Through a generous three-year grant from the Abundance Foundation, the Agency by Design (AbD) initiative at Project Zero, a research organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, began to investigate the promises, practices, and pedagogies of maker-centered learning. Over the last two years we have simultaneously pursued three strands of work: 1) a review of pertinent literature; 2) interviews and site visits with leading maker educators; and 3) action research and concept development. We’re now commencing our third year of work. Our active data collection stage is over. We are
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Harvard Project ZeroHarvard Project Zero
A Framework for K-12 Science Education and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) describe a new vision for science learning and teaching that is catalyzing improvements in science classrooms across the United States. Achieving this new vision will require time, resources, and ongoing commitment from state, district, and school leaders, as well as classroom teachers. Successful implementation of the NGSS will ensure that all K-12 students have high-quality opportunities to learn science. Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards provides guidance to district and school
Cultures develop when people find ways to play, make, and share. This report describes how human cultures can be characterised by their similarities rather than their differences, and emphasises the importance of recognising playfulness and creativity to develop societies prepared to accommodate the rapid changes associated with technology and globalisation.
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LEGO FoundationDavid GauntlettBo Stjerne Thompson
In 1994, the Exploratorium launched the Framework project, a model initiative to demonstrate the vital role science museum exhibits could play in supporting science education reform. This publication offers an overview of the Framework project and discusses its assumptions, challenges, questions, and diverse perspectives. It is intended to help expand the dialogue about science education reform and how informal science museums and science centers can play an appropriate and productive role.
Museums are increasingly engaging with their communities in understanding and addressing the complex questions of our society. How is this effort manifested in museum practice, and what is the impact of this work? Our study attempted to explore the boundaries of these questions by reviewing and synthesizing reports on InformalScience.org. The work was part of the NSF-funded Building Informal Science Education project (BISE). We selected a small set of reports of projects that aligned with our definition of social issues as conditions that are harmful to society, complex and characterized by a
Assessing science learning in informal environments involves a series of challenges that are difficult to address using traditional assessment practices (National Research Council, 2009). Some of the assessment challenges inherent in informal and afterschool environments include: (a) interactions in these environments are diverse in terms of duration, type of activity, number of people involved; (b) they usually include emerging behavior due to unpredictable interactions with other participants (e.g., peers, family members, and facilitators); and (c) these environments are characterized by a
Cross-national assessments of student learning in mathematics, science, reading, computer technology, and civics have been successfully conducted since the 1960’s. Each subject required professional researchers and educators from different cultural backgrounds to reach agreement on a common definition of the content areas and measurement techniques for formal schooling. Two international organizations, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the Organization for Economic and Cooperation and Development (OECD) are now continuously conducting
This background paper is intended to support consideration of assessments "in improving program quality and student learning outcomes in the field of informal science education." This includes three questions: (a) What definitions of engagement, interest, curiosity, and motivation might be used in evaluations of informal and after-school science learning programs and activities? (b) Given the diversity of learning experiences, what are the prospects for developing common definitions of engagement, interest, curiosity, and motivation? And, (c) Given the diversity of types of informal and after
The NRC Framework for K – 12 Science Education (2012) lists five major ideas that are essential to the design of assessments and learning environments: 1) limited number of core ideas of science, 2) cross-cutting concepts, 3) engaging students in scientific and engineering practices, 4) building integrated understanding as a developmental process, and 5) the coupling of scientific ideas and scientific and engineering practices to develop integrated understanding. What implications do these major ideas have for assessment in informal science setting? This paper will discuss each of these ideas
Observational instruments are receiving broad attention as measures of gauging the quality of interactions within formal educational settings (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2012). Scores from observations are used as critical pieces of information in the evaluation of teachers for purposes of making employment-related decisions and supporting professional development. Given the potential high-stakes use, a large body of research is emerging to address the validity of observation instruments as assessments of quality (Gitomer & Bell, in press). Using this research base, this paper focuses
The practice and use of assessments in the informal science education (ISE) realm is highly diverse and inconsistent, with differing stakeholders having dramatically different attitudes towards which assessments (if any) they value. This essay reviews the landscape of attitudes and uses of assessment on the part of informal science education stakeholders beyond the research community.
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM) was created to coordinate federal programs and activities that support STEM education pursuant to the requirements of Sec. 101 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. The CoSTEM addresses a wide range of education and workforce policy issues including: research and development efforts that focus on STEM education at the PreK-12, undergraduate, graduate, and lifelong learning levels; and current and projected STEM workforce needs, trends, and issues. This paper describes the role of assessment