This short video entitled "Urban Science for the Hip-Hop Generation: The Documentary" provides an overview of a research program led by Chris Emdin of Teacher's College in NYC. Professor Emdin has designed a science program that builds on students' cultural and personal resources to engage students in STEM learning from a position of familiarity and strength. This is a powerful example of making STEM culturally relevant to students as a way to engage and excite them in learning.
Supervising youth workers is a challenging, demanding job in a complex field. Too frequently youth workers get mired in reacting to the everyday crises that dominate their work, finding it difficult to rise above the daily demands to reach a place where reflection can help guide their work. Strategies based in action research can empower youth work supervisors to invest in their own growth and in the continuous improvement of their programs.
Exemplary career programming overcomes the obstacles to engaging older youth and shows them how to find the "next rung on the ladder." This article draws from several disciplines to integrate what is and is not known about engaging youth in career programming during out-of-school time.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kathryn HynesKaylin GreeneNicole Constance
A survey of out-of-school time administrators and staff shows that professional development can influence providers' willingness and ability to include children with special needs in their programs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jane SharpElizabeth RodasAlan Savodnik
Our study looks at how participation in a continuous quality improvement initiative produces higher-quality practice in Rhode Island’s afterschool community by fostering change in program management practices. Among other findings, we discovered that quality improvement begins with program managers, who then lead the process of change.
Earth to Sky (ETS) is an exciting, growing partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Park Service (NPS) the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the University of California, Berkeley. Together we work to enable and encourage informal educators to access and use relevant NASA and other science, data, and educational products in their work. The project is co-lead by NASA Earth Science Education, in partnership with NPS, USFWS and U.C. Berkeley. Earth to Sky has been funded by a series of NASA grants and the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Mission Statement: Actively foster collaborative work between the science and interpretation/education communities of NPS, USFWS and NASA, to ultimately enrich the experiences of millions of visitors to America’s National Parks, Refuges and other protected areas. There are two, closely linked components to ETS: Professional Development, and an active Community of Practice. We use a collaborative approach to interagency professional development, bringing scientists and educators together in collegial learning environments. Our training events emphasize development of plans for use of course content in participants’ work environment. We provide face-to-face, distance-learning and blended learning opportunities. Since 2008 the effort has focused on climate change science and communication. However, we maintain connections with other science content areas, including comparative planetology and the Sun-Earth connection. We have also developed, and continue to nurture and expand, a community of practice that uses the science and communication skills and capabilities of each of the partners to enrich public engagement in natural and cultural heritage sites across the United States. Impact: 86 course participants from a total of 3 ETS courses have in turn reached well over 4 million visitors to parks and refuges with content derived from ETS professional development. Archives of almost all ETS presentations and examples of participants’ work are available to registered members of our website http://www.earthtosky.org Registration is free and open to anyone with an interest in science communication. We also maintain a listserv of nearly 500 individuals, which provides periodic updates on science, professional development opportunities and other news of relevance to the community.
This paper introduces a model for using informal science education venues as contexts within which to teach the nature of science. The model was initially developed to enable university education students to teach science in elementary schools so as to be consistent with National Science Education Standards (NSES) (1996) and A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Core Ideas (2011). The model has since been used in other university courses and professional development workshops for elementary, middle school, and high school teachers. Learners experience the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Barbara SpectorRuth BurkettCyndy Leard
The Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre (doing business as the Learning World Institute), in collaboration with informal science education venues, universities, and corporations in Chicago, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., is organizing a set of three professional conferences and a web site to encourage stronger national and local communities of practice around the application of arts-based learning (ABL) to informal science education. Arts-based learning is the instrumental use of artistic skills, processes, and experiences to foster learning in non-artistic disciplines. The goal is to apply ABL to informal science education in ways that can foster the acquisition of STEM skills that are important in today's workforce. The set of conferences, with a total attendance of 750, will focus on an understanding of current and potential ABL applications to workforce skill development, opportunities to practice ABL directly, and creation of a research agenda on the impact of ABL on science education. The web site (funded through other sources) will help conference attendees prepare for the workshops, provide opportunities for networking, aggregate resources, and host the research agenda.
The purpose of the project is to develop, initiate, and disseminate a collaborative and sustained learning research agenda to inform how natural history museums can best use their resources to support our audiences in the 21st Century. A key component of the project was the 21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings Conference, held at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, February 12 - 15, 2012. During the conference, 100 participants from across the US and three international sites engaged in a dynamic process of initiating the development of a Call to Action and Learning Research Agenda
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TEAM MEMBERS:
National Museum of Natural History
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
A working group of the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director was tasked with developing a model for a sustainable and diverse U.S. biomedical research workforce that can inform decisions about training the optimal number of people for the appropriate types of positions that will advance science and promote health. Based on this analysis and recognizing that there are limits to NIH’s ability to control aspects of the training pipeline, the working group was asked to make recommendations for actions that NIH should take to support a future sustainable biomedical research infrastructure. This
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National Institute of HealthDorit Zuk
With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Mathematics in Zoos and Aquariums project worked with zoo and aquarium staff members to integrate mathematical concepts into the interpretation of living collections. Over two years, the project developed three activities related to logic, measurement, and data analysis and conducted workshops with over 400 staff from 124 institutions. In refining the workshop model and conducting evaluation, we found that most staff increased their comfort with and use of math-based activities and that the goals of the participants and the
This report, commissioned by the Wellcome Trust, provides a review of the value of informal science learning to science education in the UK. The study seeks to provide: a better understanding of the scope of informal science learning, its theoretical base and the types of change it can bring about in the understanding of and attitudes towards science; recommendations for robust methods for evaluating the impact of informal science learning, based on an analysis of practice in the field; recommendations on reaching deprived learners, schools and families; and recommendations based on best
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TEAM MEMBERS:
GHK ConsultingRichard LloydRoss NeilsonSuzanne KingMark DyballWellcome Trust