We present the assets that collaboration across a land grant university brought to the table, and the Winterberry Citizen Science program design elements we have developed to engage our 1080+ volunteer berry citizen scientists ages three through elder across urban and rural, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and formal and informal learning settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Katie SpellmanJasmine ShawChristine VillanoChrista MulderElena SparrowDouglas Cost
We used a youth focused wild berry monitoring program that spanned urban and rural Alaska to test this method across diverse age levels and learning settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Katie SpellmanDouglas CostChristine Villano
In this study, we examined how two different CCS models, a contributory design and a co-created design, influenced science self-efficacy and science interest among youth CCS participants.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sarah ClementKatie SpellmanLaura OxtobyKelly KealyKarin BodonyElena SparrowChristopher Arp
‘6 Degrees of Connection’ is an informative and memorable program that combines a one-hour Science On a Sphere® interactive presentation with a follow-up creative art activity – each aspect of which encourages middle school students to think of interconnections among phenomena on the planet, including the natural world and human activity.
The ‘6 Degrees of Connection’ program was developed by the Nurture Nature Center (Easton PA) in collaboration with the Maryland Science Center (Baltimore MD) through an extensive process of developing the concept, prototypes, and final program. Lehigh
In the previous three years, 144 90-second Earth & Sky radio shows have been produced under sponsorship of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The impact of these shows was explored with a posttest-only experimental design comparing a treatment group that listened to nine daily NASA shows focused on the topic of Antarctica and a control group that listened to nine daily non-NASA shows about whales. Participants were randomly assigned to groups, which did not differ on the variables of gender, age, ethnicity, education, frequency of hearing Earth & Sky, and interest in hearing
Summative Evaluation of the Science on a Sphere exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The evaluation looks at the effectiveness of two topics; Earth Systems and Comparative Planetology using Docent lead facilitation, a scripted show, and data sets running in auto-mode (with no recorded narration).
Youth EXPO: Youth Exploring the Potential of Virtual Worlds was a proof-of-concept study to determine if an immersive, 3D virtual environment is an effective medium to increase high school students’ understanding of current climate change research and motivate interest in learning more about climatology-related careers. The project was conducted by the Miami Science Museum in partnership with Goddard Institute of Space Sciences and Goddard Space Flight Center, and implemented with high school students in Miami. The overall goal of the project was to develop a prototype cyber resource to promote awareness of climate change and careers in climatology, in support of NASA’s role in helping youth understand how Earth’s global climate system is changing. YouthEXPO explored the extent to which 3D virtual learning experiences can increase high school students’ conceptual understanding of complex scientific issues related to climate change. This was accomplished through the development of a series of virtual exhibits, YouthEXPO Island, and pilot testing of the exhibition with high school students as part of a broader climate change curriculum. Youth EXPO Island is a series of simulations in an immersive, 3D virtual world environment designed to increase high school students’ understanding of current climate change research and motivate interest in learning more about climatology-related careers. Modules include EarthLab, IceLab, VolcanoLab and SpaceLab, four environmental simulations where avatars can analyze the relationship between global temperature change and a variety of climate factors, learn about remote sensing and field sampling techniques, and explore related careers.
The Dynamic Earth: You Have To See it To Believe It is a public exhibition and suite of programming designed to educate and excite K-8 students, teachers, and families about weather and climate science, plate tectonics, erosion, and stream formation. The Dynamic Earth program draws attention to the importance of large-scale earth processes and the human impacts on these processes, utilizing real artifacts, hands-on models, and NASA earth imagery and data. The program includes the exhibition, student workshops, family workshops, annual professional development opportunities for classroom teachers, innovative theater shows, lectures for adults by visiting scientists, and interpretive activities. The Montshire Museum of Science has partnered with Chabot Space and Science Center (CA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (NH) on various components. The project has broadened our internal capacity for providing quality earth science programming by greatly expanding our program titles and allowing us to create hands-on materials for use by our educators and to loan to schools in our Partnership Initiative. Programming developed during the grant period continues to reach thousands of students and teachers each year, both on-site and as part of our rural outreach efforts.
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) CP4SMP program, Methods of Increasing Awareness of Comparative Planetology and Climate Science with Science On a Sphere in Museum Settings, intended to educate our audiences about planetary exploration missions, illuminate climate science through comparative planetology, and produce new educational materials, interpretation techniques, and knowledge that facilitate more effective informal education on these themes nationally. DMNS was the lead organization on this program, but collaborated closely with other institutions involved in the Science on a Sphere® (SOS) user community. This program achieved its intentions to: (1) boost literacy in climate science, (2) build awareness of NASA’s space science missions and the relevance of NASA Earth observing satellites to contemporary issues of global change, and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of different modes of employing the SOS system with diverse audiences. We capitalized on our unique combination of scientific expertise in planetary science and spacecraft exploration, our considerable experience in digital media development, informal science education, exhibit design, educational research, and museum evaluation. Over the duration of the project we: (1) developed visually exciting and compelling SOS programming on comparative planetology and climate science using NASA mission data; (2) tested different modes of presentation of SOS to determine how this technology can be best utilized in informal science contexts; (3) investigated how visitors perceive and understand scientific data presented on SOS; and (4) created teacher professional development workshops to reach K-12 formal educators both locally and nationally. The DMNS CP4SMP NASA grant created opportunities to positively impact climate literacy for millions of DMNS visitors over the five-year period.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Scott SampsonSteve LeeKa Chun YuEddie GoldsteinAndrea Giron
Climate Change: NASA’s Eyes on the Arctic is a multi-disciplinary outreach program built around a partnership targeted at k-12 students, teachers and communities. Utilizing the strengths of three main educational outreach institutions in Alaska, the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska partnered with the University of Alaska Museum of the North, the Anchorage Museum and UAF researchers to build a strategic and long lasting partnership between STEM formal and informal education providers to promote STEM literacy and awareness of NASA’s mission. Specific Goals of the project include: 1) Engaging and inspiring the public through presentation of relevant, compelling stories of research and adventure in the Arctic; 2) strengthening the pipeline of k-12 students into STEM careers, particularly those from underserved groups; 3) increasing interest in science among children and their parents; 4) increasing awareness of NASA’s role in climate change research; and 5) strengthening connections between UAF researchers, rural Alaska, and Alaska’s informal science education institutions. Each institution chose communities with whom they had prior relationships and/or made logistical sense. Through discussions analyzing partner strengths, tasks were divided; the Challenger Center taking on the role of k-12 curriculum development, the Museum of the North creating animations with data pulled from UAF research, to be shown on both in-house and traveling spherical display systems and the Anchorage Museum creating table top displays for use in community science nights. Each developed element was used while visiting the identified communities both in the classroom environment and during the community science nights.
Climate Change Education produced climate change educational experiences for both professional and general public audiences. In particular, the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), in collaboration with NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, and the University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), developed new content for SMM’s Earth Buzz online network, developed a climate change educational program for middle and high school teachers, invited audiences of policy- and decision-makers to SMM for climate change discussions, and recruited and mentored a climate change team of high school students through SMM’s Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center. The project goals were to increase the awareness and understanding in target audiences that (1) human activities are now surpass natural processes as driving forces of atmospheric change, (2) the behavior of Earth's atmosphere in the 21st Century will be increasingly determined by humans, and (3) human ingenuity is the key to adapting to and mitigating the climate changes underway. Highlights of the project included organizing and hosting the October 26-28, 2011 City of Saint Paul Climate Change Adaptation Scenario Planning Workshop, which catalyzed climate resilience as a city planning priority, organizing and hosting with Morris A. Ward, Inc. the October 5-6, 2012 Climate Change Science for Minnesota Broadcast Meteorologists workshop which brought together local TV and radio meteorologists with some of the best climate scientists in the U.S., helping to organize and host on November 7, 2013 the State of Minnesota’s first conference devoted exclusively to climate change adaptation, and the adoption by the museum of a public statement on climate change (www.smm.org/climatechange). The project endures although the grant has concluded through the continued delivery of the museum’s Climate Changed outreach program to a wide array of audiences and through the museum’s continued involvement with the many partnerships established during the Climate Change Education project, as exemplified by the museum working with the City of Saint Paul and Macalester College on an upcoming St. Paul Neighborhood Climate Adaptation Workshop and a Worldwide Views on Climate and Energy event (climateandenergy.wwviews.org/).
Earth to Sky (ETS) is an exciting, growing partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Park Service (NPS) the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the University of California, Berkeley. Together we work to enable and encourage informal educators to access and use relevant NASA and other science, data, and educational products in their work. The project is co-lead by NASA Earth Science Education, in partnership with NPS, USFWS and U.C. Berkeley. Earth to Sky has been funded by a series of NASA grants and the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Mission Statement: Actively foster collaborative work between the science and interpretation/education communities of NPS, USFWS and NASA, to ultimately enrich the experiences of millions of visitors to America’s National Parks, Refuges and other protected areas. There are two, closely linked components to ETS: Professional Development, and an active Community of Practice. We use a collaborative approach to interagency professional development, bringing scientists and educators together in collegial learning environments. Our training events emphasize development of plans for use of course content in participants’ work environment. We provide face-to-face, distance-learning and blended learning opportunities. Since 2008 the effort has focused on climate change science and communication. However, we maintain connections with other science content areas, including comparative planetology and the Sun-Earth connection. We have also developed, and continue to nurture and expand, a community of practice that uses the science and communication skills and capabilities of each of the partners to enrich public engagement in natural and cultural heritage sites across the United States. Impact: 86 course participants from a total of 3 ETS courses have in turn reached well over 4 million visitors to parks and refuges with content derived from ETS professional development. Archives of almost all ETS presentations and examples of participants’ work are available to registered members of our website http://www.earthtosky.org Registration is free and open to anyone with an interest in science communication. We also maintain a listserv of nearly 500 individuals, which provides periodic updates on science, professional development opportunities and other news of relevance to the community.