It’s a simple idea. Introduce a kid to a scientist, and let the child ask questions—whatever they wonder about. Then ask the child to reflect a little on the conversation when it’s over by drawing a picture or writing a few words. This is the gist of Science Storytellers, a program founded by freelance science writer Jennifer Cutraro. At the ACS national meeting in Boston last month, C&EN partnered with Science Storytellers to bring this program to the ACS Kids Zone event held at the Boston Children’s Museum. Modeled after the approach professional journlists use in their work, Science
Tinkering creates a bridging point between a learner’s personal interests and experiences and a broad range of possible learning outcomes. It offers valuable opportunities to engage all students in STEM and fosters a more inclusive STEM education. In this way, it is very much aligned with a Science Capital Teaching Approach: fundamentally, it is a highly personalised pedagogy, which allows the learner to follow their own interests and set their own goals.
This resource has been designed to help teachers integrate the Tinkering approach and the Science Capital framework in their practice
BioEYES is a K-12 science outreach program that develops self-sustaining teachers as a replication strategy to address high demand for the program while promoting long-term school partnerships. This paper explores the practices of “model teachers” from multiple grades, who are empowered over a three-year period to deliver BioEYES’ hands-on science content autonomously, as compared to the program’s standard co-teaching model (BioEYES educator + classroom teacher). The authors found that BioEYES’ professional development (PD) workshop, classroom co-teaching experience, and refresher trainings
With funding from a Smithsonian Institution Youth Access Grant the National Museum of Natural History offered a program pipeline that would engage underserved Washington D.C. students in programming designed to encourage academic and career STEM interest. Beginning with collaboration with community educators, the pipeline funneled students into a Teen Night Out Science Night to interest them in science workshop series offered after school and on weekend and ultimately into volunteer and internship opportunities. This report provides detailed view of methods, analyses, results, and conclusions
Outreach activities at the interface of science and art present a unique opportunity to connect and engage with “latently interested” publics who do not otherwise take part in science activities like visiting science museums. In this paper, the authors present “Guerilla Science” as one model that supports the hypothesis that well-designed science + art (STEAM) programming in informal settings can broaden participation in, and facilitate engagement with STEM-related topics. This paper describes a range of interactive events featuring scientists and artists and accompanying research into the
BioEYES, a nonprofit outreach program using zebrafish to excite and educate K–12 students about science and how to think and act like scientists, has been integrated into hundreds of under-resourced schools since 2002. During the week-long experiments, students raise zebrafish embryos to learn principles of development and genetics. We have analyzed 19,463 participating students’ pre- and post-tests within the program to examine their learning growth and attitude changes towards science. We found that at all grade levels, BioEYES effectively increased students’ content knowledge and produced
With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ (IMLS) Museums for America program, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden (Zoo) undertook a process of improving the interpretive experience of its Wings of the World exhibit, which concluded in summer 2018. The updated exhibition sought to enhance families’ connections to nature and inspire them to become better bird neighbors, in direct alignment with the Zoo’s strategic planning.
In collaboration with the Zoo, the Lifelong Learning Group (LLG) conducted formative and summative evaluation in spring and summer 2018. The
This report, from the "Tinkering EU: Building Science Capital for All" project, provides a theoretical rationale for understanding the relationship between Tinkering as a pedagogical approach, students’ individual science capital, and inclusive STEM teaching approaches. By exploring the relationship between these three areas, it invites professionals to reflect on the ways in which Tinkering can be used a teaching tool for building science capital.
Previous research has identified parental involvement—the ways parents and other caring adults interact with children in and outside of the home, and the kinds of learning materials with which parents surround children—as key to helping children develop knowledge and skills in literacy and math (Bassok, Finch, Lee, Reardon, & Waldfogel, 2016; Burgess, Hecht, & Lonigan, 2002; Niklas, Nguyen, Cloney, Tayler, & Adams, 2016; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Skwarchuk, Sowinski, & LeFevre, 2014). Parental support may be critical to children’s developing knowledge and understanding in science as well.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Megan SilanderTodd GrindalNaomi HupertElisa GarciaKea AndersonPhilip VaheyShelley Pasnik
As the maker movement is increasingly adopted into K-12 schools, students are developing new competences in exploration and fabrication technologies. This study assesses learning with these technologies in K-12 makerspaces and FabLabs.
Our study describes the iterative process of developing an assessment instrument for this new technological literacy, the Exploration and Fabrication Technologies Instrument, and presents findings from implementations at five schools in three countries. Our index is generalizable and psychometrically sound, and permits comparison between student confidence
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Paulo BliksteinZaza KabayadondoAndrew P. MartinDeborah A. Fields
Increased integration and synergy between formal and informal learning environments is proposed to provide multiple benefits to science learners. In an effort to better bridge these two learning contexts, we developed an educational model that employs the charismatic nature of arachnids to engage the public of all ages in science learning; learning that aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas associated with Biodiversity and Evolution). We created, implemented, and evaluated a family-focused, interactive science event—Eight-Legged Encounters (ELE)—which
We explore the understudied role of program staff in an out-of-school time (OST) program at a large science museum, which may be especially relevant for supporting underrepresented minority (URM) youth’s interest in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) careers. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-method design, we surveyed 167 program alumni on their science attitudes, career interests, and memories about how the program compared to experiences at home, school, and with friends. We followed that with 49 interviews with alumni. Findings show that, while in the program, alumni who