2021 AISL-Funded Projects

October 8, 2021

In 2021, the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program awarded funding to a wide range of projects. The titles of these awards with links to their abstracts and the Principal Investigators’ names are listed alphabetically by project type. In 2021 that list includes: Broad Implementation, Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program, Conferences, Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER), Innovations in Development, Literature Review, Pilot and Feasibility Studies, Research in Service to Practice, Co-funded by the NSF Division of Polar Programs, and Co-funded by AISL and other NSF Programs.

You may also use the advanced search function on InformalScience.org to sort by audience type, disciplinary content, and other tags of interest.

Broad Implementation

The Broad Implementation project type supports the expansion or reach of models, programs, technologies, assessments, resources, research, or systems that have a documented record of success, innovation, or evidence-based knowledge building. The focus is on making innovations or approaches succeed when they are implemented at a larger scale.

Broad Implementation: Expanding a Successful Model of Fully Virtual Professional Learning for Afterschool Educators	Sue Allen, Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance
Expanding a Model for Interactive Social Science Exhibits Presented in Outdoor Public Spaces	Shawn Lani, Exploratorium

Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program

The CAREER Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. These awards enable awardees to develop as outstanding researchers, and also as educators demonstrating commitment to teaching, learning, and dissemination of knowledge.

CAREER: Supporting Families’ Collective Agency as Learners in Science Centers and Museums through an Integrated Research and Practice Agenda	Susan Letourneau, New York Hall of Science
CAREER: Investigating Black Youths’ Engineering, Innovation, and Design Practices at the Intersection of Museum and Home/Family Learning	DeLean Tolbert Smith, Regents of the University of Michigan - Dearborn
CAREER: Redefining Scientific Literacy at the Community Level - Researching Science Learning using a Social Network Approach	Kirstin Busch, North Carolina State University

Conferences

These projects bring together participants to address a question, issue, or topic for which collective engagement could advance field-wide thinking and approaches to learning.

A conference to explore theories regarding how moral motives move people from STEM information learning to STEM-informed action	John Voiklis, Knology
A Workshop on Assessment and Evaluation Tools for Makerspaces	Peter Wardrip, University of Wisconsin-Madison
A Conference on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Citizen Science	Caren Cooper, North Carolina State University

Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER)

These exploratory projects are working in the early stages of untested, but potentially transformative, research ideas or approaches.

EAGER Investigating Barriers and Strategies to Increase HBCU Participation in STEM Education Research

Cynthia Trawick, Morehouse College

Innovations in Development

These projects focus on and leverage the development of a product, model, tool, or resource to better understand and inform practice. Innovations take many forms and occur at different scales depending on the nature of what is being innovated (e.g. exhibits, media products, after school programs, technologies, assessments, resources, or systems for an area of STEM learning in informal environments).

AI Behind Virtual Humans: Communicating the Capabilities and Impact of Artificial Intelligence to the Public through an Interactive Virtual Human Exhibit	Ning Wang, University of Southern California
Seeing the World through a Mathematical Lens: A Place-Based Mobile App for Creating Math Walks	Candace Walkington, Southern Methodist University
Ingenieros Ingeniosos (Ingenious Engineers): Connecting Latinx Youths' Workplace Practices with Engineering through Out-of-School Time Programs	Amy Wilson-Lopez, Utah State University
Building Quantum Information Science Intuition through Digital Games	Diana Franklin, University of Chicago; Danielle Harlow, University of California-Santa Barbara
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) Girls in a Robotics Leadership Project	Harry Cheng, University of California-Davis
Engaging Multicultural Audiences through Inclusive STEM content on YouTube	Adam Dylewski, PBS FOUNDATION
Cultivating Tomorrow’s Engineers through the Entertainment & Hospitality Landscape	Emma Regentova, University of Nevada Las Vegas
Intercultural Science Communication Research and Training to Broaden Participation Among Historically Minoritized Science Practitioners	Bruno Takahashi, Michigan State University; Sunshine Menezes, University of Rhode Island
Collaborative Research: Intergenerational Learning, Deliberation, and Decision Making for Changing Lands and Waters	Filiberto Barajas-Lopez, University of Washington; Megan Bang, Northwestern University; Anna Lees, Western Washington University
Building on Latinx families' strengths to model and promote informal science learning through a culturally responsive telenovela series	Joy Kennedy, Education Development Center
Using Media and Texting to Foster STEM Learning in Low-Income and Latinx Families	Sandra Sheppard, WNET
Leveraging community-based organizations to develop and study Native Hawaiian ethos-driven ('Āina-based) environmental science activities	Lui Hokoana, University of Hawaii
Weaving Indigenous Identity, Cultural Values, and Environmental Science Together for Sustainable Tribal Land Management and Resource Career Pathways	Nakia Williamson, Nez Perce Tribe
Developing Conversational Videos to Support Children's STEM Learning and Engagement	Mark Warschauer, University of California-Irvine
WaterMarks: An art/science framework for community-engaged learning around water and water management in an urban area	Ryan Holifield, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Youth-Directed Math Collaboratories and Mathematical Identity: African American Youth as Co-Learners, Co-Educators and Co-Researchers	Jay Gillen, Young People's Project, Inc.
The Blue Whales Project: Engaging audiences in adaptation related science content through a giant screen film and educational activities in science centers and rural libraries	Charles Kopczak, California Science Center Foundation
Ice Worlds: A Giant Screen Film and Outreach Project	Deborah Raksany, Giant Screen Films
Collaborative Research: Creating a Mechanism for Youth to Document Out-Of-School-Time STEM Learning as a Means for Expanding Educational Pathways	Nichole Pinkard, Northwestern University; Katie Taylor, University of Washington; Barry Fishman, Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Literature Review, Syntheses, or Meta-analyses

These projects focus on a question, issue, or topic of critical importance to the researchers and practitioners invested in learning outside of formal education contexts.

A Systematic Review of STEM Learning and Social-Emotional Development in Out of School Time

Gil Noam, McLean Hospital

Pilots and Feasibility Studies

These projects offer opportunities for practitioners and researchers to investigate issues in and approaches to informal STEM learning that include high risk strategies or methods that need exploration to inform the potential for future research and development.

STEM Webcams as Tools for Learning and Education	Sarah Schulwitz, The Peregrine Fund
A Culturally-Responsive Maker Program Designed to Develop the STEM Interest, Self-Efficacy and Science Identity of Black Girls	LaShawnda Lindsay, Wellesley College
Accessible Oceans: Exploring Ocean Data through Sound	Amy Bower, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Diálogos: Harnessing Latinx Community Cultural Wealth to Support Executive Function in Early Childhood through Family Engineering Experiences	Smirla Ramos-Montanez, TERC Inc
Community Collaboration as a Culturally-Relevant Approach to Climate Change Programming and Mitigation	Patricia Townsend, Washington State University

Research in Service to Practice

These projects focus on research that advances knowledge and the evidence base for practices, assumptions, broadening participation, or emerging educational arrangements in STEM learning in informal environments, including the science of science communication.

STEM-based Making for Youth, Families, and Communities	Edna Tan, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Black SciGirls: Investigating a Culturally Responsive Media-enriched Approach to STEM Teaching and Learning	Rita Karl, Twin Cities Public Television
Examining the Efficacy of a Co-Designed Culturally Sustaining STEM Learning Ecosystems Model for Youth, Their Families, and Informal Educators in Rural Communities	Christina Cid, The High Desert Museum
Breaking Stereotypes through Culturally Relevant Storytelling: Optimizing Out-of-school Time STEM Experiences for Elementary-Age Girls to Strengthen their STEM Interest Pathways	Tricia Zucker, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Applying a complex systems perspective to investigate the relationship between choreography and agent-based modeling as tools for scientific sense-making	Dionne Champion, University of Florida
Embodied Physics: Using the Lenses of Physics and Dance to Investigate Learning, Engagement, and Identity Development for Black and Latinx Youth	Folashade Cromwell Solomon, TERC Inc
Modeling Zoos and Aquariums as Inclusive Communities of Science: Developing a framework of inclusive practices for broadening the participation of autistic individuals	Kelly Riedinger, Oregon State University
Leveraging the Power of Reflection and Visual Representation in Middle-Schoolers' Learning During and After an Informal Science Experience	David Uttal, Northwestern University; Amanda Dickes, Gulf of Maine Research Institute; Catherine Haden, Loyola University of Chicago
Urban Youth Participation in Community and Citizen Science	Kevin Cuff, University of California-Berkeley
Research Synthesis of Effective Inclusion Practices for Neurodiverse K-12 Learners in Informal STEM Learning Contexts	Ronda Jenson, Northern Arizona University

Co-funded by AISL and other NSF Programs

Collaborative Research: Advancing language research and outreach in a language museum	Charlotte Vaughn, University of Maryland, College Park
A Workshop to Synthesize Findings from Education Research Conducted During the Pandemic: Emerging Lessons From COVID-19	Vanessa Peters, Digital Promise Global
Workshop for Writing Grants for Early Career Scholars in STEM and Learning Sciences Focused on Racial Equity	Christopher Wright, Drexel University
SCC-PG: Closed-loop Intervention to Promote a Supportive and Interactive Environment around Children	Ou Bai, Florida International University
Utilizing the Library System and Virtual Reality Learning Experiences To Engage Rural and LatinX Communities in Polar Research	Kevin Ponto, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Posted by Aya Rothwell