In the United States, African Americans are underrepresented in science careers and underserved in pre-collegiate science education. This project engaged African American elementary students in culturally relevant science education through archaeology and thereby increased positive dispositions toward science. While imagining what the lives of their ancestors were like, students practiced scientific inquiry and used natural sciences to analyze archaeological sites. The project helped to improve science literacy among African American elementary students through archaeological inquiry and
The Challenger Reach 2 U program will reach over 6,500 fourth-grade students in 261 missions from underserved communities throughout southwest Colorado and northwestern New Mexico, including primarily rural, lower socio-economic status, Hispanic and Native American districts that seldom have such STEM educational opportunities. The Colorado Consortium for Earth and Space Science Education (CCESSE) will show that increasing the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is not only a NASA goal set at the national level and a state and local priority, but is the underlying core competency of our organization as well. As an integral part of our Challenger Reach 2 U proposal to motivate interest in STEM curriculum and to strengthen the Nation's future workforce, we will thoroughly train teachers of these students to be more comfortable with technology and more prepared to deliver motivational STEM lessons, leaving an educational legacy that will greatly outlive the life of this grant. We will provide these students with cross-curricular preparatory lessons which will culminate with an exciting simulated space mission delivered in their own classrooms and moderated by a "NASA" mission director at our Center. With the help of the NASA grant, all of these services will be provided at no cost to the schools.
In spring 2009, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Museum) contracted with JVA Consulting, LLC (JVA) to conduct a comprehensive process and outcome evaluation of the Passport to Health (P2H) program. The Museum designed P2H, originally a three-year program funded by the Colorado Health Foundation (the Foundation), to improve health outcomes for fifth-grade students as well as their families and teachers throughout the Denver metro area. Passport to Health has seven components, designed to complement each other and help the Museum achieve its stated program goals. The seven components
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TEAM MEMBERS:
JVA Consulting, LLCDenver Museum of Nature & Science
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History will partner with The Exploratorium and with three smaller science museums that have strong connections to rural and Spanish-speaking populations in Texas: Discovery Science Place, Loredo Children's Museum, and Science Spectrum to develop TexNET, a four-year project modeled on the Exploratorium Network for Exhibit-based Teaching (ExNET). TexNET builds on lessons learned from past exhibit outreach models and addresses the needs of small, rural partners for exhibits and capacity-building workshops. Each small museum partner will host a set of ten exhibits for one year. Exhibit topics are 1) motion, 2) weather and 3) sound. Workshops focus on inquiry learning techniques, science content, programming and workshop design, as well as the institutional needs of each partner. Based on feedback from formative evaluation, the project added three additional partners in its final year, the Children's Museum of Houston, the Austin Children's Museum, and the Don Herrington Discovery Center, and focused its remaining year on building institutional capacity around tinkering. Inverness Research Associates will conduct the project evaluation. They will examine the success of this project by looking at the effectiveness of the TexNET model, the success of the individual exhibit elements to engage rural communities, the effectiveness with which this project has enhanced the abilities of local rural communities to sustain their own educational improvements and the effectiveness of the training components in increasing the capabilities of the local museums to serve their rural audiences.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Charlie WalterSamuel DeanJoe HastingsRobert Lindsey
TERC is partnering with the Toxics Action Center to enhance the capacity of environmental organizations to teach mathematical literacy skills to low-income citizens, mostly women of color. Secondary collaborators include four environmental organizations around the country. The project is (1) developing math- and statistics-rich educational materials that help non-scientists interpret environmental test results, (2) developing training materials that help environmental organization personnel provide quantitative literacy training to citizens, (3) helping environmental organizations institutionalize project resources, and (4) evaluating the impact of project activities on environmental organizers, community members, and the general public. Project deliverables include bilingual, print- and web-based instructional materials (including videos) for environmental organizations to use with staff and community members; training sessions to create a cadre of environmental organization leaders who can conduct environment-focused, math training workshops; a communications toolkit for dissemination to journalists who cover environmental issues; and a resource-rich project web site.
Many museums currently produce bilingual exhibits, but very little research exists to inform practice. The Bilingual Exhibits Research Initiative (BERI), funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program at the National Science Foundation, addressed this critical knowledge gap. This exploratory research project investigated 1) current professional approaches to producing bilingual exhibits and 2) how bilingual exhibits provide opportunities for Spanish-speaking Latinos to engage in informal science learning. BERI's research with museum and science center staff documents current professional knowledge, concerns, opportunities, and constraints involved in the creation of bilingual exhibits. BERI's research with visitors explores how content and design affords and constrains visitors' engagement in museums and science centers. This work will inform professionals about the relevant factors and potential consequences of their decisions related to bilingual exhibits.
The Children's Museum of San Jose, in collaboration with developmental psychology researchers at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) and science and education staff of the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), is conducting a 48-month long project that focuses on children's use of evidence to construct scientific explanations. Key deliverables are: a 2,300 square-foot paleontology exhibit with an Evidence Central area three "evidence hubs" at the Children's Museum of San Jose, an educational Web site developed by UCMP, research on children's use of evidence conducted by Maureen Callanan's research group at UCSC, a "state of the children's museum field" study on varieties of perspectives on "science" and "evidence," and professional development experiences for staff at children's museums. Additional partners include the children's museums in Austin, TX, Madison, WI, and Providence, RI and local Vietnamese and Latino organizations in the museum's neighborhood. Randi Korn & Associates will conduct the program summative evaluation process and the "state of the field" study. The project identifies and will work to address two specific needs in the field: (a) a clearer sense of the developmental progression of children's understanding of evidence, and (b) a rigorous and systematic investigation of children's open-ended reasoning about evidence in a rich content domain (paleontology). The strategic impact goal is to build capacity in children's museums, enabling them to offer more evidence-based science learning experiences for their visitors.
Building Demand for Math Literacy is a comprehensive project designed to increase arithmetic and algebraic mathematical competency among underserved youth, as well as high school and college students trained as Math Literacy Workers. This project builds on the success of the nationally renowned Algebra Project that is designed to foster mathematics achievement among inner city youth. Math Literacy Workers will deliver after school activities to African-American and Hispanic youth in grades 3-6. In addition to offering weekly math literacy workshops, Math Literacy Workers will also develop and implement Community Events for Mathematics Literacy and activities for families in the following cities: Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Jackson, MS; Miami, FL; Yuma, AZ; New Orleans, LA; San Francisco, CA and Newark, DE. The strategic impact will be demonstrated in the knowledge gained about the impact of diverse learning environments on mathematics literacy, effective strategies for family support of math learning, and the impact of culturally relevant software. Collaborators include the Algebra Project, the TIZ Media Foundation, and the Illinois Institute of Technology, as well as a host of community-based and educational partners. The project deliverables consist of a corps of trained Math Literacy Workers, workshops for youth, training materials and multimedia learning modules. It is anticipated this project will impact over 4,000 youth in grades 3-6, 700 high school and college students, and almost 4,000 family and community participants.
The New York Hall of Science is overseeing a complex, four-year applied research and traveling exhibit development project on "precursor concepts" to the theory of evolution. These concepts pertain to key ideas about life -- variation, inheritance, selection, and time (VIST) -- and are organized around the principle that living things change over time. The central research question is: Can informal, museum-based interventions prepare young children (5 -12) to understand the scientific basis of evolution by targeting their intuitive pre-evolutionary concepts? The work involves many collaborators -- museum personnel around the country, university researchers, exhibit designers and evaluators, web designers, the Association of Science-Technology Centers and a number of advisors in the biological sciences, psychology and in informal and formal education. The products include applied research studies that will add to the conceptual change knowledge base in cognitive psychology, a 1,000 square-foot exhibit plus discovery boxes, a section on the UC-Berkeley Understanding Evolution web site, extensive on site and online staff training opportunities for participating museums and others, several dissemination activities including two research symposia, and bilingual (English and Spanish) exhibit materials and family guides. The project is positioned as a new model in informal science education for integrating research, development and evaluation, with applicability beyond the life sciences to other STEM fields.
Michigan Technological University will collaborate with David Heil and Associates to implement the Family Engineering Program, working in conjunction with student chapters of engineering societies such as the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the Society of Hispanic Professionals (SHP) and a host of youth and community organizations. The Family Engineering Program is designed to increase technological literacy by introducing children ages 5-12 and their parents/caregivers to the field of engineering using the principles of design. The project will reach socio-economically diverse audiences in the upper peninsula of Michigan including Native American, Hispanic, Asian, and African American families. The secondary audience includes university STEM majors, informal science educators, and STEM professionals that are trained to deliver the program to families. A well-researched five step engineering design process utilized in the school-based Engineering is Elementary curriculum will be incorporated into mini design challenges and activities based in a variety of fields such as agricultural, chemical, environmental, and biomedical engineering. Deliverables include the Family Engineering event model, Family Engineering Activity Guide, Family Engineering Nights, project website, and facilitator training workshops. The activity guide will be pilot tested, field tested, and disseminated for use in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Strategic impact will result from the development of content-rich engineering activities for families and the dissemination of a project model that incorporates the expertise of engineering and educational professionals at multiple levels of implementation. It is anticipated that 300 facilitators and 7,000-10,000 parents and children will be directly impacted by this effort, while facilitator training may result in more than 27,000 program participants.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Neil HutzlerEric IversenChristine CunninghamJoan ChaddeDavid Heil
To address a lack of informal science education opportunities and to increase community capacity to support STEM education for their children, Washington State University's Yakima Valley/Tri Cities MESA program, the Pacific Science Center, and KDNA Educational Radio have developed a set of informal science initiatives that offer complementary learning opportunities for rural Latino families. The goal of this four-year program is to create a sustainable informal science infrastructure in southeastern Washington State to serve families, increase parental awareness, support and involvement in science education and ultimately increase the numbers of rural Latino youth pursuing STEM-related under graduate studies. This program is presented in English and Spanish languages in all of its interconnected deliverables: Two mobile exhibits, beginning with one focused on agricultural and environmental science developed by The Pacific Science (PCS) Center; Curriculum and training in agriculture, life sciences and facilitating learning; Curriculum and training for community members to provide support to parents in encouraging the academic aspirations of their children developed by PSC and MESA; 420 Youth and parents from the MESA program trained to interpret exhibits and run workshops, community festivals, family science workshops and Saturday programs throughout the community; Four annual community festivals, quarterly Family Saturday events, and Family Science Workshops reaching 20,000 people over the four-year project; Take home activities, science assemblies, a website and CDs with music and science programming for community events; A large media initiative including monthly one hour call-in radio programs featuring science experts, teachers, professionals, students and parents, 60-second messages promoting science concepts and resources and a publicity campaign in print, radio and TV to promote community festivals. These venues reach 12,500-25,000 people each; A program manual that includes training, curriculum and collaborative strategies used by the project team. Overall Accesso la Ciencia connects parents and children through fun community activities to Pasco School District's current LASER science education reform effort. This project complements the school districts effort by providing a strong community support initiative in informal science education. Each activity done in the community combines topics of interest to rural Latinos (agriculture for instance) to concepts being taught in the schools, while also providing tools and support to parents that increases their awareness of opportunities for their children in STEM education.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
James PrattD. Janae' LandisDonald LynchMichael Trevisan
This planning grant award addresses the subject of cosmology using contemporary film technology. A screen play and film prototype will take viewers from the historical Big Bang phenomena to contemporary thinking on dark energy and matter. STEM disciplines incorporated within this project are mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry and geology, in addition to astronomy. An additional significant issue in this award will be the effort to form a network of dome and planetarium theaters. Such an organization could facilitate promotion and evaluation of this project and future projects. In the future, the network will be positioned to assess the differences in educational impact from large format flat screen, large format dome screen and planetarium dome presentations. Collaborations on this project include The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, the Mathematics Science Research Institute, and advisors George Smoot and Saul Perlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Barbara Flagg is the project evaluator. Specific needs for the planning grant are to: 1. gather formative evaluation on audience parameters; 2. develop a short prototype film and a first draft of the screen play; 3. complete the advisory team; 4. translate the deliverables into Spanish language; 5. evaluate and bid the computer animation facilities; and 5. identify a network of dome and planetarium theaters for their evaluation.