This guide was created by adapting the Sciencenter PD materials for broader dissemination. It is intended to provide some general information and tips on incorporating more youth voices in an ISL setting, as well as a framework for convening discussions with others at your institution around the topic.
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resourceresearchMuseum and Science Center Programs
Youth Lead the Way: A Youth Advisory Research Board Model for Climate Impact Education, hosted by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), offered a theory-based approach for youth from communities underrepresented in STEM to conduct content research on local climate change impacts and develop interactive educational products designed to engage public audiences around these impacts. Through the Youth Lead the Way project, a program that supports youth and science center collaboration was developed and implemented by integrating two well-established methods: Youth Advisory Boards and
This is a guide to supporting a Youth Advisory Research Board, abbreviated to “YARB.” A YARB integrates two well-established methods of working with youth: Youth Advisory Boards and Youth Participatory Action Research. Youth Advisory Boards give young participants an opportunity to implement real, observable change at institutions such as informal science education centers.
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Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
resourceresearchMuseum and Science Center Programs
This guide outlines how to tackle potential gaps in communication, engagement, scheduling, and work styles, as well as provide different ways to incorporate youth input and voice into projects. This guide is divided into four sections: Youth vs. Adults, Youth Engagement, Communicating with Youth, and Advising.
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OMSI YouthCARE team
resourceevaluationProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The aim of this evaluation study was to assess the extent to which the three PD workshop sessions (one for non-education staff, one for education staff and one for program youth) supported knowledge and confidence of Sciencenter staff and youth participants around the topics of integrating feedback from, and co-creating content with youth. The evaluation team used qualitative approaches to collect data through pre- and post-PD workshop questionnaires as well as a post-interview with the program coordinator two weeks after the PD workshops.
The aim of this evaluation study was to assess the extent to which youth-led products elicited public awareness of climate science or content communicated, and the desire to keep learning more about local climate impacts. The evaluation team used qualitative approaches to collect data through exit surveys and interviews with visitors at three events that were organized by the Youth Advisory and Research Board (YARB) members between August 2021 and July 2022.
This project builds on two prior NSF awards that supported development of a climate change exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah through deep engagement with research and rigorous prototyping. Grounded in key ideas from science communication, this exhibit is designed to support new, productive types of engagement around the topic of climate change among the diverse communities of Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Arctic is warming four times faster as a result of climate change than any other region, but the impacts of this warming are not well known beyond the local communities in the region. The Alaska Pacific University (APU) will organize a one-year planning project to further develop relationships with four Indigenous communities along the Alaskan Yukon River who are experiencing environmental and social impacts from the climate crisis.
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James TemteJulie Brigham-GretteBlane De St CroixErin Marbarger
This guidebook will help you plan your action project. The initial brainstorm pages will help you consider where to start, and the Action Project Framework will navigate you through steps to get to your destination: the completion of your project!
This project focuses on environmental health literacy and will explore the extent to which diverse rural and urban youth in an out-of-school STEM enrichment program exhibit gains in environmental health literacy while engaged in learning and teaching others about community resilience in the face of changing climates. Science centers and museums provide unique opportunities for youth to learn about resilience, because they bring community members together to examine the ways that current science influences local decisions. In this project, teams of participating youth will progress through four learning modules that explore the impacts of changing climates on local communities, the local vulnerabilities and risks associated with those changes, possible mitigation and adaptation strategies, and building capacities for communities to become climate resilient. After completion of these modules, participating youth will conduct a resilience-focused action project. Participants will be encouraged to engage peers, families, friends, and other community stakeholders in the design and implementation of their projects, and they will gain experience in accessing local climate and weather data, and in sharing their findings through relevant web portals. Participants will also use various sensors and web-based tools to collect their own data.
This study is guided by three research questions: 1) To what extent do youth develop knowledge, skills, and self- efficacy for developing community resilience (taken together, environmental health literacy in the context of resilience) through participation in museum-led, resilience-focused programming? 2) What program features and settings foster these science learning outcomes? And 3) How does environmental health literacy differ among rural and urban youth, and what do any differences imply for project replication? Over a two- year period, the project will proceed in six stages: a) Materials Development during the first year, b) Recruitment and selection of youth participants, c) Summer institute (six days), d) Workshops and field experiences during the school year following the summer institute, e) Locally relevant action projects, and f) End- of-program summit (one day). In pursuing answers to the research questions, a variety of data sources will be used, including transcripts from youth focus groups and educator interviews, brief researcher reflections of each focus group and interview, and a survey of resilience- related knowledge. Quantitative data sources will include a demographic survey and responses to a self-efficacy instrument for adolescents. The project will directly engage 32 youth, together with one parent or guardian per youth. The study will explore the experiences of rural and urban youth of high school age engaged in interactive, parallel programming to enable the project team to compare and contrast changes in environmental health literacy between rural and urban participants. It is anticipated that this research will advance knowledge of how engagement of diverse youth in informal learning environments influences understanding of resilience and development of environmental health literacy, and it will provide insights into the role of partnerships between research universities and informal science centers in focusing on community resilience.