The Monterey Bay Aquarium is planning to redesign existing conservation-related interactives as well as add new experiences on the Aquarium floor. In preparation for this project, the Aquarium sought to gain a better understanding of visitors’ awareness of and engagement in conservation-related actions and responses to conservation-related messaging. The Aquarium contracted with MWA Insights to conduct a front-end evaluation study to help inform the planning for these conservation stations. Specifically, the evaluation sought to understand:
Are visitors aware of issues affecting the
This research in service to practice project will examine the impact of a 12-year statewide science field trip program called LabVenture. This hands-on program in discovery and inquiry brings middle school students and teachers across the State of Maine to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) in Portland, Maine to become fully immersed in explorations into the complexities of local marine science ecosystems. These intensive field trip experiences are led by informal educators and facilitated entirely within informal contexts at GMRI. Approximately 70% of all fifth and sixth grade students in Maine participate in the program each year and more than 120,000 students have attended since the program's inception in 2005. Unfortunately, little is known to date on how the program has influenced practice and learning ecosystems within formal, informal, and community contexts. As such, this research in service to practice project will employ an innovative research approach to understand and advance knowledge on the short and long-term impacts of the program within different contexts. If proven effective, the LabVenture program will elucidate the potential benefits of a large-scale field trip program implemented systemically across a community over time and serve as a reputable model for statewide adoption of similar programs seeking innovative strategies to connect formal and informal science learning to achieve notable positive shifts in their local, statewide, or regional STEM learning ecosystems.
Over the four-year project duration, the project will reach all 16 counties in the State of Maine. The research design includes a multi-step, multi-method approach to gain insight on the primary research questions. The initial research will focus on extant data and retrospective data sources codified over the 12-year history of the program. The research will then be expanded to garner prospective data on current participating students, teachers, and informal educators. Finally, a community study will be conducted to understand the potential broader impacts of the program. Each phase of the research will consider the following overarching research questions are: (1) How do formal and informal practitioners perceive the value and purposes of the field trip program and field trip experiences more broadly (field trip ontology)? (2) To what degree do short-term field trip experiences in informal contexts effect cognitive and affective outcomes for students? (3) How are community characteristics (e.g., population, distance from GMRI, proximity to the coast) related to ongoing engagement with the field trip program? (4) What are aspects of the ongoing field trip program that might embed it as an integral element of community culture (e.g., community awareness of a shared social experience)? (5) To what degree does a field trip experience that is shared by schools across a state lead to a traceable change that can be measured for those who participated and across the broader community? and (6) In what ways, if at all, can a field trip experience that occurs in informal contexts have an influence on the larger learning ecosystem (e.g., the Maine education system)? Each phase of the research will be led by a team of researchers with the requisite expertise in the methodologies and contexts required to carry out that particular aspect of the research (i.e., retrospective study, prospective study, community study). In addition, evaluation and practitioner panels of experts will provide expertise and guidance on the research, evaluation, and project implementation. The project will culminate with a practitioner convening, to share project findings more broadly with formal and informal practitioners, and promote transfer from research to practice. Additional dissemination strategies include conferences, network meetings, and peer-reviewed publications.
The potential insights this research could garner on intersectionality between formal and informal STEM learning are substantial. As a consequence, this project is co-funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) and Discovery Research K-12 (DRK-12) Programs. The Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. Likewise, the Discovery Research-K12 Program seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools.
This 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.
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. This Research in Service to Practice project will study how visual immersion and interactivity in augmented reality (AR) affects visitors' engagement and understanding of science. The research involves creating different versions of an AR exhibit to communicate paleontology research from the La Brea Tar Pits to the general public. Different versions of the exhibit will be compared to learn how design choices for immersion and interactivity impact visitors' engagement and understanding of science. The result of this study should be a model to follow for similar public exhibits, as well as design principles that generalize to AR experiences for a broader range of informal learning environments. This project will also demonstrate and report on specific AR mechanisms that help visitors understand the scientific process and increase knowledge about paleontology research.
The study includes a user-centered design and evaluation process with both formative and comparative studies. This project investigates two high-level design factors for mobile AR: visual immersion and interactivity. These impact the learning experience and the development so extensively that multiple versions are seldom compared. These factors also have unique considerations for informal settings, such as how to balance immersion against situational awareness (e.g., 3D viewers reduce field of view). One goal of this project is to systematically compare qualitatively different AR designs that convey equivalent science content and study these tradeoffs empirically. The second goal is to leverage these findings to publicly release an AR experience that promotes engagement, increases understanding of science, and reduces scientific misconceptions. This research will also contribute to understanding usability and logistical issues for different AR designs for public, outdoor, informal settings.
This 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.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Emily LindseyBenjamin NyeGale SinatraWilliam Swartout
We propose a thoughtful process for scientists to develop their “impact identity”, a concept that integrates scholarship in a scientific discipline with societal needs, personal preferences, capacities and skills, and one’s institutional context. Approaching broader impacts from a place of integrated identity can support cascading impacts that develop over the course of a career. We argue identity is a productive driver that can improve outcomes for scientists and for society. Widespread adoption of the concept of impact identity may also have implications for the recruitment and retention of
This set of appendices represent all research instruments related to study presented in the I/CaLL Art Experiences and Advancing Science Literacy report (NewKnowledge Publication #NSF.097.115.07).
Appendix A: Installation Site Intercept Interview Instrument
Appendix B: Artists-Scientists Walk & Talks Instrument
Appendix C: Post-Performance Event Survey Instrument
Note that researchers did not use an instrument for the fourth aspect of the study, the post-performance event reflection sessions. Instead, they allowed the discussions to be directed by the reflection participants.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
John FraserRebecca Joy NorlanderSophie SwansonNezam ArdalanKate FlinnerJoanna Laursen BruckerNicole LaMarca
The Space and Earth Informal STEM Education (SEISE) project, led by the Arizona State University with partners Science Museum of Minnesota, Museum of Science, Boston, and the University of California Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and Space Sciences Laboratory, is raising the capacity of museums and informal science educators to engage the public in Heliophysics, Earth Science, Planetary Science, and Astrophysics, and their social dimensions through the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net). SEISE will also partner on a network-to-network basis with other existing coalitions and professional associations dedicated to informal and lifelong STEM learning, including the Afterschool Alliance, National Girls Collaborative Project, NASA Museum Alliance, STAR_Net, and members of the Association of Children’s Museums and Association of Science-Technology Centers. The goals for this project include engaging multiple and diverse public audiences in STEM, improving the knowledge and skills of informal educators, and encouraging local partnerships.
In collaboration with the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD), SEISE is leveraging NASA subject matter experts (SMEs), SMD assets and data, and existing educational products and online portals to create compelling learning experiences that will be widely use to share the story, science, and adventure of NASA’s scientific explorations of planet Earth, our solar system, and the universe beyond. Collaborative goals include enabling STEM education, improving U.S. scientific literacy, advancing national educational goals, and leveraging science activities through partnerships. Efforts will focus on providing opportunities for learners explore and build skills in the core science and engineering content, skills, and processes related to Earth and space sciences. SEISE is creating hands-on activity toolkits (250-350 toolkits per year over four years), small footprint exhibitions (50 identical copies), and professional development opportunities (including online workshops).
Evaluation for the project will include front-end and formative data to inform the development of products and help with project decision gates, as well as summative data that will allow stakeholders to understand the project’s reach and outcomes.
Lineage is a comprehensive educational media and outreach initiative that will engage individuals and families in learning about deep time and evolution, helping audiences come to newfound understandings of the connections between the past, present, and future of life on Earth. The project is a partnership between Twin Cities PBS (TPT) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and is linked to the opening of that museum's new Deep Time Fossil Hall in June 2019. The project includes a two-hour film for national broadcast on PBS, and a 20-minute short version for exhibition in science centers. The documentaries will show how scientists, using paleontology, genetics, earth science and other disciplines, can reconstruct in detail the origins of living animals like birds and elephants, revealing their ancient past as well as evidence of ecological change that can inform our understanding of Earth today. Extensive educational outreach will include the creation of "Bone Hunter," an innovative VR (Virtual Reality) game designed for family co-play that engages multiple players in the process of paleontology as they piece together a fossil in a digital lab. Bone Hunter and other collaborative educational activities will be deployed at Family Fossil Festivals that will attract multi-generational learners. One such Festival will take place at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., while others will be based at geographically diverse institutions that serve underserved rural as well as urban communities. Lineage is a collaboration between national media producers, noted learning institutions and researchers, including Twin Cities Public Television, the Smithsonian Institution / National Museum of Natural History, Schell Games, the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI), and Rockman et al. One of the project's primary innovations is its exploration of new learning designs for families that use cutting-edge technologies (e.g. the Bone Hunter virtual reality game) and collaborative multi-generational learning experiences that advance science knowledge and inquiry-based learning. An external research study conducted by ILI will investigate how intergenerational co-play with physical artifacts compared to virtual artifacts influences STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) learning and engagement. The findings will lead to critical strategic impacts for the field, building knowledge about ongoing innovation in the free choice learning space. The project's external evaluation will be conducted by Rockman et al and evaluative findings, as well as the educational materials derived from the project, will be widely disseminated through partnerships with professional and educator groups. Clips from the Lineage film and related learning resources will be hosted on PBS LearningMedia, so educators can incorporate these resources into their classrooms, and students and lifelong learners can explore and discover on their own. The project outcomes will have broad impact on public audiences, deepening and advancing knowledge and understanding about important scientific concepts, and promoting continued, family-based collaborative learning experiences to expand and deepen STEM knowledge. 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.
The connections between technology applications of all sorts and human users that are ubiquitous in informal learning and assume a great deal about how the technology is used and how learning takes place. Much of the research in this area has been focused on game design and interaction. This project will examine this interaction involving the use of gestures that represent how individuals work with systems and large data sets that represent complex systems like the oceans, to understand how basic elements of a project with a 3-D type of design might enhance the user experience and increase the utility and learning that takes place by understanding the cognitive elements of these game like interactions in specific STEM related settings like museums.
This exploratory pathways project will investigate the use of interactive, gesture-enabled, multi-touch spheres for teaching about ocean systems in science centers and museums. The gesture-enabled aspect of the project will improve on interactive table-top installations which can frustrate users who use unexpected gestures and receive no response leading to brief interaction and abandonment without significant interaction or learning. The project will investigate ways in which unsupported gestures would still produce a system response which would encourage the user to remain at the installation and continue to investigate. The effect of multiple gestures will be supported by using natural mappings between gestures and interactions with the on-sphere data.
The project investigates theories of embodied cognition that support the notion that by engaging with global-scale datasets on a spherical display more effectively models the earth in a non-distorted manner and therefore will be more natural and allow users to develop a more accurate conceptual model of how data relates to itself and the globe. In this way, the project shares some aspects of understanding about learning through game play. The sphere will not be a fully developed game but will share characteristics of game play.
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.
This project by teams at the University of Alaska and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry will engage the public in the topic of the nature and prevalence of permafrost, its scale on the earth and the important role it plays in the global climate. It builds on 50 years of informal education and outreach at the Alaskan Permafrost Tunnel near Fairbanks, AK, which, since the 1960s, has been the Nation's only underground facility for research related to permafrost and climate. The project has four components: (1) a nationally distributed 2,000 square-foot traveling exhibition; (2) exhibit and program enhancements to the learning opportunities at the tunnel; (3) programs, table-top exhibits and oral history research in 27 Native Alaskan villages; and (4) an education research study. Each of these components will be evaluated over the course of the work. By upgrading the displays at the tunnel, and by taking traveling programs to the villages, the work will extend the tunnel experience across Alaska. In the villages the team will collect stories about climate change, along with samples of real ancient ice and permafrost. These stories and materials will be used in the traveling exhibit which is expected to be at three museums per year for eight years. The research component of the initiative will build on the observation to date that the tunnel has provided thousands of visitors with an underground immersive environment where they learn about the science research being conducted and engage with climate-sensitive materials (e.g., permafrost, wedge ice, frozen silt, Pleistocene bones) using all of their senses. It has been conjectured that their learning experiences are enhanced by interacting with real vs. replicated objects. As museums often contain exhibits that are more likely to contain replicated and/or virtual objects and environments, understanding the impact that these different categories of objects have on learning is important. Using both types of materials, the project will investigate differences in their efficacy in informal science learning institutions related to climate change. Real objects are postulated to have the following attributes that stimulate fuller engagement; they are (1) information-rich by virtue of such features as their texture, odor, and dimensionality; (2) at real-life scale; (3) authentic, i.e., original objects; and (4) often unique, i.e., have inherent value. Research questions will explore the potential impacts on learning of these and related features. Methods employed will be observation, video, and interviews of the public with a particular focus on visitor talk with respect to explanations and elaborations about permafrost, tipping points, climate change, and geological time.
This project will bring STEM education to rural communities through local public libraries. Museum quality exhibits labelled as "Discover Earth", "Discover Technology", and "Discover Space" will spend 3 months at a series of locations around the Nation. Twenty four medium sized libraries will be chosen for the large exhibits and forty small libraries will be chosen for scaled down versions. The project's intent is to provide exhibits in every state and to reach as many under-represented individuals as possible. The significance of this project is that rural areas of this country are underserved regarding STEM education and since this segment of society is represented by 50-60 million residents, it is important to reach out to them. There is a significant segment of the Nation's population (50-60 million) that is underserved by out-of-school learning venues such as museums and science centers. An earlier phase 1 project demonstrated at 18 sites that rural libraries and librarians could provide STEM education to community members ranging in age from adults to children using these hands-on exhibits. Each exhibit (earth, space or technology) includes information about the topic and technologically enabled models to provide interesting and fun discovery mechanisms. They use common layman friendly language that highlights the most recent discoveries in each area. Each exhibit will be placed in the selected library for 3 months during which the library will organize events to feature and advertise the STEM learning opportunities. Another feature of this project will be to determine the models of learning in library settings and as a function of the demographics. The partners in this project that bring the necessary expertise are the American Library Association, the Afterschool Alliance, the Association of Rural and Small Libraries, the University of Colorado Museum, Datum Advisors, LLC, Evaluation and Research Associates, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, the American Geophysical Union, and the Space Science Institute.
The mission of the New Mexico Informal Science Education Network (NM ISE Net) is to provide opportunities and resources for informal educators to work together to impact science teaching, science learning, and science awareness throughout the state of New Mexico. The NM Museum of Natural History and Science leads NM ISE Net with support from NM EPSCoR.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
New Mexico Museum of Natural HistorySelena ConnealyCharlie Walter
Pipeline for Remote Sensing Education and Application (PRSEA), will increase awareness, knowledge and understanding of remote sensing technologies and associated disciplines, and their relevance to NASA, through a combination of activities that build a “pipeline” to STEM and remote sensing careers, for a continuum of audiences from third grade through adulthood. This program will be led by Pacific Science Center. The first objective is to engage 50 teens from groups underrepresented in STEM fields in a four-year career ladder program; participants will increase knowledge and understanding of remote sensing as well as educational pathways that lead to careers in remote sensing fields at NASA and other relevant organizations. The second objective is to serve 2,000 children in grades 3-5, in a remote sensing-based out-of school time outreach program that will increase the participant’s content knowledge of remote sensing concepts and applications and awareness and interest in remote sensing disciplines. PRSEA’s third objective is to engage 180 youth, grades 6-8, in remote sensing-themed summer intensive programs through which youth will increase knowledge of remote sensing concepts and applications and increase awareness and interest in educational and career pathways associated with remote sensing and NASA’s role in this field. The final objective is to engage 10,000 visitors of all ages with a remote sensing-themed Discovery Cart on Pacific Science Center’s exhibit floor. By engaging in cart activities, we anticipate visitors will increase their level of awareness and interest in the topic of remote sensing and NASA’s role in contributing to this field.