Informal physics programs are understudied partly due to the broad spectrum of program structures and wide variety of activities. Moreover, the program facilitators hold diverse positions - faculty members at universities, staff members of national labs, and student leaders. In this study, we conduct an in-depth analysis of surveys and interviews from a subset of a national data set. Our goal is to develop and validate a practitioner-focused model of the key organizational components of informal physics programs. Based on the model of The Physics Teacher Education Program Analysis (PTEPA), we
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Dena IzadiBryan StanleyLily Boydclaudia fracchiollaKathleen Hinko
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Informal physics programs bring physicists together with youth and adults from local communities to engage with physics content outside of classroom settings. These public engagement or “physics outreach” programs are a significant endeavor of the physics community; however, we lack a systemic documentation of these efforts, which makes it difficult to situate physics education research on individual informal physics programs into a broader narrative. Additionally, informal physics programs have many formats and vary in terms of their audience, content, activities, and resources. It is
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Dena IzadiJulia WillisonNoah Finkelsteinclaudia fracchiollaKathleen Hinko
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
In this paper, we take an in-depth look at the physics faculty and student volunteers, which we will refer to as the program personnel, involved in informal physics programs to better understand their roles and responsibilities, their interactions with audiences, and their connectedness with content and activities. Understanding the complexities between programs, personnel, and audiences allows us to look for areas to improve informal physics programs in being inclusive, in being equitable and accessible, in supporting physics students who participate, and in connecting more strongly to the
Parents exert a strong influence on the development of foundational science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) skills in early childhood. This influence occurs, in large part, through playful parent-child interactions and conversations that expose children to mathematical and spatial concepts in interesting and useful ways. Prior research suggests that guided play is effective in building the STEM knowledge, reasoning, and interests of preschool children. Guided play requires adults to strategically present and scaffold STEM play in ways that support child initiative and
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Karen BiermanLynn LibenJessica MenoldMeg SmallScarlett MillerJennifer Connell
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This Informal Learning Review article briefly recounts the activities of Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education's (CAISE) over three award periods, from 2007 through 2022. It includes links to key CAISE resources and event documentation. CAISE sunsetted its activities in early 2022 and passed the baton of leadership of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program resource center to REVISE- the Reimagining Equity and Values in Informal STEM Education center.
This resource presents a catalog of 25 unique projects, with short descriptions and details about how each project integrates imagination. To support practitioner use, the projects are indexed by title, contributor, project context and format, project audiences, and imaginative ways of thinking. Projects in this resource were selected from works shared by Unpacking the STEM Imagination Convening participants, and works reviewed as part of a comprehensive literature review on imagination in STEM.
This resource presents a one-page summary of the methods, results, and conclusions from a comprehensive literature review of 137 pieces of literature addressing the intersections of imagination and STEM. The research questions guiding this comprehensive literature review were: (a) What types of literature address imagination in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education and practice? (b) How does the literature define imagination? (c) How does the literature position the role of imagination in STEM? Details of the literature review results can be found summarized in other
This guidebook will help you plan your action project. The initial brainstorm pages will help you consider where to start, and the Action Project Framework will navigate you through steps to get to your destination: the completion of your project!
The poster shares work conducted as part of the Modeling Zoos and Aquariums as Inclusive Communities of Science for Autistic Individuals (MoZAICS) project and specifically sharing details of the MoZAICS access and inclusion framework (e.g., definitions, structure/levels of the framework).
The COVID-19 pandemic tested many fundamental connections between science and society. A growing field working to strengthen those connections exists within the informal STEM learning (ISL) community which provides diverse learning and engagement environments outside the formal classroom. One of the largest funders of ISL initiatives is the National Science Foundation (NSF) which runs the Advanced Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program in the United States. The AISL program supports initiatives through six categories that include pilots and feasibility studies, research in service to practice
Background: Capturing measures of students’ attitudes toward science has long been a focus within the field of science education. The resulting interest has led to the development of many instruments over the years. There is considerable disagreement about how attitudes should be measured, and especially whether students’ attitudes toward science can or should be measured unidimensionally, or whether separate attitude dimensions or subscales should be considered. When it is agreed upon that the attitudes toward science construct should be measured along separate subscales, there is no
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), in partnership with scholars from Utah State University and educators from the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), has developed the Spatial Ability and Blind Engineering Research (SABER) project to assess and improve the spatial ability of blind teens in order to broaden their participation in STEM fields. The goals of the project include: 1. Develop and investigate the reliability of a tactile instrument to test blind and low vision youths’ spatial ability levels. 2. Contribute to the knowledge base of effective practices regarding informal STEM
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Gary TimkoTheresa GreenDaniel KaneWade GoodridgeLaura Weiss