It is critical that we increase public knowledge and understanding of science and technology issues through formal and informal learning for the United States to maintain its competitive edge in today's global economy. Since most Americans learn about science outside of school, we must take advantage of opportunities to present chemistry content on television, the Internet, in museums, and in other informal educational settings. In May 2010, the National Academies' Chemical Sciences Roundtable held a workshop to examine how the public obtains scientific information informally and to discuss
This report includes six separate formative evaluations conducted to inform the design and development of the deliverables for the 3D Visualization Tools for Enhancing Awareness, Understanding and Stewardship of Freshwater Ecosystems project. Deliverables were tested with both students and general visitor groups, with a focus on groups including late elementary and middle school children. Many different components were tested, including prototype versions of 3D visualizations, high-tech interactive experiences, apps on tablets and phones, and table top exhibits. Results are reported in each of
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded an Informal Science Education (ISE) grant, since renamed Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) to a group of institutions led by two of the University of California, Davis’s centers: the Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) and the W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES). The purpose of the evaluation was to gather feedback from museum professionals and the general public about the proposed 3D visualization project and its related components. Additionally, the study aimed to assess the current understanding
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
University of California, DavisSteven Yalowitz
The Ross Sea Project was a Broader Impact projects for an NSF sponsored research mission to the Ross Sea in Antarctica. The project, which began in the summer of 2010 and ended in May 2011, consisted of several components: (1) A multidisciplinary teacher-education team that included educators, scientists, Web 2.0 technology experts and storytellers, and a photographer/writer blogging team; (2) Twenty-five middle-school and high-school earth science teachers, mostly from New Jersey but also New York and California; (3) Weeklong summer teacher institute at Liberty Science Center (LSC) where teachers and scientists met, and teachers learned about questions to be investigated and technologies to be used during the mission, and how to do the science to be conducted in Antarctica; (4) COSEE NOW interactive community website where teachers, LSC staff and other COSEE NOW members shared lesson plans or activities and discussed issues related to implementing the mission-based science in their classrooms; (5) Technological support and consultations for teachers, plus online practice sessions on the use of Web 2.0 technologies (webinars, blogs, digital storytelling, etc.); (6)Daily shipboard blog from the Ross Sea created by Chris Linder and Hugh Powell (a professional photographer/writer team) and posted on the COSEE NOW website to keep teachers and students up-to-date in real-time on science experiments, discoveries and frustrations, as well as shipboard life; (7) Live webinar calls from the Ross Sea, facilitated by Rutgers and LSC staff, where students posed questions and interacted directly with shipboard researchers and staff; and (8) A follow-up gathering of teachers and scientists near the end of the school year to debrief on the mission and preliminary findings. What resulted from this project was not only the professional development of teachers, which extended into the classroom and to students, but also the development of a relationship that teachers and students felt they had with the scientists and the science. Via personal and virtual interactions, teachers and students connected to scientists personally, while engaged in the science process in the classroom and in the field.
Twin Cities Public Television in collaboration with a committee of STEM media professionals will organize a one-day conference devoted to network building and planning for an inaugural, multi-day STEM Media Producers Conference in 2013 or 2014. Professional organizations and conferences are well-known and effective means of building community and advancing practice within specific fields. Mass media – film, television, radio, and more recently, productions for online/digital platforms – have been a primary component of NSF’s support for informal science education (ISE) for more than three decades, drawing on the skills of an extremely diverse array of professionals. Yet despite the many common issues faced by these professionals and the increasingly cross-platform nature of ISE media projects in the NSF portfolio, at present no formal organization, professional society or annual conference exists for this community. An organization of media producers and a regular, annual meeting will provide a much-needed forum to address issues of training and professional development, facilitate cross-platform collaborations, increase the use of new media technologies, and synthesize evaluations and research into coherent statements of the powerful impact of STEM media – statements that can form the cornerstone of a STEM/ISE media awareness campaign. The event will take place in conjunction with the NSF PI Meeting in March 2012, capitalizing on the momentum generated at a media convening organized by the Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) in July of 2011. The approximately 30 attendees will include participants in the July Convening and other STEM media professionals, all representing the subfields of Film, Television, Radio, and the increasingly important and diverse Online/Digital field, plus research and evaluation specialists and CAISE staff. The agenda will emphasize the potential of cross-platform collaborations and define a second agenda for a larger annual meeting that will include the larger community of STEM professionals.
Museum visits can be more enjoyable to small groups if they can be both social and educational experiences. One very rewarding aspect of a visit, especially those involving small groups such as families, is the unmediated group discussion that can ensue during a shared cultural experience. We present a situated, mobile museum system that delivers an hour-long drama to museum visitors. It perceives and analyzes group behavior, uses the result to dynamically deliver coordinated dramatic narrative presentations about the nearby museum exhibit, with the expected result of stimulating group
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Charles CallawayOliviero StockElyon DekovenKinneret NoyYael CitronYael Dobrin
Youth participants in an informal after school science program created a multimodal digital video public service announcement video. This paper considers the counterstories that emerge within the video and during the making of the video that challenge existing definitions of science literacy. The investigation suggests youth engage in expansive learning where vertical knowledge and horizontal knowledge inform their actions toward community based energy issues. Vertical knowledge describes the scientific knowledge youth engage while horizontal knowledge refers to the locally situated knowledge
The explosion in mobile apps in the last few years has meant that many new astronomy applications have become available. This catalog is a first attempt to make a list of those of particular interest to astronomy educators. For each mobile app, we give the title, then the developer (in parentheses), the web address for downloading it, and a brief description. Please note that we do not list the devices (or operating systems) each app is available for, since this is changing very fast as developers catch up with the increasing popularity of a variety of smart phones and tablets. At the end, you
Through the Digital Media in Everyday Life research initiative, The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago seeks to better understand our audience and their relationship to technology and digital media in order to inform the development of our own digital initiatives. Our definition of “audience” is necessarily broad, and includes visitors to the Museum as well as users of all our online, mobile, and social media experiences. Therefore it is not only important for us to understand what mobile devices visitors might bring into the Museum, but also how users behave online and in social networks
New mobile device features and the growing proportion of visitors carrying mobiles allow the range of museum exhibit design possibilities to be expanded. In particular, we see opportunities for using mobiles to help exhibits scale up to support variable-sized groups of visitors, and to support collaborative visitor-visitor interactions. Because exhibit use is generally one-time-only, any interfaces created for these purposes must be easily learnable, or visitors may not use the exhibit at all. To guide the design of learnable mobile interfaces, we chose to employ the Consistency design
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Priscilla Jimenez PazminoLeilah Lyons
The NASA Science Research Mentoring Program (NASA SRMP) is an established mentoring program that presents the wonders of space exploration and planetary sciences to underserved high school students from New York City through cutting-edge, research-based courses and authentic research opportunities, using the rich resources of the American Museum of Natural History. NASA SRMP consists of a year of Earth and Planetary Science (EPS) and Astrophysics electives offered through the Museum’s After School Program, year-long mentorship placements with Museum research scientists, and summer programming through our education partners at City College of New York and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The primary goals of the project are: 1) to motivate and prepare high school students, especially those underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, to pursue STEM careers related to EPS and astrophysics; 2) to develop a model and strategies that can enrich the informal education field; and 3) to engage research scientists in education and outreach programs. The program features five in-depth elective courses, offered twice per year (for a total of 250 student slots per year). Students pursue these preparatory courses during the 10th or 11th grade, and a select number of those who successfully complete three of the courses are chosen the next year to conduct research with a Museum scientist. In addition to providing courses and mentoring placements, the program has produced curricula for the elective courses, an interactive student and instructor website for each course, and teacher and mentor training outlines.
This planning grant addresses the issue of students losing interest in STEM during the ages of 8-12 years. The PIs propose that STEM content provided through electronic media will be more readily accepted by youth because it is on their "home turf." IMX.org will be a new, highly engaging, online destination for tweens and kids at large. It is designed to leverage the Web 2.0 and tweens' fascination with media and popular culture, and to demonstrate the connections between the real world, everyday life, and STEM. The project will test a preliminary design with a focus group of 8-12 year-olds, convene a panel of experts and Advisory Board, and create a beta Web site to conduct formative research.