RISES (Re-energize and Invigorate Student Engagement through Science) is a coordinated suite of resources including 42 interactive English and Spanish STEM videos produced by Children's Museum Houston in coordination with the science curriculum department at Houston ISD. The videos are aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, and each come with a bilingual Activity Guide and Parent Prompt sheet, which includes guiding questions and other extension activities.
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resourceevaluationParks, Outdoor, and Garden Exhibits
Kera Collective conducted two rounds of program evaluation to understand the experience and impact of Coastal Maine Botanical Garden’s (CMBG) Advanced Studies in Professional Horticulture programs, which vary in format from standalone lectures to multi-session certificate courses.
The Louisiana Children’s Museum is developing a comprehensive set of resources entitled “Water Dialogues–Living with Water,” designed around its new exhibits and landscape resources, to strengthen the community’s understanding of the challenges associated with water management. They are creating a new field trip series and water-based science curriculum, “Water Pathways” as well as an outreach program, “Steward’s Ship,” to bring the program’s environmental messages to schools and camps. The museum will also conduct a professional development training series on science education for local educators implementing the state’s new science standards, in addition to a series of literacy workshops where children ages four to eight will write “how-to” books and “water journals.” To further spread the associated environmental and sustainability messages, they will organize an annual “Water Fest” program for the community.
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Shannon Blady
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Arizona State University, in partnership with the National Informal STEM Education Network, will build fieldwide capacity for sustainability by empowering professionals, engaging public audiences, and leveraging museum and community assets to help build a sustainable future for people and the planet. The project will engage 90 museum professionals in a six-month professional development program, who along with other staff at their organizations will receive support in planning, developing, and/or implementing a sustainability-related project that aligns with their museum’s mission and their community’s priorities. A community of practice will promote ongoing learning and sharing of experiences among program participants. Additional professionals across the museum field will benefit from an online workshop series and other resources produced by the project.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society will develop, pilot, and implement an evaluation framework for nature-based STEM programming that serves K-12 students visiting its network of nature centers and museums. Working with an external consultant, the society will develop the framework comprised of a logic model and theory of change for fieldtrips, and develop a toolkit of evaluation data collection methodology suitable to various child development stages. The project team will design and conduct three professional development training seminars to help Massachusetts Audubon school educators develop a working understanding of the new evaluation framework for school programs and gain the skills necessary to support protocol implementation. This project will result in the development and adoption of a universal protocol to guide the collection, management, and reporting of education program evaluation data across the 19 nature centers and museums in the Massachusetts Audubon system.
"Strengthening Networks, Sparking Change: Museums and Libraries as Community Catalysts" combines findings from a literature scan and input from the library, museum and community revitalization fields with case studies about the experiences and vision of museums and libraries working to spur change in their communities. It describes the complementary conceptual frameworks of social wellbeing and collective impact and explains how libraries and museums can use these concepts to partner with community-based organizations, government agencies and other cultural or educational organizations. It
NatureStart Network brought together early childhood educators and environmental educators to support nature play, exploration, and inquiry for young children and their families within urban environments. Project partners included the Forest Preserves of Cook County and two established Head Start programs in the Chicago area, Mary Crane Center and El Valor. The foundation of the project was a series of three two-day professional learning sessions that took place over an eighteen month period. Through hands-on, collaborative learning and reflection activities, the participating educators
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David Becker
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Southern Environmental Center (SEC) at Birmingham-Southern College will develop a business plan for expansion and improvement of its current programs. The Business Plan will help guide management of the SEC and support financial strategies to continue future development and create financial strategies to create financial sustainability. In order to complete this project SEC will convene a working group of community and academic partners who will provide input in the creation of a structure for implementing self-supporting operations through effective design, programming, and services. The plan will help SEC more effectively serve the community and help individuals understand the impact our environmental circumstances have on their health and wellbeing.
Massachusetts Audubon Society will create a manual intended to be used by other organizations to create educational, reflective, self-guided nature trail experiences designed for individuals who require accessibility accommodations. To promote the new manual, the Society's statewide education projects manager will create guidelines, produce a media presentation, plan and deliver live presentations, and publish articles in relevant professional publications. In addition, the manual will be made available at no charge in print and online formats, so that organizations will have access to guidelines and the most appropriate strategies for creating inclusive interpretive nature trails that provide an independent, outdoor experience for all users.
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington DC. It describes the CLUES project that provides STEM education opportunities to families.
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New Jersey Academy for Aquatic SciencesBarbara Kelly
The Language of Conservation was a collaborative project between libraries, zoos, and poets nationwide to replicate a project originally undertaken by the Central Park Zoo. The project model built zoo, library, and poet-in-residence partnerships in five host cities: Brookfield, Illinois; Jacksonville, Florida; Little Rock, Arkansas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and New Orleans, Louisiana. One aspect of the evaluation was to assess the collaborative process within each of the five partner sites, across the project as a whole, and with project leadership to determine the strengths and challenges of
The Language of Conservation was a collaborative project between libraries, zoos, and poets nationwide to replicate a project originally undertaken by the Central Park Zoo. The project model built zoo, library, and poet-in-residence partnerships in five host cities: Brookfield, Illinois; Jacksonville, Florida; Little Rock, Arkansas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and New Orleans, Louisiana. It was anticipated that the zoo exhibits would result in positive outcomes for zoo visitors who encountered the poetry, including increasing the conservation thinking and language used after a visit and creating a