The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement (NCSCE) will conduct a Collaborative Planning project to maximize the collective impact of two well-established national STEM learning networks, National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net) and Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER). Through a strategic collaboration that leverages their respective achievements, resources, and expertise, the combined networks can advance informal science education that engages and empowers citizens and their communities as they address the complex civic challenges. The project will conduct a strategic planning process to envision how to unify two networks to increase a durable and identifiable infrastructure for cross-sector collaboration focused on linking science and civic engagement. It is supported by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds research and innovative resources for use in a variety of settings, as a part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments.
The project objective of the planning process is to create a new and expanded national infrastructure that will increase the capacity of science centers and other informal learning organizations to enhance the public's engagement with science through attention to civic issues, and access new partners, participants, and resources from higher education institutions. The project's core activity will be a three-stage planning process: Phase 1, an assessment of assets, resources, and regional complementarity of the networks, and the development and investigation of key research questions; Phase 2, a planning workshop involving 29 project leaders from both organizations and stakeholders from formal and informal science to identify and develop specific collaborative strategies; and Phase 3, an evaluation and dissemination of the planning results to the networks and the development of a new multi-year project to strengthen the national infrastructure for formal and informal STEM education.
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering and DO-IT IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology) at the University of Washington propose to create the AccessComputing Alliance for the purpose of increasing the participation of people with disabilities in computing careers. Alliance partners Gallaudet University, Microsoft, the NSF Regional Alliances for Persons with Disabilities in STEM (hosted by the University of Southern Maine, New Mexico State University, and UW), and SIGACCESS of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and collaborators represent stakeholders from education, industry, government, and professional organizations nationwide.
Alliance activities apply proven practices to support persons with disabilities within computing programs. To increase the number of students with disabilities who successfully pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees, the alliance will run college transition and bridge, tutoring, internship, and e-mentoring programs. To increase the capacity of postsecondary computing departments to fully include students with disabilities in coursers and programs, the alliance will form communities of practice, run capacity-building institutes, and develop systemic change indicators for computing departments. To create a nationwide resource to help students with disabilities pursue computing careers and computing educators and employers, professional organizations and other stakeholders to develop more inclusive programs and share effective practices, the alliance will create and maintain a searchable AccessComputing Knowledge Base of FAQs, case studies, and effective/promising practices.
These activities will build on existing alliances and resources in a comprehensive, integrated effort. They will create nationwide collaborations among individuals with disabilities, computing professionals, employers, disability providers, and professional organizations to explore the issues that contribute to the underrepresentation of persons with disabilities and to develop, apply and assess interventions. In addition, they will support local and regional efforts to recruit and retain students with disabilities into computing and assist them in institutionalizing and replicating their programs. The alliance will work with other Alliances and organizations that serve women and underrepresented minorities to make their programs accessible to students with disabilities. Finally they will collect and publish research and implementation data to enhance scientific and technological understanding of issues related to the inclusion of people with disabilities in computing.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Richard LadnerLibby CohenSheryl BurgstahlerWilliam McCarthy
After the first paradigm shift from the deficit model to two-way communication, the field of science communication is in need of a second paradigm shift. This second shift sees communication as an inherently distributed element in the socio-technical system of science and technology development. Science communication is understood both from a systems perspective and its consecutive parts, in order to get a grip on the complex and dynamic reality of science, technology development and innovation in which scientists, industrial and governmental partners and the lay public collaborate. This essay
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Maarten C.A. van der SandenSteven Flipse
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Within the research framework programmes, the European Commission's interest in societal issues pertaining to science and technology has been increasing over time. An important step in this direction has been taken with the establishment during the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) of the theme "Science in Society" (SiS) in the Specific Programme "Capacities". From this perspective, the theoretical and practical horizon of science and technology (S&T) socialisation discussed in this issue of JCOM fits well with the SiS strategy. In fact, S&T socialisation refers, on the one hand, to
In this article, we invite you to expand your vision of what it means to work at the intersections of formal and informal science and literacy education by describing how educators have collaborated to create programs that blend science and literacy in schools, in museums, and across these two spaces. In 2012, K–12 teachers from the National Writing Project (NWP) began working with the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and science museum educators in the National Science Foundation–funded Intersections project, which is being evaluated by Inverness Research. NWP is a network
In this paper, the authors synthesize three types of research-practice partnerships (RPPs) for informal learning. The article includes descriptions of example partnerships between local researchers and informal educators from the Hive NYC Learning Network, Community Practice Research Collaboration, and California Tinkering Afterschool Network. The synthesis paper concludes with a review of characteristics commonly found in partnerships in informal science education.
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. The goals of SENCER-ISE are to support formal and informal science education partnerships focused on compelling civic issues; examine whether these partnerships can bring about a transformation in STEM educational practices; provide models for others in the wider educational community; and promote confiddence in the notion that informal science education institutional assets are accessible sources of high quality "life-long learning" on matters of science
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. Living Laboratory is a model for museum-academic partnership that aims to educate the public about child development by immersing museum visitors in the process of scientific discovery. Living Laboratory embraces a "mutual professional development" philosophy, in which museum educators and scientists share their expertise with one another through a variety of regular interactions.
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. Living Laboratory is a model for museum-academic partnership that aims to educate the public about child development by immersing museum visitors in the process of scientific discovery. Living Laboratory embraces a "mutual professional development" philosophy, in which museum educators and scientists share their expertise with one another through a variety of regular interactions.
The Center for Children and Technology (CCT) at Education Development Center, Inc., an international nonprofit research and development organization (cct.edc.org), conducted the formative evaluation of the fourth year of the Be A Scientist! (BAS) project. This project, managed by Iridescent—a nonprofit afterschool science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program (www.iridescentlearning.org), has the goal of providing high-quality afterschool science and engineering courses to underserved families in New York City and Los Angeles. The project aims to enable participants to
"Let's Talk" will bring together professionals who are engaged in facilitating, evaluating or studying dialogue in STEM and history-based institutions for a symposium in Summer of 2015 structured as a 'meta-conversation' about what we know about dialogue. The project addresses the lack of a generalizable body of knowledge about dialogue, the need for instructional models and theory to inform the use of Dialogue programming, and the opportunity to prepare future museum professionals. Co-PI's: Kris Morrissey and Robert Garfinkle. Key activities include: Research Synthesis Paper; Symposium of professionals across STEM and history-based museums; Development of theory-based resources.