The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is one of the world's single largest employers of science communicators, with over 350,000 students and 40,000 staff. Its science communication activities include five museums (Universum, Museo de la Luz, the Geology Museum, Museo de la Medicina Mexicana and Musem of Geophysics), botanical gardens, as well as a wide range of cultural and outreach activities. It has several programmes for training professional science communicators. The science communication staff are spread across the campuses in Mexico City and four other cities, including
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Ana Claudia NepoteElaine Reynoso-Haynes
Ciencia Pública is a National Science Foundation (NSF) -funded initiative in which the Exploratorium, in collaboration with the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco (BGCSF), developed a parklet to engage Latino families in STEM content. The Parklet is located in San Francisco’s Mission District (the Mission), a historically Latino neighborhood. Buena Vista Horace Mann School (BVHM) is an additional project partner and hosts the Parklet on its site. Garibay Group conducted a summative evaluation of the project outcomes. This report discusses evaluation findings.
The University of Texas at El Paso will conduct a research project that implements and documents the impact of co-generative dialogues on youth learning and youth-scientist interactions as part of a STEM research program (i.e., Work with A Scientist Program). Co-generative dialogues seek to specifically assist with communication and understanding among collaborators. Over four years, 108 11th grade youth from a predominantly (90%) Hispanic high school will conduct STEM research with twelve scientists/engineers (e.g., chemist, civil engineer, geologist, biologist) and undergraduate/graduate students as part of 7 month-long after school program, including bi-weekly Saturday activities for 5 months followed by an intensive month-long, self-directed research project in the summer. Youth will be randomly assigned to experimental groups that include the co-generative dialogue treatment and control groups without the intervention. The scientists and their STEM undergraduate/graduate students will participate in both experimental and control groups, with different youth. Youth will receive high school credit to encourage participation and retention. The PI team hypothesizes that co-generative dialogues will result in improved learning, communication, and research experiences for both youth and scientists. Educational researchers will conduct co-generative dialogues, observations, interviews, and surveys using validated instruments to address the following research goals: (1) To investigate the impact of the treatment (co-generative dialogues) on youth knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of their experience, and their relationships with the scientists; (2) To investigate the impact of the treatment on scientists and graduate students; and (3) To identify critical components of the treatment that affect youth-scientist interactions. It is anticipated that, in addition to providing in-depth STEM research experiences for 108 youth from underrepresented groups at a critical time in their lives, the project will result in widely applicable understandings of how pedagogical approaches affect both youth learning and scientist experiences. The project also seeks to bridge learning environments: informal, formal, university and digital.