Iteration is a central practice in art and science; however, it has yet to be deeply explored in STEAM learning environments. This study adopts a sociomaterial orientation (Fenwick and Edwards, 2013) to characterize the nature of iteration in one STEAM activity, an Optics Design Challenge, with informal educators. We found that iteration emerged as “microcycles” of interactions, specifically as adjustments, additions, and negotiations in both material artifacts and the narrative.
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
The project is building a nationwide online coaching/mentoring program for out of school educators in rural settings.
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
The project scales up an award-winning coaching model:
Informal educators come together in small groups to share videos of their own interactions with youth
A coach helps them share feedback based on their use of key skills (e.g. how to ask youth purposeful questions).
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
Many informal learning institutions use STEAM approaches to engage diverse learners. Our project aims to support educators in libraries, museums, and after school programs through a STEAM professional development (PD) series. Our PD approach is centered around a set of core STEAM practices that prioritize STEAM mindset and identity work. Participants engage in exemplar activities and design new experiences for their specific teaching and learning contexts. The series involves in- person sessions, online training, and team
This is the second of a 2-part series about the changes that have taken place in how public libraries adapted to COVID-19. Part 1 focused on what libraries were doing prior to pandemic, the challenges that they faced due to COVID-19, and how they pivoted to a “new normal”. Part 2 focuses on innovations in programming and professional development that have helped to strengthen the library profession during the pandemic.
The STAR Library Network (STAR Net) utilizes webinars as a key tool in its suite of professional learning opportunities relating to STEM learning in libraries. Traditionally, continuing education for library staff has taken place in person, such as at conferences and workshops. While these touch points provide crucial face-to-face networking opportunities, highly interactive webinars provide learning conversations that help bridge the gap between frameworks and resources to practical application in daily practice. Through webinars, STAR Net shares ideas, demonstrates activities, and engages
Children and their families are practicing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) skills through a library program. Hand-crank generators and LED bulbs are set out on each of the tables, along with two types of dough—conductive play dough and insulating modeling clay.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Brooks MitchellClaire RatcliffeKeliann LaConte
By using widely-available technologies, this project brings fully online instructional coaching in STEM to out-of-school educators who live too remotely to attend ongoing in-person workshops.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Sue AllenPerrin ChickScott ByrdAlexandria BrasiliLiv DetrickLynn FarrinHannah Lakin
Transforming Communities provides an overview of the agency mission, vision, goals, and objectives, and includes highlights of IMLS initiatives and projects.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Institute of Museum and Library Services
resourceprojectWebsites, Mobile Apps, and Online Media
The intent of this five-year project is to design, deliver, and study professional development for Informal Science Learning (ISL) educators in the arena of equity-focused STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) teaching and learning. While the strategy of integrating art and science to promote interest, identity, and other STEM-related learning has grown in recent years, this domain is still nascent with respect to a guiding set of best practices. Through prior work, the team has developed and implemented a set of design principles that incorporate effective practices for broadening participation of girls in science via science-art integration on the topic of the biology, chemistry and optics of "Colors in Nature." The continued initiative would impact the ISL field by providing a mechanism for ISL educators in museums, libraries and after-school programs to adopt and implement these STEAM design principles into their work. The team will lead long-term (12-18 months) professional development activities for ISL educators, including: 1) in-person workshops that leverage their four previously developed kits; 2) online, asynchronous learning activities featuring interactive instructional videos around their STEAM design principles; 3) synchronous sessions to debrief content and foster communities of practice; and 4) guided design work around the development or redesign of STEAM activities. In the first four years of the project, the team will work with four core institutional partners (Sitka Sound Science Center, Sno-Isle Libraries, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District after-school program, and the Pima County Public Library system) across three states (Alaska, Washington, and Arizona). In the project's later stages, they will disseminate their learning tools to a broad, national audience. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
The project has three main goals: (1) To support ISL educators in offering meaningful STEAM activities, (2) To create institutional change among the partner organizations, and (3) To advance the ISL field with respect to professional development and designing for STEAM Programming. The research questions associated with the professional development activities address the ways in which change occurs and focus on all three levels: individual, institutional, and the ISL field. The methods are qualitative and quantitative, including videotaped observations, pre and post interviews, surveys and analysis of online and offline artifacts. In addition, the project evaluation will assess the implementation of the project's professional development model for effectiveness. Methods will include observations, interviews, surveys and Website analytics and program data.
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. The project will derive a nationwide online coaching/mentoring program for out of school educators in rural settings. The program builds on a Noyce Foundation pilot project. The issue to be addressed is that educators in rural settings are challenged in a multitude of ways due to isolation. This project will try to find ways to alleviate some of the consequences of isolation through resource sharing, knowledge sharing, and unique techniques for communicating with students. Partners in this effort are the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, the National AfterSchool Association, Development Without Limits, and the Maine State Library.
By using widely-available technologies, this project will bring fully online instructional coaching in STEM to out-of-school educators who live too remotely to attend ongoing in-person workshops. The project team will achieve this by adapting a highly promising coaching program where groups of educators video-record their own work with youth, practice key skills, and meet regularly to discuss their work. The project will: (a) test technical challenges to achieve fully virtual implementation; (b) design and adapt a specific STEM-skill curriculum to align with different levels of need; (c) customize the model to work with rural librarians; and (d) integrate the work into existing state and national accreditation systems.
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. The project plans to deliver and improve a constructivist professional development (PD) program called Remake Making for library staff that work with youth in maker spaces. The proposed project will be led by a team at the University of Pittsburgh and builds on a pilot facilitation framework developed in an earlier project by this team. The PD program responds to the rapid growth of makerspaces with a constructivist PD program focused on facilitation. Maker spaces are a new service model in many public libraries, part of a broader shift in general library services. Effective facilitation for learning, like that required in makerspaces, is a relatively new facet of librarianship that is not a consistent part of librarian education or PD. The project will work with two local library systems with libraries that have makerspaces but little to no PD opportunities around facilitation. The project plans to iteratively design and investigate the Remake Making program, its impact on library maker facilitators and their interactions with child and youth learners. This will provide a setting for preliminary research about constructivist PD and the experiences and struggles of staff who facilitate making in libraries within the context of shifting library norms. This project will produce an efficient, maker-friendly PD system for facilitation in makerspaces, applicable to a broad range of informal and formal educators who wish to incorporate facilitated making.
The project plans to conduct an iterative development process involving several cohorts of participants and using multiple data sources which include embedded PD workshop data, participant pre-post surveys, observation of library makerspaces, and interviews/focus groups. A participatory approach will be employed by involving participants in creating and refining research questions within the scope of the project. This approach is designed around inquiry-based improvement, which is experienced by participants as reflective practice or continuous improvement. The proposed project aims to advance knowledge and PD strategies for facilitation in library makerspaces. The research will build knowledge about the efficacy of an innovative constructivist PD program with adaptation as a key feature. The data collected in the context of the development of this innovation will provide opportunities for applied research about informal STEM learning in the context of library maker spaces, and the role that library staff play in facilitating this type of learning.