Informal physics programs are understudied partly due to the broad spectrum of program structures and wide variety of activities. Moreover, the program facilitators hold diverse positions - faculty members at universities, staff members of national labs, and student leaders. In this study, we conduct an in-depth analysis of surveys and interviews from a subset of a national data set. Our goal is to develop and validate a practitioner-focused model of the key organizational components of informal physics programs. Based on the model of The Physics Teacher Education Program Analysis (PTEPA), we
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Dena IzadiBryan StanleyLily Boydclaudia fracchiollaKathleen Hinko
Through desk-based research and expert interviews, this study set out to investigate how funders and policy makers could drive coordination and improvements in the evaluation of youth engagement with STEM. The study explored the current landscape of evaluating youth engagement with STEM, gaps and challenges and key learnings from the evaluation practice in other sectors and key initiatives. Between February and March 2022, 18 project and programme evaluation reports and papers were reviewed, approximately 40 academic papers were analysed and synthesised, and 14 experts were interviewed.
The COVID-19 pandemic tested many fundamental connections between science and society. A growing field working to strengthen those connections exists within the informal STEM learning (ISL) community which provides diverse learning and engagement environments outside the formal classroom. One of the largest funders of ISL initiatives is the National Science Foundation (NSF) which runs the Advanced Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program in the United States. The AISL program supports initiatives through six categories that include pilots and feasibility studies, research in service to practice
This report grew out of work by the Issues Laboratory Collaborative, in which five science museums joined together to investigate effective ways to present issues in science and technology and to share what they learned with other centers. Each member developed and evaluated a presentation that explored various aspects of the same topic: global climate change. ILC museums were: Discovery Place, Charlotte, NC; The Franklin Institute Science Museum, Philadelphia; Museum of Science, Boston; Orlando Science Center; and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland. An appendix to the report
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ann MintzMinda BorunMargaret Chambers
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Iteration is a central practice in art and science; however, it has yet to be deeply explored in STEAM learning environments. This study adopts a sociomaterial orientation (Fenwick and Edwards, 2013) to characterize the nature of iteration in one STEAM activity, an Optics Design Challenge, with informal educators. We found that iteration emerged as “microcycles” of interactions, specifically as adjustments, additions, and negotiations in both material artifacts and the narrative.
In collaboration with the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) and Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN), and with support from the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Learning Innovation will virtually bring together 4-5 dozen diverse (expertise and role, background, demographics, geography) thoughtful STEM learning professionals to collaboratively re-imagine the future of the science museum community, in particular the particularly vulnerable small to medium size science museum sector. Participants will be asked to think
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
The project is building a nationwide online coaching/mentoring program for out of school educators in rural settings.
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting.
The project scales up an award-winning coaching model:
Informal educators come together in small groups to share videos of their own interactions with youth
A coach helps them share feedback based on their use of key skills (e.g. how to ask youth purposeful questions).
Access & opportunity in STEM remain limited for youth from historically underrepresented backgrounds in the US & UK. We present findings grounded in Participatory Ethnographies into STEM pathways, highlighting how youth participate in ISL across time and settings in equitable and transformative ways, and practices that ISL practitioners engage in towards supporting pathway authoring. We take a pathways lens to highlight the multiple directions one may take through a particular ecology towards a wide range of outcomes beyond the STEM career, such as STEM agency and identities. Our study
Across literature on STEM practice and STEM education, definitions of "imagination" vary in a number of ways. The visual tool below presents a way to organize the characteristics of these definitions along three dimensions: essence, ways of thinking, and context. Using this framework, you can build definitions of imagination relevant to your work.