In this paper we compare pre-COVID-19 and post-2021 Tactile Mental Cutting Test assessment data from blind or low-vision participants including scores and test duration between 2019 and 2022. Results show a statistically significant difference in how long it took participants to complete the TMCT between the two timeframes.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David SearleDaniel KaneNatalie ShaheenWade Goodridge
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
An adapted three-dimensional model of place attachment is proposed as a theoretical framework from which place-based citizen science experiences and outcomes might be empirically examined in depth.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Julia ParrishYurong HeBenjamin Haywood
resourceevaluationProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
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
Creating science education that can contribute to cultivating just, culturally thriving, and sustainable worlds is an important issue of our time. Indigenous peoples have persistently been under-represented in science reproducing inequalities in a myriad of ways from educational attainment, participation in and contributing to innovations in foundational knowledge, to effective policy making that upholds and respects Indigenous sovereignty. The development of models of science education that attend to intersections of knowledge and development, socio-scientific decision-making and civic leadership, and the complexities and contradictions of these realities, is imperative. This five-year Innovations in Development project broadens participation and strengthens infrastructure and capacity for Indigenous learners to meet, adapt to, and lead change in relation to the socio-ecological challenges of the 21st century. The project engages multi-sited community-based design studies to develop and research the impacts of Indigenous informal field-based science education with three Indigenous leadership communities from the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes. This project will have broader impacts through model development, building infrastructure to transform the capacity of informal field-based science education, and will produce cutting edge foundational knowledge about pressing 21st century issues with a particular focus on Indigenous communities. The project increases Indigenous participation in research through 1) engagement of Indigenous community members as research assistants, 2) training of Indigenous graduate fellows, and post-doctoral fellows, and 3) supporting the careers of more junior Indigenous scholars.
This research seeks to identify key design features of an Indigenous field (land/water) based model of science education and to understand how learners’ and educators’ reasoning, deliberation, decision-making, and leadership about complex socio-ecological systems and community change evolve in such learning environments. The project also examines key aspects of co-design and partnership with Tribal communities and how these methods of co-production of new science enable new capacities for systems transformation. This multi-layered project is organized through 3 panels of studies including: Panel 1) community-based design experiments to develop and refine a model of Indigenous informal science education; Panel 2) co-design and implementation of professional learning programs for Indigenous informal science education; and Panel 3) foundational studies in cognition and learning with respect to socio-ecological systems thinking and the impact on learning and instructional practices. Of particular importance in this research is the rigorous development and articulation of effective pedagogical practices and orientations. More broadly, findings will have clear implications for theories of cognitive development, deliberation and environmental decision making and especially those pertaining to how knowledge is shaped by culture and experience.
This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Filiberto Barajas-LopezAnna LeesMegan BangAnna LeesFiliberto Barajas-Lopez
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 summative evaluation report presents findings and lessons learned on the STEM Ambassadors project. The STEM Ambassadors project, funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, combines elements of existing programs designed to engage STEM professionals with the public around their scientific research to create a new model for public engagement of science. This new model recruits, provides training for, and assists STEM professionals in drawing on their own interests, hobbies and backgrounds to connect with audiences that may not have
Please join us in celebrating Citizen Science Day, which falls this year on Saturday, April 14th. This issue of Connected Science Learning is dedicated to highlighting effective citizen science programs that involve classroom students in collecting data for research scientists, while also engaging them in key STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) content and practices. Students get a “front row seat” to what scientists do and how scientists work, plus develop the reasoning skills and practices used by scientists.
With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), SciStarter 2.0 was launched to enhance, diversify, and validate participant engagement in scientific research in need of the public’s help. SciStarter’s leadership is part of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee, Designing Citizen Science to Support Science Learning, which is developing guidelines and a research agenda for citizen science in education. This article briefly introduces educators to SciStarter 2.0.
An interview with Jacquelynne S. Eccles, an academic researcher, is presented. Eccles states that after enrolling in graduate school at UCLA in Los Angeles, California, she learned more about what it entailed to be an academic researcher. Eccles avers that she is interested in how people make selections. Eccles believe that the expectations for one's performance and the value that one connects to acting well are heavily socialized within the cultural setting as individuals grow up.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Héfer Bembenutty
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.