This CRPA project is about research on climate change impacts in the Amazonian rain forest and about motivating youth to consider science as a career objective. The project is an exhibit in Biosphere 2 in Arizona wherein a rain forest is maintained and will be used to augment the exhibit of large photos of scientists doing research. Particular attention will be paid to female scientists to motivate young girls. Biosphere 2 and the Girl Scout Council of Southern Arizona will collaborate to attract girls through free admission days to Biosphere 2. These large photos will be equipped with sound and video so that as a visitor approaches the photo, the sounds of the forest as well as the researcher(s) will be heard. At this point the researcher, in the photograph, will begin a monologue with the visitor explaining what scientists are investigating and who the other workers are. In this monologue, the researcher will explain what they are doing specifically, why they are investigating this subject, and what they plan to derive as a scientific result. The exhibit will consist of fifty very large photographs (3x5 feet) with sound access via smart phones and headsets. In addition, there will be hands on equipment and docents for questions and discussion. The venue receives about 100,000 visitors per year consisting mainly of families, tourists, and clubs. Through this exhibit, the researchers intend to motivate youth to develop interests in STEM topics. Girls are the main target audience. For families and tourists, the exhibit communicates the message of how science is being used to determine the effect of climate change on rain forests and how that would affect other aspects of weather and the global environment.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Scott SaleskaBruce JohnsonJoost van HarenJennifer Fields
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The National Writing Project (NWP) is collaborating with the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) on a four-year, full-scale development project that is designed to integrate science and literacy. Partnerships will be formed between NWP sites and ASTC member science centers and museums to develop, test, and refine innovative programs for educators and youth, resulting in the creation of a unique learning network. The project highlights the critical need for the integration of science and literacy and builds on recommendations in the Common Core State Standards and the National Research Council's publication, "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas." The content focus includes current topics in science and technology such as environmental science, sustainability, synthetic biology, geoengineering, and other subjects which align with science center research and exhibits. The project design is supported by a framework that incorporates a constructivist/inquiry-based approach that capitalizes on the synergy between rigorous science learning and robust literacy practices. Project deliverables include a set of 10 local partnership sites, professional development for network members, a project website, and an evaluation report highlighting lessons learned. Partnership sites will be selected based on interest, proximity, history, and expertise. Two geographically and demographically diverse cohorts, consisting of five partnerships each will be identified in Years 2 and 3. Each set of partners will be charged with creating a comprehensive two-year plan for science literacy activities and products to be implemented at local sites. It is anticipated that the pilot programs may result in the creation of new programs that merge science and writing, integrate writing into existing museum science programs, or integrate science activities into existing NWP programs. Interest-driven youth projects such as citizen science and science journalism activities are examples of programmatic approaches that may be adopted. The partners will convene periodically for planning and professional development focused on the integration of science and literacy for public and professional audiences, provided in part by national practitioners and research experts. A network Design Team that includes leadership representatives from NWP, ASTC, and the project evaluator, Inverness Research, Inc., will oversee project efforts in conjunction with a national advisory board, while a Partnership Coordinator will provide support for the local sites. Inverness Research will conduct a multi-level evaluation to address the following questions: -What is the nature and quality of the local partner arrangements, and the larger network as a whole? -What is the nature and quality of the local science literacy programs that local partners initiate, and how do they engage local participants, and develop their sense of inquiry and communication skills? First, a Designed-Based Implementation Research approach will be used for the developmental evaluation to assess the implementation process. Next, the documentation and portrayal phase will assess the benefits to youth, educators, institutions, and the field using surveys, interviews, observations of educators, and reviews of science communication efforts created by youth. Finally, the summative evaluation includes a comprehensive portfolio of evidence to document the audience impacts and an independent assessment of the project model by an Evaluation Review Board. This project will result in the creation of a robust learning community while contributing knowledge and lessons learned to the field about networks and innovative partnerships. It is anticipated that formal and informal educators will gain increased knowledge about science and literacy programs and develop skills to provide effective programs, while youth will demonstrate increased understanding of key science concepts and the ability to communicate science. Programs created by the local partnerships will serve approximately 650 educators (450 informal educators and 200 K-12 teachers) and 500 youth ages 9-18. Plans for dissemination, expansion, and sustainability will be undertaken by the sub-networks of the collaborating national organizations drawing on the 350 ASTC member institutions and nearly 200 NWP sites at colleges and universities.
The Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) and Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG) will collaborate on a CRPA project designed to develop a dance-based performance to educate deaf and hard of hearing students on astrophysics concepts. This project seeks to address the following goals: 1) provide all audience members with access to scientific information in an inherently engaging and stimulating manner; 2) facilitate the acquisition of scientific knowledge in all audience members, including deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, with special reference to general information and basic concepts from the fields of gravitational physics and astrophysics; and 3) stimulate general interest in STEM fields within all audience members. An extensive team of physicists, arts faculty, computer scientists, performance experts, and evaluators have assembled to translate original research on gravity-based astrophysics, including collision events between black-holes and neutron-stars, entire galaxies, and the central black-hole engine that powers active galactic nuclei, into novel educational presentations. The original science to be presented was generated in part by the scientists at the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation. Project deliverables include live performances and a project website with educational materials and a virtual tour of the recorded performance. The live performances will include dance and computer generated visualizations of space phenomena, supplemented with discussion and interactive components to engage audiences both before and after the presentation. The mixed-method evaluation will provide insights into how the medium of dance can be used to engage audiences in STEM fields and increase the understanding of STEM content areas which have had little previous investigation, but may be highly relevant to the engagement of underserved audiences. Performances are planned for select sites in New York, Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania and Maryland. It is estimated that the project will directly impact 7,000 individuals, approximately half of whom will be deaf or hard or hearing. Deaf and hard of hearing populations are greatly underserved in science education. This project is an effort to bridge that gap by providing creative models for communicating to the public on contemporary science concepts. Learning outcomes for the target audience include increasing awareness and interest in STEM, acquisition of information and basic concepts from the fields of gravitational physics and astrophysics, and enhancing awareness of relationships among science and the arts. Project activities will be disseminated through the website hosted by the Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. The project will also be promoted through science festivals and media events.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Manuela CampanelliHans-Peter BischofJacob Noel-Storr
The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, in collaboration with several informal science education and other cultural and business organizations in San Diego, Chicago, and Worcester, MA are implementing a research and development project that investigates a range of possible approaches for stimulating the development of 21st Century creativity skills and innovative processes at the interface between informal STEM learning and methods for creative thinking. The goal of the research is to advance understanding of the potential impacts of creative thinking methods on the public's understanding of and engagement with STEM, with a focus on 21st Century workforce skills of teens and adults. The goal of the project's development activities is to experiment with a variety of "innovation incubator" models in cities around the country. Modeled on business "incubators" or "accelerators" that are designed to foster and accelerate innovation and creativity, these STEM incubators generate collaborations of different professionals and the public around STEM education and other STEM-related topics of local interest that can be explored with the help of creative learning methodologies such as innovative methods to generate creative ideas, ideas for transforming one STEM idea to others, drawing on visual and graphical ideas, improvisation, narrative writing, and the process of using innovative visual displays of information for creating visual roadmaps. Hosting the project's incubators are the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership (San Diego), the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) and the EcoTarium (Worcester, MA). National partners are the Association of Science-Technology Centers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Americans for the Arts. Activities will include: the formation and collaborative processes of three incubator sites, a research study, the development of a creative thinking curriculum infused into science education, professional development based on the curriculum, public engagement events and exhibits, a project website and tools for social networking, and project evaluation. A national advisory council includes professionals in education, science, creativity, and business.
This project takes advantage of the charismatic nature of arachnids to engage the public in scientific inquiry, dialogue, and exploration. The project has two specific programs: (1) The development, implementation, and assessment of an informal museum event entitled 'Eight-Legged Encounters' which now has more than 25 associated activity stations. These activities encompass stations relating to (a) classification and systematics (e.g., 'What is an Arthropod', 'Create a Chelicerate', and 'Assemble an Arachnid'), (b) spider-specific stations focused on silk (e.g., 'Build a Burrow', 'Cribellate vs. Ecribellate Silk', 'Weave a Web', and 'Catch a Moth'), and (c) research related stations (e.g., 'Microscope Madness' and 'Community Experiment'). In addition, there is a stand-alone module entitled the 'Path of Predators' that includes an activity booklet and eleven stations that walk participants through the eleven living arachnid orders. Each stations has original artwork backdrops, clay sculptures, trading cards, and collectible stamps (participants place stamps on a phlylogenetic tree depicting the current hypothesis of evolutionary relationships among the eleven orders). Most stations have live animals and prizes are given to participants that complete their stamp booklet. 'Eight-Legged Encounters' has been hosted at the Nebraska State Museum (Morrill Hall) twice, with record-breaking attendance (>800 people in
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University of Nebraska-LincolnEileen Hebets
Small Matters is a scientific storytelling project in response to a supplemental funding opportunity designed to pair an NSF Center for Chemical Innovation with an Informal Science Education organization. Meisa Salaita, Director for Education & Outreach for the Center for Chemical Evolution, and Ari Daniel, independent radio and multimedia producer and science journalist, collaborated on this project designed to increase chemical literacy in the general public and promote partnerships between scientists and informal science educators. In the tradition of folklore, educators have used storytelling to stimulate students’ critical thinking skills across and within disciplines, demonstrating an improvement in comprehension and logical thinking, enhancing memory, and creating a motivation and enthusiasm for learning. Within science, storytelling allows learners to experience the how of scientific inquiry, including the intellectual and human struggles of the scientists who are making discoveries. Accordingly, our project uses multimedia and live performance to engage the public in learning about chemistry through storytelling. We have developed a series audio pieces entitled Small Matters aimed at enriching public science literacy, namely within the chemical sciences. The format of these pieces includes standard public radio narrative style, short scientist-narrated nuggets, and imaginative sonic explorations of key chemistry concepts. The stories have been disseminated through a variety of broadcast media connections, including "Living on Earth" and local Atlanta public radio station WABE. In addition to the audio-based science journalism pieces that we have been producing, we have taken the stories we uncovered and brought them to live audiences, integrating chemistry, journalism, and the arts to create a human connection between our scientists and the public. The radio pieces were woven in with performances of poetry, comedy and satire in collaboration with literary performing arts group The Encyclopedia Show to create a live variety show (May 2013). In addition, scientists identified through our production of Small Matters were trained in storytelling techniques and brought together for an evening of live storytelling in Atlanta with The Story Collider (March 2014).
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TEAM MEMBERS:
NSF/NASA Center for Chemical EvolutionMeisa Salaita
The Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre (doing business as the Learning World Institute), in collaboration with informal science education venues, universities, and corporations in Chicago, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., is organizing a set of three professional conferences and a web site to encourage stronger national and local communities of practice around the application of arts-based learning (ABL) to informal science education. Arts-based learning is the instrumental use of artistic skills, processes, and experiences to foster learning in non-artistic disciplines. The goal is to apply ABL to informal science education in ways that can foster the acquisition of STEM skills that are important in today's workforce. The set of conferences, with a total attendance of 750, will focus on an understanding of current and potential ABL applications to workforce skill development, opportunities to practice ABL directly, and creation of a research agenda on the impact of ABL on science education. The web site (funded through other sources) will help conference attendees prepare for the workshops, provide opportunities for networking, aggregate resources, and host the research agenda.
Funded jointly by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the MacArthur Foundation, in partnership with the and Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and Urban Libraries Council (ULC), Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums supports the planning and design of 24 learning labs in libraries and museums nationwide. The inaugural cohort of 12 sites ran from January 2012 to June 2013, and a second cohort of 12 additional sites began in January 2013 and will extend through June 2014. In addition to the primary awardees, most grants included additional institutional partners, resulting in a rich community including over 100 professionals from approximately 50 participating organizations (libraries, museums, universities, and community-based organizations). The labs are intended to engage middle- and high-school youth in mentor-led, interest-based, youth-centered, collaborative learning using digital and traditional media. Inspired by YOUmedia, an innovative digital space for teens at the Chicago Public Library, as well as innovations in science and technology centers, projects participating in Learning Labs are expected to provide prototypes for the field based on current research about digital media and youth learning, and build a "community of practice" among the grantee institutions and practitioners interested in developing similar spaces.
The Great Immensity is a play with music created by the New York-based theater company, The Civilians. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), this production explores humans' relationship to the environment focusing on critical issues of conservation and climate change. It premiered at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre (KC Rep) from February 17 through March 18, 2012. This summative evaluation employs the Framework for Evaluating Impacts of Informal Science Education Projects (Friedman 2008) to assess the play and its ancillary programs' impact on adult and student audiences
The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) is collaborating with the Museum of Science in Boston (MoS), the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science in Durham (NCMLS), Explora in Albuquerque, the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education at San Diego State University (CRMSE), and TERC in Cambridge, MA to develop, create and evaluate "MathCore for Museums," long-term math environments that children can interact with over multiple visits and over several years. The project is prototyping and producing 12 open-source, validated interactive exhibits about proportion: fractions, ratios, similarity, scaling, and percentages, basic concepts for understanding Algebra. The eight best exhibits will be replicated for each MathCore museum and the exhibits will be supported by a limited-access website designed to support and extend repeated use of exhibits and further exploration of ratio and proportion. Selinda Research Associates will conduct a longitudinal evaluation of the project. CRSME will conduct a research study of selected exhibit prototypes to investigate when children start to work on proving relations between similarity and proportion in informal settings, the relationship between children's artwork and mathematical insight, and the roles of bodily activity in learning to see relations in similarity and proportion. Results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications, at professional meetings, at the Association of Science and Technology Center's RAP Sessions at the NCMLS, and through the project's website.
The Addressing Gender Barriers in STEM through Theatre of Social Engagement project responds to the need to educate the public about the careers in computer and information science and engineering (CISE) fields by educating high school students, parents, teachers and counselors about the barriers to participation that confront women and other underrepresented groups. In this Communicating Research to Public Audiences (CRPA) project, a dramatic play is used to communicate the findings from the PI's work which resulted in a theory about gender and IT to explain and predict gender (under)representation in IT fields. The play dramatizes constructs of the theory, particularly the ways in which gender, ethnicity, and class affect identity and career and life decisions. Drawing from life history interviews conducted as a part of the research, the storyline of the dramatic play centers on three young women who are graduating from high school and making decisions about their futures and possible careers in IT. Situated squarely in the realm and literature of "theatre of social engagement," this play, and its staged readings and ancillary website, extend access beyond the scientific community to new scientific research on gender barriers in CISE. Learning goals for the project include: 1. Awareness and knowledge about possible computer and information science and engineering careers; barriers and stereotypes that affect CISE career choice among women; and "significant others" such as partners, family members, mentors and teachers who can make a difference at key inflection points in career decision making. 2. Attitude change about the CISE fields being open to everyone regardless of gender, ethnicity, race or class; how one's individual characteristics can be used to resist barriers to inclusion in CISE careers. 3. Intended behavior about learning more about CISE careers and educational opportunities; and responding to negative stereotypes related to CISE. Evaluation of the proposed project will include observations, talk-back sessions (focus groups) after readings of the play, pre-post surveys administered at the showings, and a second post-performance survey to be administered a certain amount of time after the showing. Dissemination will be through readings of the play for audiences in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with partnering informal learning venues, and through an associated website which will allow visitors to download and stage the play themselves. Advertisement for the play and the website will take place through websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and websites that promote diversity in computing. In addition, the PI intends to contribute to the scholarly literature on theatre as an informal learning approach and on the findings of how audiences respond to the play itself.