This front-end evaluation study is part of Designing Our Tomorrow: Mobilizing the Next Generation of Engineers, a five-year project (2018–2023) led by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) with the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF, DRL-1811617) and project partners: Adelante Mujeres, the Biomimicry Institute, and the Fleet Science Center. The Designing Our Tomorrow (DOT) project seeks to promote and strengthen family engagement and engineering learning via compelling exhibit-based design challenges, presented through the lens of sustainable design exemplified by
Intellectual Merit: Project RESET utilized a responsive teaching approach to engage youth in critical STEM literacy on the topic of climate change. Video recordings of the afterschool program, artifacts from the program, and interviews with youth were analyzed to better understand how youth supported each other’s participation in science discourse. The team outlined four themes of critical STEM literacy (CSL) and identified a “constellation” of knowledge, dispositions, and practices within each of those themes. Finally, Project RESET demonstrated the potential benefits of multi-modal analysis
Youth from non-dominant racial and linguistic backgrounds often have limited access to school science learning opportunities. Afterschool settings may provide learning environments in which they improve science knowledge and construct positive science identities. With this premise, our research team designs and provides a community-based afterschool program that engages resettled Burmese refugee youth in STEM learning. In this paper, we seek to understand how refugee youth utilize their funds of knowledge and what identities were foregrounded in the program. We adapt a micro-ethnographic
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Minjung RyuMavreen Rose Sta. Ana TuvillaCasey Elizabeth Wright
AMNH will use NOAA weather satellite data to annotate 72 high definition (HD) video time-series global cloud cover visualizations using thermal infrared brightness temperature data acquired by five geostationary satellites and joined into global mosaics at half-hourly intervals. The HD visualizations will be used in informal and formal education activities and will be made available on the Web. These media pieces will be used for informal education activities at AMNH and 28 other informal science institutions (ISI) around the United States . The target population of visitors to subscribing ISIs is currently ten million and is projected to be over 15 million by the end of the grant. The HD visualizations will be used in formal settings, as well. Fifteen schools throughout New York City with large numbers of new English Language Learners will be targeted and professional development for teachers of ELL students will be provided through programs at AMNH as well. AMNH s effort focuses on weather and climate patterns that will be visible in the cloud-data visualizations. All viewers of the media will learn about general circulation patterns and changes in phase of water associated with the hydrologic cycle.
This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understandings of, the design and development of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning in informal environments. Roughly one million refugees resettled in the United States in the past decade, many of whom are school-aged youth. During secondary school, resettled refugee youth are often still developing English language literacy and STEM skills needed for successful postsecondary experiences in the United States. At the same time, these youth bring rich cultural and linguistic resources that they can use as an asset as they grow their STEM skill sets, prepare for future success, and make positive impacts on U.S. society. To promote these assets and engage youth in developing STEM literacy, this after-school program engages these youth in critical STEM literacy development. The project focuses on STEM learning, specifically the relationship between human life and climate, as well as developing youths' STEM identities and agency.
The project will develop and implement a community-based afterschool program that provides resettled Burmese refugee youth with STEM learning experiences. By drawing upon youths' experiences, the program will engage youth in learning about climate science and developing digital stories to communicate with broader audiences. To do so, the team will implement a program that builds on principles of responsive teaching, funds of knowledge, and English literacy development in authentic meaning-making contexts. The project will examine how youth expand their STEM knowledge, develop STEM identities and agency, and develop their expertise in communicating about STEM within and beyond their participation in the after-school program. The research team will explore existing and innovative data collection and analysis methods by drawing on principles of ethnography, video ethnography, mediated discourse analysis, and phenomenological and ethnomethodological analysis of interviews. These analyses will document learning over time in informal STEM learning settings. As there is very little prior research on STEM learning in this population, this project will generate knowledge about how to support STEM sense-making and critical STEM literacy. Furthermore, by testing the designed curriculum and building a partnership with a local community organization, the project will build capacity for broadening participation in informal STEM learning practices.
This Connecting Researchers to Public Audiences project plans to create a multimedia website, Into the Rift, a virtual journey to Lake Tanganyika in East Africa, along with teaching resources and a dissemination campaign. The content will focus on the high freshwater diversity of the 2nd largest lake in the world; the diverse array of cichlid fish in the lake; and the effects of overharvesting and global warming on the lake's ecosystem. The project's intended learning outcomes are that viewers will have enhanced awareness and understanding of: 1) the ecosystem-scale processes that support life in lakes; 2) the importance of intact natural ecosystems for the well-being of human societies; 3) the techniques that scientists use to learn more about the ecosystem-scale movement of matter and energy; and 4) potential career paths in STEM fields. These learning outcomes correlate to the current and proposed science standards, which provide a structure for content development and outcomes assessment. The project will be designed by the collaboration of an ecologist (the PI Dr. Yvonne Vadeboncoeur), education specialist (co-PI Dr. Lisa Kenyon), communication specialist (co-PI Dr. Elliot Gaines) all from Wright State University, and a media lab (Habitat Seven), and informed by formative evaluation conducted by Edu, Inc. The website, hosted by a guide from East Africa along with the PI, will be presented in three languages (Spanish, French, and Swahili) in addition to English. Edu, Inc. will also conduct a summative evaluation of all the components of the project with respect to the four intended learning outcomes and their related concepts as well as analyze the outcomes of the dissemination strategies. This CRPA uses internet technologies to make abstract scientific concepts and a largely inaccessible research location available to a wide audience. The project intends to inform and engage the audience with an aggressive use of social media in addition to the website. Into the Rift will provide material for both the lay audience and classrooms, including access to authentic scientific data to compare the Lake Tanganyika data to environmental data collected from the U.S. Great Lakes. Additional collaborations with established organizations, including Crossing Boundaries, Conservation Bridge and Community Bridges, will expand the reach and impact of the project to diverse audiences. The multi-lingual approach extends the reach to potentially an even greater audience both within and outside the U.S.
This proposed Communicating Research to Public Audiences (CRPA) project outlines a pathway for communicating how climate change can affect a watershed area that supplies water for a specific region. The educational platforms will address the geology of the Caldera along with meteorology, ecology and hydrology. The project will focus on the ongoing scientific research processes and the impact of climate change to the physical system as well as to the citizens who depend on this resource. Partners in this endeavor include New Mexico EPSCOR, the University of New Mexico, the Valles Caldera National Preserve, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Santa Fe Productions and Tim Aydelott Productions. The project team will create a PBS television documentary in English and Spanish, including a Native American Jemez Pueblo storyteller who will describe the natural environment of the Caldera. The team will also create a YouTube channel with updatable clips, a Facebook fan page, and a climate change exhibit. The evaluation will include front-end and summative components, and will be conducted by Minnick & Associates and Elsa Bailey Consulting. The intended impact of this CRPA is to educate the public about the importance of the Caldera in securing the region's water supply and how climate changes could impact their lives. Further, aspects of the multidisciplinary science used in this research will be described with the goal of encouraging more young people from the region to choose STEM careers.
The Mount Washington Observatory is expanding the daily, nationally broadcast radio program, "The Weather Notebook." The two-minute programs inform an estimated 2.5 million weekly listeners about the science underlying weather. During this three-year phase of the project, the project will broaden the range of science content by deepening the connections of weather and climate with other scientific disciplines, especially earth systems science. The project also hopes to double the size of the listening audience by increasing the number of stations carrying the series. In addition, they will produce Spanish-language versions of the programs and distribute them through the Hispanic Radio Network. In response to listeners' requests for longer programs, the project will produce 20 to 30 approximately five-minute modules that will be broadcast in existing radio series such as "Marketplace" and "The Cultivated Gardener." Ancillary educational materials will be provided for students, teachers, families and others interested in further learning about topics included in the broadcast programs.