Kera Collective conducted two rounds of program evaluation to understand the experience and impact of Coastal Maine Botanical Garden’s (CMBG) Advanced Studies in Professional Horticulture programs, which vary in format from standalone lectures to multi-session certificate courses.
This document is the final evaluation report for the Teen Science Cafes for Advancing STEM in Rural Places project.
A Teen Science Café is a free, regularly occurring event during the school year in which a local scientist, engineer, or STEM expert discusses their field experiences with the teen attendees. Ideally, a Teen Leader cohort, under the mentorship of an Adult Leader, organizes and implements each Café.
The Teen Science Café Network is a community of practice linking the various youth-serving organizations, institutions, community settings, and individuals that host Teen Science
This is the final evaluation report from RMC Research Corp. for the PES@LTERs project. Appendix includes instruments.
RMC Research designed evaluation activities to provide formative and summative feedback to Harvard Forest and the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (Hubbard Brook) on their plan to embed public engagement with science (PES) into the cultures and practices of Long-Term Ecological Research Sites (LTERs) in the northeastern US. The purpose of this project was to build PES mechanisms into long-term ecosystem studies that create on-going, open exchanges between scientists and
Over the past two decades the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has nearly tripled and yet there is much to learn about serving this audience well. After high school exit, most are left to navigate the world without appropriate support or the requisite skills necessary for success. Educators working in informal science institutions (ISI) can better promote both social interaction and engagement in STEM education for individuals with ASD. A learning environment in which the learner chooses content aligned with their personal interests and where learning can be multifaceted (verbal, hands-on, fast or slow, social or solitary, directed or inquiry based, physical, etc.) is consistent with the central tenets of an evidence-based, outcome-driven approach for autism intervention. ISI educators have the desire but may not have sufficient and timely knowledge and skills to engage and support this audience. Currently, many are working at the local level to develop new programs and approaches for patrons with ASD, with little evaluation or research and not building on each other's work. The project will develop a rigorous customized professional learning experience designed to enhance capacity of ISIs broadly in ASD support techniques and strategies. The goal is to enable more inclusive opportunities for people with ASD based on current and emerging promising practices. The project's theory of action is that the ability of people with ASD to participate in traditional, mainstream experiences will improve their motivation to seek other similar opportunities, build interpersonal skills critical to successful interaction in society, formal education, and careers. This, in turn, will help individuals with ASD gain the skills and confidence needed to pursue STEM academically and professionally. The project is a collaboration between the Institute for Learning Innovation, the SciTech Institute, and the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARRC). This project is funded by the Advanced Informal STEM Learning program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.
The pilot's main research questions are: (1) To what degree does the professional learning program support the learning outcomes in knowledge, awareness, interest, skills, attitude, and behavior change in informal science education providers? and (2) What features of the program do educators consider most effective for improving their ability to serve this audience? Four Arizona ISIs will participate in a research-based design study; their staff will also comprise the founding members of a Community of Practice aimed at sharing promising practices and promoting broader engagement among the informal science education community. The professional development (PD) will be provided by SARRC. New formative evaluation skills will support ongoing innovation and build participant capacity. Leveraging this training, the ISIs will create and test new approaches and programs, apply new skills in formative evaluation, and develop internal workplace programs to create cultures of ASD understanding. A pilot research study will recruit 20 diverse individuals with ASD who will visit each institution prior to and after the PD for staff. The research will measure the degree to which the PD impacts attendee experience as well as assess the science learning that occurred because of their visit. This project will advance collaboration between ASD experts and ISI educators to iteratively develop effective museum learning strategies. Other goals of this work are to provide important insights into (a) the current state of accessibility programs in ISI venues nationally, (b) how PD can be leveraged to help institutions reach true inclusion, and (c) initial evidenced-based approaches for inclusion of individuals on the Autism spectrum in mainstream informal environments. In addition to the research findings, deliverables include an ASD PD model, national inventory of current practices and programs that support ASD learning and participation, and the establishment of a Community of Practice.
This Innovations in Development award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
This video presents reflections on SCIENCES: Supporting a Community’s Informal Education Needs—Confidence and Empowerment in STEM. SCIENCES brought together Eden Place Nature Center and the Chicago Zoological Society to collaboratively support environmental conservation and lifelong scientific learning in the Fuller Park neighborhood of Chicago.
The SCIENCES project began in 2013 and focused on adapting existing educational programs into a suite of environmentally focused science learning opportunities for professional, student, and public audiences in the Fuller Park neighborhood
The summative evaluation documents and articulates what SCIENCES has improved or changed, and in what ways. The final design of the summative evaluation was based on findings from the front-end and formative evaluations, including using participatory evaluation techniques to engage community members in discussing their experience with the programs and assessment of community needs and assets at the close of the project.
The goal of the summative evaluation was to address discrete program impacts in the context of the project, as well as the cross-program impact of providing a thematically
In The Nature of Community: SCIENCES, we share the lessons learned from an innovative partnership designed to leverage the strengths of two nonprofit organizations—a large cultural institution and a smaller, deeply-rooted community-based organization, both of which offer informal science education expertise.
You’ll read first-hand reflections of how staff members, community leaders and members, children, and adults experienced this partnership: the expectations, surprises, challenges, successes, and lessons learned. We hope the description of this partnership inspires other organizations to
The Multi-Site Public Engagement with Science—Synthetic Biology (MSPES) initiative was an Innovations in Development project funded by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1421179) through the Advancing of Informal STEM Learning program (AISL). MSPES promoted public engagement with science (PES)—a model of mutual dialogue and learning between public and scientist audiences—through the creation and distribution of PES kits to nearly 200 informal science education sites around the country. Kits included two types of learning experiences: (1) forum programs during which scientists and teen or
Digital Observation Technology Skills (DOTS) is a framework for integrating modern, mobile technology into outdoor, experiential science education. DOTS addresses longstanding tensions between modern technology and classical outdoor education by carefully selecting appropriate digital technology for educational purposes and by situating these tools in classical experiential pedagogy.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
R. Justin HoughamMarc NutterCaitlin Graham
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This is a project to offer the Forum on Inclusive STEMM Entrepreneurship (FISE), a novel effort to broaden the participation of underrepresented minority women in STEMM entrepreneurship and to enhance the diversity of the science and engineering workforce. Through a convening of educators, entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, industry leaders, investors and policy experts, entrepreneurial education thought leaders, and intersectionality scholars the PI proposes to use this conference as a platform for building capacity in the preparation and development of future entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups. The PI also seeks to contribute to the emerging field of research that bridges tech entrepreneurship and education policy.
The proposed forum has the potential to advance knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship education and engineering education. Given the dearth of research-based interventions to broaden participation in tech entrepreneurship, this conference offers an opportunity for participants to contribute to the leading edge of research and interventions in this field.
The convening and associated activities will leverage the social capital of knowledgeable experts in the academy and industry, investors, entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs to address critical needs of the nation that relate to enhanced global competitiveness, an improved national economy, and the participation of underrepresented cohorts in entrepreneurship and commercialization.