The following are interviews with people whose long-term involvement with the PISEC program has been life-changing. Most started as participants, with or without friends and family, and over time became PISEC leaders. Most of those profiled here are parents. Because PISEC programs are geared to families, these parents brought their children to events starting at a very young age. As their children grew up in PISEC, they too, became involved with the program. In some cases, children took on leadership roles of their own; in other cases, children’s interest in science activities and studies grew
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Philadelphia-Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative (PISEC)Minda BorunBarbara Martin KellyLisa Jo Rudy
This article focuses on collective impact, the idea that large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination rather than a focus on isolated interventions in individual organizations. The article lays out five conditions that help organizations collaborate--a common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone support organization.
Currently, science is developing rapidly and its influence on society is more significant than ever. This is all the more reason for today's scientists to interact with the general public. To design effective science communication activities, we must understand scientists' motivations and barriers to publicly communicating science. In this study, we interviewed 19 early-career scientists who had participated in science cafes in Japan. From these interviews, we identified five factors leading to their reluctance to participate in science cafes: 1) troublesome or time consuming; 2) pressure to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Eri MizumachiKentaro MatsudaKei KanoMasahiro KawakamiKazuto Kato
Mobile Media Learning shares innovative uses of mobile technology for learning in a variety of settings. From camps to classrooms, parks to playgrounds, libraries to landmarks, Mobile Media Learning shows that exciting learning can happen anywhere educators can imagine. Join these educator/designers as they share their efforts to amplify spaces as learning tools by engaging learners with challenges, quests, stories, and tools for investigating those spaces.
There is a widely acknowledged, urgent need for improving and increasing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills among our citizenry and students to navigate the modern world and access the opportunities it affords. The need for a more STEM literate workforce has been discussed in respected reports such as “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” from the National Academies, and data on the workforce show clear benefits of a STEM‐related post secondary education in the current job market. This brief from the Afterschool Alliance explores the impacts and outcomes of afterschool STEM
Click! Urban Adventure Game was a mixed-reality role-playing game where girls worked in teams to solve a fictional mystery based on a real-world issue, using technology and science to conduct their investigation. In this article we describe the design of the experience and present evidence that the game increased girls’ confidence, interest, and knowledge of science and technology and helped to build a community of support and conversation-centred learning for girls. This example has implications for the design of informal learning experiences that bridge interest and identity with science and
Choreographed by Liz Lerman and the Dance Exchange, The Matter of Origins is a contemporary dance exploring historical perspectives and cutting edge physics about our beginnings. In Act One, audience members watch as science concepts are translated into images, music, and dance. Dancers portray ideas such as the complexity of measurement, the ways atomic particles interact, and the origins of the universe. Science-themed, multi-media experiences including images from the Hubble space telescope, CERN, and replications of atomic bomb explosions accompany the dancing. In Act Two, audience members
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Liz LermanDiane DoberneckJohn SchweitzerPaula MillerJohn Borstel