Arkansas State University (ASU) Museum will offer engaging STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) learning experiences for children, at-risk youth, and teachers through three years of membership in the Arkansas Discovery Network, a coalition of seven Arkansas museums that develops and shares children's exhibits. Membership in the network will entitle ASU to nine high-quality, hands-on, STEM-based exhibits that promote "learning by doing" and the needed training in their STEM programming for educators. ASU Museum staff will build substantially upon these exhibits by developing many new and engaging tours, gallery activities, and programs that ensure STEM content registers in learners. This project will enable the museum to offer exceptional experiences with the potential to change attitudes about the value of learning in the targeted audiences in Northeast Arkansas.
The Long Island Children's Museum, in partnership with the Westbury School District, will expand its Westbury STEM Partnership program to provide additional professional development and ongoing support for teachers, and experiential STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning opportunities for both first- and second-grade students in their classrooms and at the museum. The program will support inquiry-based, hands-on STEM learning in a high-need school district neighboring the museum, provide professional development to teachers, bring students to the museum to experience exhibits and programs, and make the museum's education staff available to educators for mentoring and content support as they integrate new teaching strategies into their classrooms. The project will promote improved STEM teaching and student learning by supporting teachers in integrating inquiry-based teaching strategies, enriching experiential learning for students both in and out of the classroom, and strengthening local school and community partnerships.
Science Museum of Minnesota will create three live theater productions highlighting current laboratory and field research studies of science issues with strong topical relevance to families with school-age children, school groups, and adult lifelong learners. Shows will align with the appropriate grade levels of the Minnesota Science Education Standards in three age levels: early elementary (grades 1–3), upper elementary and middle school (grades 4–8), and high school students and adult learners. The shows will be performed in daily rotation at the museum to entertain, inform, and challenge visitors to reflect on current science issues. Theater staff will disseminate the shows through various national conferences, websites, and professional associations, enabling colleagues nationwide to download the scripts free of charge and present topical science issues at their own museums.
Making Connections, a three-year design-based research study conducted by the Science Museum of Minnesota in partnership with Twin Cities' communities, is developing and studying new ways to engage a broader audience in meaningful Maker experiences. This study draws and builds on existing theoretical frameworks to examine how community engagement techniques can be used to co-design and implement culturally-relevant marketing, activities, and events focused on Making that attract families from underrepresented audiences and ultimately engage them in meaningful informal STEM learning. The research is being done in three phases: Sharing and Listening - co-design with targeted communities; Making Activities Design and Implementation; Final Analysis, Synthesis and Dissemination. The project is also exploring new approaches in museums' cross-institutional practices that can strengthen the quality of their community-engagement. In recent years, Making - a do-it-yourself, grassroots approach to designing and constructing real things through creativity, problem-solving, and tool use - has received increasing attention as a fruitful vehicle for introducing young people to the excitement of science and engineering and to career skills in these fields. Maker Faires attract hundreds and thousands of people to engage in Making activities every year, and the popularity of these events, as well as the number of museums and libraries that are beginning to provide opportunities for the public to regularly engage in these types of activities, are skyrocketing. However, Maker programs tend to draw audiences that are predominantly white, middle class, male, well educated, and strongly interested in science, despite the fact that the practices of Making are as common in more diverse communities. Making Connections has the potential to transform how children begin to cultivate a lifelong interest in engineering at a young age, which may ultimately encourage more young people of color to pursue engineering careers in the future.