The Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture (INPEACE) will create a mobile science exhibit to support improved academic outcomes in science and math for students from pre-school to eighth grade. With the collaboration of science experts, teachers, students, and cultural practitioners, the project team will identify and design three core exhibits using a culture-based educational approach. The project will link indigenous knowledge and practices with scientific theory, providing hands-on experiences designed to engage youth in STEM learning. The 'Ike Hawai'i Science Center Exhibit will visit rural Native Hawaiian communities on O'ahu and at least one other island. It will be available to public audiences of all ages.
The Montana Natural History Center, in collaboration with the University of Montana, will develop an exhibit to showcase a selection of the university's extensive fossil collection. This new exhibit will help create inclusive, inquiry-based, educational opportunities for preschoolers through adults. University faculty will guide specimen interpretation and story development. The exhibit will explore modern research into evolution in a time of climate change, sharing ongoing university research and highlighting STEM careers and citizen science work. The project is based on interests identified through surveys, museum visitor recommendations, and a member focus group.
The Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo will create the California Dinosaur Garden exhibition, an inclusive environment for children ages 3 to 11 that promotes science learning. The museum will employ sensory-rich storytelling and interactive experiences to engage children and their caregivers. Project activities will include the completion of initial concept designs and evaluation to inform exhibit development; design development, prototyping, and formative evaluation; and engaging external contractors to fabricate and install the exhibit. The exhibition will include prehistoric plants within a seasonal marsh landscape, interactive interpretive exhibits, a fossil dig, and life-size dinosaur sculptures. The project will also address the need for science learning experiences for children with disabilities by applying universal design principals such as wheelchair access to the garden experience, braille labels, and tactile, sensory-rich elements.
The Portland Children’s Museum will open a new exhibition, “Drip City,” which focuses on water as a precious natural resource that has shaped the region’s geography, weather, and culture. Following an IMLS-funded evaluation and design process, the museum will engage a local fabrication company to construct and install exhibit components that explore concepts in science, engineering, and art. The museum will also engage community members in the design and testing of associated programs that target families and children ages 0 to 7. Museum staff will evaluate all exhibit elements to ensure they are working properly, accessible as intended, and making children’s learning visible to adult audiences.
The Bronzeville Children's Museum will design and open a new exhibition, "African-Americans in STEM." The exhibit will support learning about science, technology, engineering, and math for children ages 3 to 9 through an exhibit design featuring bold colors and the use of green screen interactive animation programs. It will focus on the value and importance of these critical subjects, how they impact everyday lives, and will feature African Americans who are successful role models in STEM fields. Hands-on learning experiences will engage young minds while teaching valuable skills to spark excitement. The museum will survey its staff, docents, and volunteers for their assessment of the learning impact of the STEM exhibition on the children who visit. In addition, the museum will also survey community organizations and the Chicago Public Schools for feedback on the exhibition.
DuPage Children's Museum will enhance visitor engagement by incorporating current research on infant and toddler development to redesign two exhibits and develop an educational program for low-income caregivers. The museum will partner with two community-based organizations, Teen Parent Connection and Family Focus DuPage, to collaborate in the project and refer clients to participate in the educational programs. The museum will present twelve onsite sessions that will enable parents and caregivers to nurture an understanding of STEM fundamentals at the museum and at home for their young children. Participants will be given educational videos and take-home kits that correspond with the educational sessions. Project activities will also include training to help museum staff use the exhibits to further a visitor's learning experience. The museum will disseminate project results to other children's museums and early childhood educators and professionals.
Miami Children's Museum will redesign its Construction Zone Gallery into a STEM-learning space providing children, primarily ages eight and under, with a stimulating and interactive experience. The exhibition will incorporate 13 distinctive exhibition components, allowing full engagement in a variety of STEM-based learning activities. The museum will conduct focus group activities with field interpreters, specialists and educators working in STEM fields to guide and refine content development of the script and exhibition layout, followed by testing of the themes, programming activities, exhibition props and tools, software concepts, and learning outcomes. The project team will develop accompanying programming for children to be presented at the museum and at area public libraries. All components of the exhibition will support Florida's Early Learning Standards, and will meet the evolving educational needs of its youngest learners.
Sciencenter will develop a touring exhibition, Engineer.Design.Build, to spark interest and build confidence in STEM by providing learning opportunities about the broad impact engineers have on the environment and society. The museum will partner with Cornell University's College of Engineering to develop scientific content which will be reviewed by an advisory board of representatives from the academic, business, and informal science education sectors. Partners from informal learning institutions will provide expertise on the educational content to ensure that it is accessible and engaging for the target audience of 5-11 year olds. Through a combination of focus groups, youth/guest feedback during exhibition development, and experts in girls' engagement in STEM on the advisory board, the museum will ensure that the exhibition and programming are designed to appeal to girls, and accessible to all learners. The project will include front-end, formative, and summative evaluation through observations and mediated interviews, collecting data from youth, families, and school groups.
Marbles Kids Museum will develop tools and strategies to train its staff, volunteers, and interns to engage infants, toddlers, and preschool children in activities and conversations that lay the foundation for critical early math skills. The staff capacity-building project will deepen the museum staff's understanding of early math skills, how to foster those skills, and why investment in early math is critical to long term success in school. With a content coach, the museum will research and develop early math resources, activities, and exhibit enhancements that engage children and their families. Additionally, the museum will seek to understand community needs related to early math learning, and create content for professional development video modules. The museum will modify the professional development modules to create caregiver workshops focused on fostering early math learning through everyday activities and play at home. Museum staff will share tools and lessons learned through a regional museum convening and at national conferences.
This is the summative evaluation report for the “Understanding the Physics of Collaborative Design and Play,” a collaboration between researchers and children’s museum practitioners to design and build a physics-based children’s museum exhibit to provide opportunities for children and their caregivers to tinker with play related to the STEM concepts of momentum, mass, velocity, friction, and balance in the context of informal learning related to skateboarding. The exhibit, “The Science of Skateboarding” at the Iowa Children’s Museum, was designed and fabricated as a result of this grant.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Deb DunkhaseKristen MissallBenjamin DeVane
Children spend 80% of their waking hours outside of school in the community. Deep inequities exist in access to high quality informal STEM learning opportunities (museums, zoos, safe and beautiful parks). Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL) infuses playful learning opportunities into everyday community spaces where families spend time. This project represents a strength-based model for designing play spaces deeply connected to communities’ cultural assets.
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Andres BustamanteVanessa BermudezJulie SalazarLeiny GarciaKreshnik BegolliKarlena OchoaJune AhnKathy Hirsh-PasekAnnelise PeschRigoberto RodriguezPaola Padilla
Using a design-based research approach, we studied ways to advance opportunities for children and families to engage in engineering design practices in an informal educational setting. 213 families with 5–11-year-old children were observed as they visited a tinkering exhibit at a children’s museum during one of three iterations of a program posing an engineering design challenge. Children’s narrative reflections about their experience were recorded immediately after tinkering. Across iterations of the program, changes to the exhibit design and facilitation provided by museum staff corresponded
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Maria MarcusDiana AcostaPirko TouguDavid UttalCatherine Haden