This Partnership Development & Planning project seeks to foster respectful, reciprocal, and lasting partnerships at Grand Canyon among members of the Traditionally Associated Tribes, the Grand Canyon Trust, Interpretive Park Rangers, and Grand Canyon geoscientists. With multiple layers of Tribal oversight, the project will use the four Rs of Indigenous research (reciprocity, relevance, respect, and responsibility) and a Dine analytical model to support relationship and trust building activities (e.g., site visits, story circles, a workshop) and co-development.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Steven SemkenKarletta Chief Laura CrosseyKarl Karlstrom
The CEDERS program is designed to prioritize community engaged scholarship in educational research projects led by postdoctoral fellows and done in collaboration with STEM researchers and community stakeholders.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Shalaunda ReevesCourtney FaberElizabeth DerryberryFrances HarperStephanie Drumheller-Horton
While there is a growing commitment in ISL to broadening participation in STEM, genuine diversity cannot be attained if current efforts continue to revolve around a dominant paradigm. This research synthesis project will review, summarize, and interpret existing research and knowledge on non-Western STEM knowledge, worldviews, and ways of knowing.
This Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure Incubator is enabling researchers, communities, and educators in co-developing and pilot testing infrastructure to increase the speed and scale of equitable STEM education research.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Julie LibarkinRashida HarrisonKathleen FitzpatrickGillian Roehrig
The program was co-created with practitioners and students who are people of color and/or immigrants, representing a range of gender identities and sexual orientations and neurodivergent individuals alongside facilitators that specialize in helping STEM professionals address social inequities. The IDEAL program supports practitioners in developing self-awareness, readiness, agency, and resources to modify their projects with practices that support belonging, equity, and accessibility.
The conference will provide a critical opportunity for enhancing knowledge around innovation in these areas and sharing lessons learned with and advancing collaboration. The focus will be on collective impact, rural empowerment, and successful rural STEM programs.
This project is designed to support collaboration between informal STEM learning (ISL) researchers, designers, and educators with sound researchers and acoustic ecologists to jointly explore the role of auditory experiences—soundscapes—on learning. In informal STEM learning spaces, where conversation advances STEM learning and is a vital part of the experience of exploring STEM phenomena with family and friends, attention to the impacts of soundscapes can have an important bearing on learning. Understanding how soundscapes may facilitate, spark, distract from, or even overwhelm thinking and conversation will provide ISL educators and designers evidence to inform their practice. The project is structured to reflect the complexity of ISL audiences and experiences; thus, partners include the North Park Village Nature Center located in in a diverse immigrant neighborhood in Chicago; Wild Indigo, a Great Lakes Audubon program primarily serving African American visitors in Midwest cities; an after-school/summer camp provider, STEAMing Ahead New Mexico, serving families in the rural southwest corner of New Mexico, and four sites in Ohio, MetroParks, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, and the Center of Science and Industry.
Investigators will conduct large-scale exploratory research to answer an understudied research question: How do environmental sounds impact STEM learning in informal learning spaces? Researchers and practitioners will characterize and describe the soundscapes throughout the different outdoor and indoor exhibit/learning spaces. Researchers will observe 800 visitors, tracking attraction, attention, dwell time, and shared learning. In addition to observations, researchers will join another 150 visitors for think-aloud interviews, where researchers will walk alongside visitors and capture pertinent notes while visitors describe their experience in real time. Correlational and cluster analyses using machine learning algorithms will be used to identify patterns across different sounds, soundscapes, responses, and reflections of research participants. In particular, the analyses will identify characteristics of sounds that correlate with increased attention and shared learning. Throughout the project, a team of evaluators will monitor progress and support continuous improvement, including guidance for developing culturally responsive research metrics co-defined with project partners. Evaluators will also document the extent to which the project impacts capacity building, and influences planning and design considerations for project partners. This exploratory study is the initial in a larger research agenda, laying the groundwork for future experimental study designs that test causal claims about the relationships between specific soundscapes and visitor learning. Results of this study will be disseminated widely to informal learning researchers and practitioners through workshops, presentations, journal articles, facilitated conversations, and a short film that aligns with the focus and findings of the research.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Martha MersonJustin MeyerDaniel Shanahan
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Developing solutions to large-scale collective problems -- such as resilience to environmental challenges -- requires scientifically literate communities. However, the predominant conception of scientific literacy has focused on individuals, and there is not consensus as to what community level scientific literacy is or how to measure it. Thus, a 2016 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, “Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences,” stated that community level scientific literacy is undertheorized and understudied. More specifically, the committee recommended that research is needed to understand both the i) contexts (e.g., a community’s physical and social setting) and ii) features of community organization (e.g., relationships within the community) that support community level science literacy and influence successful group action. This CAREER award responds to this nationally identified need by iteratively refining a model to conceptualize and measure community level scientific literacy. The model and metrics developed in this project may be applied to a wide range of topics (e.g., vaccination, pandemic response, genetically-modified foods, pollution control, and land-use decisions) to improve a community’s capacity to make scientifically-sound collective decisions. This CAREER award is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) and the EHR CORE Research (ECR) programs. It supports the AISL program goals to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. It supports the ECR program goal to advance relevant research knowledge pertaining to STEM learning and learning environments.
The proposed research will conceptualize, operationalize, and measure community level scientific literacy. This project will use a comparative multiple case study research design. Three coastal communities, faced with the need to make scientifically-informed land-use decisions, will be studied sequentially. A convergent mixed methods design will be employed, in which qualitative and quantitative data collection and analyses are performed concurrently. To describe the i) context of each community case, this project will use qualitative research methods, including document analysis, observation, focus groups, and interviews. To measure the ii) features of community organization for each community case, social network analysis will be used. The results from this research will be disseminated throughout and at the culmination of the project through professional publications and conference presentations as well as with community stakeholders and the general public. The integrated education activities include a professional learning certificate for informal science education professionals and STEM graduate students. This certificate emphasizes high-quality community-engaged scholarship, placing students with partners such as museums, farmer’s markets, and libraries, to offer informal learning programs in their communities. This professional learning program will be tested as a model to provide training for STEM graduate students who would like to communicate their research to the public through outreach and extension activities.
This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).
Zoos and aquariums have been offering programming, events, and visit accommodations to autistic individuals for several years. While these efforts can provide great experiences, they are focused more on accommodation and the outward-facing guest experience than inclusion. Lack of inclusion features in design, programming, and representation amongst zoo and aquarium representatives, ultimately limits full inclusion and adds to a sense in autistic individuals of not belonging and not being welcomed. To develop a fully inclusive experience for autistic individuals, this project will develop an evidence-based framework of inclusive practices for zoos and aquariums and build a community of practice around inclusion broadly. The project brings together researchers from Oregon State University, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Researchers will create and investigate the extent and ways in which a research-informed framework and associated tools (i.e. case studies, discussion guides, self-guided audits, etc.) and strategies support science learning for autistic individuals, and help practitioners expand access and inclusion of autistic audiences beyond special events or the general visit experience by applying inclusive practices for programs, exhibit development, internships, volunteer opportunities, and employment. To maximize impact, the project will develop and expand a network of early adopters to build a community of practice around inclusive practices to develop fully inclusive zoo and aquarium experiences for all individuals.
The project will investigate 4 research questions: (1) In what ways and to what extent are zoos and aquariums currently addressing access and inclusion for autistic individuals? (2) How do staff in zoos and aquariums perceive their and their institution’s willingness and ability to address access and inclusion for autistic individuals? (3) What is a framework of evidence-based practices across the zoo and aquarium experience that is inclusive for autistic individuals, and what associated tools and strategies are needed to make the framework useful for early adopters? And (4) to what extent and in what ways does a research informed framework with associated tools and strategies engage, support, and enhance an existing community of practitioners already dedicated to addressing autistic audiences and promote inclusive practices at zoos and aquariums for autistic people? The project is designed as two phases: (1) the research and development of a framework of inclusive practices and tools for supporting autistic individuals and (2) expanding a network of early adopters to build a community of practice around inclusive practices and an overall strategy of implementation. The framework will be informed through a state of the field study across the zoo/aquarium field that includes a landscape study and needs assessment as well as a review of literature that synthesizes existing research across disciplines for developing inclusive practices for autistic individuals in zoos and aquariums. The team will also conduct online surveys and focus groups to gather input from various stakeholders including zoo and aquarium employees and practitioners, autistic individuals, and their social groups (e.g., family members, peers, advocacy organizations). The second phase of the study will focus on sharing the framework and tools with practitioners across the zoo/aquarium field for feedback and reflection to develop an overall strategy for broader implementation and expanding the existing network of zoo and aquarium professionals to build a community of practice dedicated to the comprehensive inclusion of autistic individuals across the full zoo and aquarium experience. The results will be disseminated through conference presentations, scholarly publications, online discussion forums, and collaborative partners’ websites. The project represents one of the first of its kind on autistic audiences within the zoo and aquarium context and is the first to look at the full experience of autistic patrons to zoos and aquariums across programs/events, exhibits, volunteering, internship, and employment opportunities. A process evaluation conducted as part of the project will explore how the approach taken in this project may be more broadly applied in understanding and advancing inclusion for other audiences historically underserved or marginalized by zoos and aquariums.
This Research in Service to Practice project is supported by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program.
Access to STEM information is unequal, with rural and poor communities often receiving the fewest public education science and science literacy opportunities. Rural areas also face unique STEM teaching and technology integration challenges. In fact, LatinX communities in rural areas are less likely to have access to educational resources and language supports available to LatinX communities in urban centers. This project will help address these inequities by engaging rural librarians, bilingual science communicators, polar scientists, and a technical team to create a series of five bilingual virtual reality (VR) experiences to enhance STEM understanding and appreciation. Project researchers will create a new channel for disseminating polar science, working first with rural Latinx communities in Wisconsin to create a new network between rural communities and university researchers. Involving rural librarians in the co-design of instruction process will produce new ways for rural libraries to engage their local communities and their growing Latinx populations with polar science learning experiences. Each of the five VR experiences will focus on a different area of research, using the captivating Arctic and Antarctic environments as a central theme to convey science. VR is a particularly powerful and apt approach, making it possible to visit places that most cannot experience first-hand while also learning about the wide range of significant research taking place in polar regions. After design, prototyping and testing are finished, the VR experiences will be freely available for use nationally in both rural and urban settings. Public engagement with science creates a multitude of mutual benefits that result from a better-informed society. These benefits include greater trust and more reasoned scrutiny of science along with increased interest in STEM careers, many of which have higher earning potential. The project team will partner with 51 rural libraries which are valued community outlets valuable outlets to improve science literacy and public engagement with science. The effects of this project will be seen with thousands of community members who take part in the testing of prototype VR experiences during development and scaled engagement through ongoing library programs utilizing the final VR experiences for years to come.
This project will create new informal STEM learning assessment techniques through combining prior efforts in the areas of educational data mining for stealth assessment and viewpoint similarity metrics through monitoring gaze direction. Results of the project contribute to the field of educational data mining (EDM), focusing on adopting its methods for VR learning experiences. EDM is a process of using fine grained interaction data from a digital system to support educationally relevant conclusions and has been applied extensively to intelligent tutors and more recently, educational videogames. This project will continue building on existing approaches by expanding to include the unique affordances of VR learning media, specifically gaze. The project will focus on predicting user quitting as well as assessing key learning goals within each experience and triangulate these predictive models with user observations and post-experience surveys. The eventual application of this foundational research would address the problem in assessing a learner using measures external to the experience itself (i.e., surveys) and instead provide new methods that instrument learners using only data generated by their actions within the learning context. These techniques will provide a new means for evaluating informal learning in immersive technology settings without need for explicit tagging. The findings from this project will enable a greater understanding of the relationship between a user’s experience and their learning outcomes, which may prove integral in the creation of educational interventions using VR technology.
This Innovations in Development project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to (a) advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments; (b) provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; (c) advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and (d) engage the public of all ages in learning STEM in informal environments. This project is also supported by the Office of Polar Programs.
The science museum field is only starting to look at ways of providing visitors with opportunities for the authentic observation of complex, real-time biological phenomenon. The project will develop and research a microscope-based exhibit with pedagogical scaffolding (i.e., helpful prompts) that responds to visitors' changing views as they explore live samples and biological processes. As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings. Scientific observation is a systematic, complex practice, critical in the biological sciences where investigation is heavily reliant on visual data. Using techniques and equipment similar to what scientists themselves use, the exhibit will enable visitors to see and explore the complex, dynamic visual evidence that scientists themselves see. The exhibit will use new and more affordable high-resolution imaging technology and image analysis software to make microscopic images of living organisms visible. Armed with "smart" (i.e., computer-assisted) pedagogical scaffolding that supports inquiry, the project will develop exhibits that help informal learners bridge the gap between everyday observation and authentic scientific observation. The platform will incorporate strategies grounded in prior work on learning through observation that will be applicable to a range of biological content and live specimens. The project platform will be designed for use to a variety of informal science learning environments, including nature centers and mobile laboratories as well as interactive science centers. The project platform itself, including the microscope, related imaging, and learning technologies will be relatively inexpensive, bring it within reach of small science museum and schools. The exhibit will directly engage thousands of learners who visit the Exploratorium and will reach underserved audiences through partnerships with BioBus, a mobile unit that serves the New York City area, and the Noyo Center of Marine Science, a science museum that serves rural areas in Northern California.
The project will move beyond simulation and modeling of complex visual phenomena and provide learners with experiences using real visual evidence that can deeply engage them with the content and practice of biological science. By grounding the work in prior theoretical and empirical findings, project research will refine and broaden understanding of scaffolding strategies and their effect on informal science learning at exhibits. Project research will investigate how the project supports learners (1) asking productive questions (i.e., those answerable through observations) that are meaningful to them, (2) interpreting what they see, and (3) connecting their observations to biological concepts to build a more coherent understanding of the content and practice of biological disciplines. A series of comparative studies across and within venues, specimens, and content will assess engagement and scaffolding strategies, with a particular focus on appropriately integrating computational imaging techniques in a way that is responsive to the interests and needs of different venues' audiences. Project research will contribute important knowledge on ways to support informal learners who are engaged in authentic observation of biological phenomenon. Project research findings and technology resources will be widely shared with informal STEM researchers and practitioners concerned with engaging the public in current research in biology, as well as those interested in supporting observation in other disciplines (e.g., meteorology, ocean science, environmental science) that rely on an evidence base of live, dynamic, complex imagery.
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.