The Museum of Science partnered with the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing to create a sequence of professional development experiences in science communication and hands-on learning for graduate students and post-docs. The Sharing Science Workshops were intended to help graduate students who work with the CHN program to improve their abilities to present their research to a variety of scientific and nonscientific audiences. The sequence included a half-day "Sharing Science" workshop, a half-day guided "Practicum" with museum visitors, and optional participation in NanoDays events at MOS
Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN) brings together three universities with unique strengths in nanoscience and nanomanufacturing: the University of Massachusetts, Lowell (UML); Northeastern University, Boston (NEU); and the University of New Hampshire, Durham (UNH). The University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute (UMDI) is conducting the five-year evaluation of CHN's education and outreach activities. The evaluation uses multiple sources of evidence to analyze project processes and outcomes. Using quantitative and qualitative
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Center for High-rate NanomanufacturingCarol Lynn AlpertCarol Barry
With the Role of Media in Supporting Informal Science Learning project, the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) and Grunwald Associates sought to establish a “national learning initiative” to explore the intersection of media and informal science learning. To do so, ILI proposed an initial conference followed by the development of a website and online community. The National Science Foundation funded this project, with additional funding provided by the National Parks Service. Held in March 2009, the 1.5 day conference was designed to be a “first step” in the development of a conversation
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth Bandy, Ph.D.Institute for Learning Innovation
The InformalScience.org web site is a resource for researchers working in the field of informal science and provides access to information linking researchers with one another and to member-contributed resources. Through use of the web site resources such as member projects, publications, and evaluation reports, users have opportunities to develop social and human capital. This report analyzes the value of InformalScience.org in supporting participants in the community as they navigate and advance the changing field of informal science education (ISE) research. In addition, we identify
In spring 2009, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (Museum) contracted with JVA Consulting, LLC (JVA) to conduct a comprehensive process and outcome evaluation of the Passport to Health (P2H) program. The Museum designed P2H, originally a three-year program funded by the Colorado Health Foundation (the Foundation), to improve health outcomes for fifth-grade students as well as their families and teachers throughout the Denver metro area. Passport to Health has seven components, designed to complement each other and help the Museum achieve its stated program goals. The seven components
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TEAM MEMBERS:
JVA Consulting, LLCDenver Museum of Nature & Science
In an effort to prepare female high school students for a college curriculum and achieve gender parity in the engineering industry, WGBH has developed an initiative entitled, Engineer Your Life (EYL). The initiative is targeted toward female high school students, career counselors/educators, and professional engineers. It is designed to: 1) increase these target audiences' understanding of engineering, 2) inspire young women to explore engineering as a career option and 3) help adults encourage young women to investigate engineering opportunities. One component of this initiative involves
For the NSF ISE QUEST Regional Hub Collaborative project, KQED's QUEST series Executive Producer Sue Ellen McCann assembled teams from six public media organizations around the country. The project was founded on two deceptively straightforward goals: the adaptation of a successful multi-media production model and the creation of a content-sharing collaborative. Yet, when one dissects the elements required to achieve these goals, a complex set of questions emerges. These questions uncover how and why public media organizations create 21st Century STEM content, and the answers to these complex
The Peabody Museum of Natural History's program on Biodiversity and Vector-Borne Disease was successful in meeting all of its goals. The following is a summary of the program in terms of these goals. Goal 1: To build teacher capacity for bringing research in biodiversity and disease ecology to grades 5-11 in an engaging, inquiry-based style. A total of 64 teachers from Connecticut and 4 teacher-trainers from California, Texas, and Wisconsin participated in training institutes to learn about vector-borne diseases. All participating teachers successfully implemented most or all of the curriculum
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Minda BorunPeabody Museum of Natural History
The following three case studies are descriptive and evaluative in nature, and are designed to describe, explain, and portray in some detail three examples of COSIA partnerships. These cases are context bound; the place-based aspect of these cases is critical to the phenomenon being explored. Consistent with the goal for employing a case study approach for COSIA (Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences) is the approach if investigating a phenomenon within the context of the places and partners involved. While each of these COSIA partnership sites are involved in other important and
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark St. JohnUniversity of California, Berkeley
Media MashUp (MMU) was an IMLS funded project (LG-07-08-0113 ) designed to help libraries build capacity for offering computer-based programs for youth. These programs were designed to help foster 21st Century literacy skills. The program focused on the Scratch programming language (http://scratch.mit.edu/), but also used other creative freeware programs (i.e., Audacity, Picasa, SAM animation, ArtRage). MMU was a partnership among six library systems from around the country and The Science Museum of Minnesota. Three staff members from each library participated in the program: two librarians or
As part of community building efforts, the Nanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE) Network undertook regional site visits during Year 5 of the project. The purpose of the site visits was to deepen relationships with a small group of partners. The Network Community Group saw the site visits as an opportunity to create a stronger sense of community within the Network and build institutions' capacity to engage their local public in nano. Partners with the highest potential to infuse nano into their institution and/or become actively involved with the Network were chosen for a site visit. A
The Nanoscale Informal Science Education (NISE) Network held an online workshop in February 2010 focused on NanoDays and activities in the NanoDays kit. A formative evaluation was designed to measure workshop outcomes and identify necessary improvements for future NanoDays workshops and inform other NISE Net online workshops. The outcomes stated that workshop participants would 1) become more familiar with the NISE Network, 2) become familiar with what NanoDays resources are available on nisenet.org and how to find them, 3) increase their comfort level using NanoDays activities with their