support the participation of youth throughout the country via online activities, and (c) opportunities for deeper participation in research and advancement within the research community. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. STEM-ID will serve 2000 high school youth and 200 high school teachers in afterschool clubs with support from 30 undergraduate and graduate students and 10 college/university faculty. Exploratory educational research will determine the broad mechanisms by which online activities and in-person and online peer-mentor teacher-scientist interactions influence science identity, self-efficacy, motivation, and career intentions, as well as a focused understanding of the mechanisms that influence patterns of participation. Youth will be monitored longitudinally through the first two years of college to provide an understanding of the long-term effects of out-of-class science enrichment programs on STEM career decisions. These studies will build an understanding of the best practices for enhancing STEM persistence in college through engagement in authentic STEM programs before youth get to college. In addition to the benefits of the education research, this program may lead participants to discover dozens of new pulsars. These pulsars will be used for fundamental advances such as for testing of general relativity, constraining neutron star masses, or detecting gravitational waves. The resulting survey will also be sensitive to transient signals such as sporadic pulsars and extragalactic bursts. This project provides a potential model for youth from geographical disparate places to participate in authentic research experiences. For providers, it will offer a model for program delivery with lower costs. Findings will support greater understanding of the mechanisms for participation in STEM. This work is being led by West Virginia University and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Participating sites include California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, El Paso Community College, Howard University, Montana State University, Penn State University, Texas Tech University, University of Vermont, University of Washington, and Vanderbilt University.
There is a growing body of evidence that informal learning environments focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines cultivates an interest among young people in STEM careers and promotes understanding of STEM content knowledge and the scientific process. This project centers on the creation and validation of a theoretically grounded and empirically derived framework for professional growth and learning within the informal STEM learning (ISL) field ("Framework"). The Framework will be useful to ISL practitioners at any stage of their education or career by laying out the necessary skills, knowledge, and dispositions to guide their professional growth. While the immediate beneficiaries of the project will be ISL professionals themselves, the ultimate beneficiaries of the work will be the children, youth, teachers, and general public that engage with STEM experiences designed and implemented by a skilled and knowledgeable ISL professional workforce. The Association of Science-Technology Centers, Oregon State University's Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning, Pacific Science Center, University of Washington Museology Department and the Lifelong Learning Group of the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus, OH (COSI Columbus) will collaborate to develop the ISL professional framework. The Framework will be built from qualitative and quantitative empirical analyses of actual practices used by staff of science centers and ISL institutions, assessing perceived and actual needs at various career stages, as well as an analysis of the creation and use of similar learning frameworks in other professions. The project will be conducted in three phases: (1) Literature review, research synthesis, and "Developing a Curriculum" (DACUM) workshops to develop a preliminary framework; (2) Stakeholder review and feedback in order to improve the preliminary framework; and, (3) Creation of an online platform to share the final framework draft and conduct iterative testing for utility and ISL community acceptance. The project will address two current and pressing issues: (1) Ensuring that professionals working in science center-type settings have the necessary knowledge and skills to apply the substantial and growing evidence base in ISL, and (2) Understanding and supporting the needs of the full range of ISL professionals during their basic education and at particular points throughout their careers. Effective support for ISL professionals requires, at the most basic level, a fundamental understanding of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed by working professionals at critical points along their career pathway if they are to use evidence-based practice in their work. This project is being funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. This project will develop and research an integrated children's media and early childhood educator professional development strategy to prepare preschoolers with social-emotional skills that provide a foundation for later math learning success. The social-emotional skills include persistence, risk-taking, regulating anxieties, and collaborating to solve problems. Media components include Peg+Cat television episodes, videos, games and apps distributed through PBS broadcast and online. The integrated professional development model is designed to impact these educators' understanding of math and develop their skills for fostering in children a positive math mindset. Additional resources include a new Peg+Cat summer day camp at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The project partners include a media company, The Fred Rogers Company; researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and St. Vincent College; and the evaluator, Rockman et al. This project is unique in its focus on integrating social-emotional skills with early math learning and educator skill development. It will fill an important niche in the research literature and has the potential to impact media practice which is undergoing significant change as new digital tools and technologies become available for learning. Both standardized and researcher-developed measures will be used to assess learning outcomes, including early childhood educators' attitudes and quality of instruction, as well as children's interest and engagement in math. The research design includes iterative data collection to inform the development and refinement of the professional learning for teachers. The mixed methods approach will include classroom observations, interviews and focus groups with educators, and parent questionnaires. Key questions include: does exposure to Peg+Cat positively relate to children's use of social-emotional skills during math learning activities? Does educators' exposure to the professional development training improve their attitudes and abilities to infuse math instruction with social-emotional skills? Does having an educator who received Peg+Cat training impact children's engagement and interest in math?
Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), will hold three two-day workshops (in New Jersey, Kansas, and California) for regional and state-level leaders in afterschool science education in more than 20 states who have been associated with the National Partnerships for After School Science (NPASS), Design It! and Explore It! afterschool science initiatives. The workshops will be designed to strengthen ties among current and prospective members of the NPASS network and to identify issues for future research for the after school field at large aimed at increasing understanding of how afterschool science programs succeed or fail. Despite the current absence of centralized support to maintain or expand this network, many of its members continue to offer NPASS and NPASS-like programming in their states. The workshops will bring together some of the most experienced leaders in the NPASS network as well as experienced advocates and leaders of afterschool science from beyond the network. The project builds on 15 years of prior work conducted by EDC that developed afterschool science and engineering curricula that was nationally disseminated via the NPASS network and train-the-trainer workshops. The project will support the overall strategy of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program to enhance learning in informal environments through the funding of innovative resources through a variety of settings. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. The regional workshops will be designed to: (1) enable leaders of the NPASS network to re-establish ties and renew their understanding of and commitment to best practices and critical elements of afterschool science; (2) gather information about common obstacles to implementation of these practices and about when, where, and why adaptations to these best practices occur, and what they (the practitioners) believe to be the impact on program quality; and (3) identify questions for further research. The findings from these workshops will be broadly disseminated to the field via a report summarizing the proceedings and findings from the workshop, including a revised NPASS statement of critical structural and pedagogical elements on practices critical to successful afterschool science programming.