The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI), in collaboration with O\'Reilly Media will host a two-day workshop to explore the potential for the kinds of making, designing, and engineering practices celebrated at Maker Faire to enrich science and math learning. The purpose of this workshop is to identify and aggregate successful programming strategies that increase student engagement and proficiency in STEM, with a focus on students underrepresented in STEM careers. The meeting will be organized around three main ideas: catalyzing a national Maker movement; dissemination and scaling of design principles; and assessment of impacts on STEM learning and attitudes. The convening highlights the capacity of making activities to impact student motivation, attitudes, and conceptual understanding in STEM in both informal and formal learning environments. The workshop will be held in conjunction with the World Maker Faire at NYSCI on September 18-19, 2011. The World Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-it-Yourself or DIY movement and brings together a broad community of professionals and laypersons with a common interest in technology-based creativity, tinkering, and the reuse of materials and technology. The proposed workshop extends the work of the previous Maker Faire workshop (DRL 10-46459) by identifying initiatives that bridge the Maker and STEM communities while building students' foundational STEM knowledge and engaging audiences underrepresented in STEM careers. This workshop will accommodate approximately 50 local and national scientists, engineers, learning science researchers, educators, policymakers, and philanthropists. Select participants will present detailed case studies of maker programs, design principles, assessments, and measured outcomes in STEM attitudes and learning. Key elements of successful programs and assessment strategies will be identified across the case studies in brainstorming sessions and roundtable discussions. Following the workshop, a subset of the case studies will be compiled into an edited volume, indexed by the dimensions of student learning in the National Research Council publication, "A Framework for K-12 STEM Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Core Ideas." This project uses the momentum of the popular Maker Faire movement, based in design, engineering and technology concepts, to connect to STEM education while capitalizing on the strengths of informal learning environments. The workshop provides researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with an aggregated collection of program design principles and reliable metrics for documenting changes in preK-20 STEM attitudes and learning. The edited volume has the potential to advance the understanding of how to bridge formal and informal learning environments, while also fostering research on the affective dimensions of making in diverse audiences.
The University of Cincinnati Arlitt Child and Family Research and Education will conduct a two-year research investigation to document and understand young children's scientific dialog, interactions, behaviors, and thinking within expressly designed natural play environments called playscapes. Two existing environmental science-focused playscapes will serve as the informal context for the study. Pre-school children and their teachers at early childhood centers, Head Start programs and informal learning institutions such as zoos, nature centers, and museums will participate in the study. The Cincinnati Nature Center and the Cincinnati Playscape Initiative will partner with the University of Cincinnati for this research endeavor. The results of the study are expected to not only address a significant gap in the literature base related to self-directed play and young children\'s scientific thinking within playscapes environments, but the study also has the potential to inform the field more broadly about scientific learning and teaching across informal and formal contexts at the early childhood levels. Nine research questions will frame the study and seek to investigate: (a) children\'s behaviors in intentionally designed playscapes, (b) children\'s scientific thinking in intentionally designed playscapes, and the relationship between access to the playscape environment and children's attitudes about science and their own scientist identities. The study sample includes over 200 children (ages 3-5) will be recruited from local university, child care centers and head start programs. Each child will participate in research activities at one of two test sites, with sixty children participating in research activities at both test sites. As part of the study, the children will visit the test sites at least three different times and will be asked to explore the playscape environments on their own, with other children, and with their teachers. Lavalier microphones will capture the students' self-talk and dialogs with others, as they explore the specially designed playscape environments. Other data collection methods include: behavior mapping, direct observation, dialog analysis, surveys, focus groups, and curriculum-based assessments. A team of researchers, including university faculty and graduate assistants, will employ inductive, deductive, and abductive analytical methods and reasoning to analyze and synthesize the data. Concurrently, an external evaluator at the Evaluation Services Center will employ a mixed-methods approach for the formative, remedial, and summative project evaluations. An ultimate goal of the project is to use the research findings to provide a scientific base for the development of an early childhood approach that promotes scientific thinking and learning within self-directed, informal contexts.
The Fusion Science Theater National Training and Dissemination Program builds on the success of the Fusion Science Theater (FST) planning grant (DRL 07-32142). Madison Area Technical College, in collaboration with the Institute for Chemical Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the American Chemical Society (ACS) and area science centers and museums will create a national program to disseminate the FST model which directly engages children in playful, participatory, and inquiry-based science learning of chemistry and physics topics. The primary target audience is children aged 4-11, while undergraduate chemistry students, faculty, and formal and informal educators comprise the secondary professional audience. The project will result in the development of a robust, creative, and highly visible national dissemination program. The National Training and Dissemination Program includes three deliverables. First, a Distance Performance Training Program will be developed to teach groups of undergraduate students, faculty, and educators how to perform FST Science Investigation (SI) Shows. The Training Program includes a Performance Training Package and a 3-day Performance Training Workshop. The Performance Training Package will be comprised of training videos, performances videos, scripts, rehearsal schedules, and training exercises. These materials will be pilot tested while training representatives of five groups from around the country to perform SI Shows during the Performance Training Workshop at Madison Area Technical College in summer 2012. Participants will be selected from ACS undergraduate groups, outreach specialists, and museum professionals. Workshop participants then return to their home institutions and lead their groups through the improved Performance Training Package delivered via Moodle, with support from FST team members and social networking tools. The second deliverable is the FST Methods Workshop. The Methods Workshop is designed to teach formal and informal educators to use selected methods (Investigation Question, Embedded Assessment, and Act-It-Out) in their outreach efforts and classroom teaching. Four workshops will be presented at national meetings and at the invitation of colleges, universities, and science centers. Follow-up with workshop participants will be mediated through an online forum to encourage experimentation, modification, and dissemination of a second generation of FST activities. The final project deliverable is the development and implementation of a Promotion and Recruitment Plan to connect professional audiences with FST. The Distance Performance Training Program and workshops will be evaluated using mixed methods, while embedded assessment will be utilized to measure the impact on youth participants attending SI shows to determine the overall effectiveness the Distance Performance Training. This project is designed to have important impacts on STEM education and society. The proposed dissemination program brings innovative models and methods into the hands of informal science education practitioners who can use them to engage local audiences and enhance their own teaching and communication practices. Finally the project offers likely benefits for society through the creation and dissemination of innovative practices to combat science illiteracy, diminishing pools of scientists and engineers, lack of understanding about the nature of science, and the achievement gap that exacerbates these problems. This project could be transformative in informal science education as SI Shows use theater to engage audiences in multiple aspects of science learning. It is anticipated that this project will reach up to 2,500 individuals in public and professional audiences.
EDC and the Lawrence Hall of Science propose an intensive, innovative mentoring and professional development model that will build the capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) to deliver high-quality science and engineering curricula to children in after-school programs. The program's goal is to alleviate two consistent problems of after-school STEM providers: high turnover rate and the ability to lead/teach high quality science activities. The project will put in place a broad network of trainers in three regions of the country, leveraging the expertise and collaboration of two well-established and trusted national informal education networks. The extensive collaboration involves 14 organizations total including nine science centers (of varying sizes), three state 4-H agencies, the National 4-H Council and EDC. The primary audience for this project is the trainers (science center, 4-H, others) who currently (or may in the future) train CBO staff. EDC, LHS, and three "mentor" science centers will supervise these trainings and develop the new PD resources designed to improve the quality of training that CBO staff receive from these and other trainers. The National 4-H Council will help coordinate training and dissemination of products through the 4-H national network Goodman Research Group will conduct formative and summative evaluations of the project. DELIVERABLES: This project will deliver: 1) a model of prolonged training and support to build the capacity of CBOs to lead high quality science and engineering curricula with children; 2) a mentoring model to support and supervise trainers who work directly with CBOs; and 3) professional development tools and resources designed to improve the quality of training delivered to CBO staff. STRATEGIC IMPACT: This project will impact the national after-school professional development field by (a) demonstrating a model for how science-center, 4-H, and other trainers can build the capacity of CBOs to improve the way they lead science and engineering projects with children, (b) nurturing a cadre of mentor institutions to assist others to adopt this capacity-building and professional-development model, and (c) developing professional development tools and resources that improve the quality of training delivered by trainers to CBO staff. COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS: The three "mentor" institutions are: (1) the Lawrence Hall of Science, (2) the Science Museum of Minnesota, and (3) the Boston Children's Museum. The six science centers include (1) COSI Toledo in Toledo, OH; (2) Headwaters Science Center in Bemidji, MN; (3) Providence Children's Museum in Providence, RI; (4) Rochester Museum and Science Center in Rochester, NY; (5) River Legacy Living Science Center in Arlington, TX; and (6) Explora in Albuquerque, NM. The three 4-H partners include (1) 4-H New Hampshire, (2) 4- H Minnesota, and (3) 4-H California.
Madison Area Technical College will refine and evaluate the effectiveness of Fusion Science Theater (FST), a combination of theater, science demonstrations, and participatory components, as an ISE teaching model, to test its transferability through development and trials of an exportable version (Science-in-a-Box), and to recruit appropriate partners nationally in preparation for a larger scale implementation and evaluation. A Fusion Science Theater event utilizes the collaborative effort of applied expertise in science, theater and education. These events support playful interactions as characters engage the emotions of the audience. The Act-It Out sequences invite children and parents to become involved in modeling scientific concepts, thus creating an environment where learning is the product of social interaction and kinesthetic, affective and interpersonal learning. To provide proof-of-concept that this a transferable model, an independent, interdisciplinary team from the University of Wisconsin, Madison Biotechnology Center will produce their own FST event that will be evaluated and compared to an existing FST program. The Madison Children's Museum will partner as a venue for the event and provide expertise in the planning process. The ultimate project resulting from this planning would include workshops to train collaborative teams from around the country in the principles and practices of FST, promotion of cross-disciplinary collaboration among professionals, and honing of an evaluation design for FST events. The trained teams would then produce FST events that reach children, their parents and the general public. The planning grant project design includes activities necessary to further test, verify and document Fusion Science Theater events. It provides a proof of concept of model effectiveness and transferability. It also initiates, develops and assesses ways to train other groups to implement the model and publicizes the model to national professional networks to spread the work and recruit site teams.
The Louisville Science Center and the National Center for Family Literacy will engage in a year's planning to introduce the Parent- Child Interaction Project to teams of educators in six target cities. The goal is to explore the feasibility of a future national implementation of the model. The Parent-Child Interaction Project aims to empower underserved parents to become their child's most important teacher and provide these parents and their children the opportunity to gain science, mathematics, and technology education together. The participants are the parents and pre-school children enrolled in family literacy programs. During the Project, parents and children will make at least four trips to the participating science-technology center and evaluate their trips during follow-up class sessions. The joint efforts of the family literacy programs and science- technology centers can achieve the following goals: * Improve the involvement of low-income and low-literacy parents in the education of their children, specifically in the areas of science, mathematics and technology. * Increase the awareness of local science and technology centers as available community resources, particularly for underserved audiences. * Use science center visits and related projects to extend NCFL classroom learning for adult education students, their children and their teachers.
Alice is a traveling exhibition based on Lewis Carroll's beloved classic Alice in Wonderland. Alice will open in early 2001, first in San Jose and subsequently at mid-size children's museums and science centers across the country. It is projected that over the four years of traveling this exhibition around the United States, a target audience of more than two million people will view the project. The target audience for the exhibition is young children age 3-8 years old, with an emphasis on attracting girls and minorities, populations traditionally underserved in science and mathematics, together with their parents and teachers. Alice takes the link between curiosity and explanation as its rationale, using its eponymous heroine's dream-adventure as a framework for activities that will help children and adults build a shared foundation for mathematics and science literacy. The designer for the project will be Koem Liem, a recognized exhibit developer.
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry is requesting $971,288 over three years for the development, formative and summative evaluation of two traveling exhibits. The 5,000 sq. ft. traveling exhibit is designed for children ages 3-8 and their families, using the context, setting, characters and challenged portrayed in the books of Richard Scarry, a noted children's author. A 2,000 sq. ft. mini-version traveling exhibit will be produced for use in smaller venues. Parent, teacher, and staff guides will be prepared and distributed. This exhibit gives strong emphasis to facilitating parent interaction with their children, and has activity areas for parents built into the exhibit. There is also an emphasis on anti-bias content within the exhibit.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Nancy StueberMarilynne ElchingerJoan Liberman
The San Jose Children's Discovery Museum will develop an exhibit "Take Another Look." A semi-permanent version will be installed at the Children's Museum and a 600-750 sq. ft. traveling version will be developed and circulated under the auspices of the Association of Science and Technology Centers Traveling Exhibition Service. Consisting of 14 individual elements, the exhibit is to communicate the essential role and significance of observation in the human experience and its more purposive character in science; the role and importance of instrumentation in scientific observation; and the importance to science of observing and interpreting phenomena in different ways. "Take Another Look" is aligned with nationally developed science education goals as outlined in Goals 2000, the AAAS Benchmarks, and with the California's Science Framework. The project targets the adult/child unit (parents and teachers with children age 2 to 10 that they accompany). Particular attention is being paid to reaching traditionally underserved audiences including Latino, Asia, and African American. Complementary materials include a Teacher's Guide, a Family Activities Guide, and a free/low cost "take-away" card with suggested activities and recommendations for other activities. It is estimated that in four years it will reach over two million children and adults both at the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum and host museums of the touring version.
Through a collaboration of the DuPage Children's Museum, Argonne National Laboratory, and National-Louis University, a three-element project is being conducted focusing on the following: 1) a research component that studies children's naive perceptions of the phenomena of air and wind energy, 2) an exhibition component that uses the project research to design, develop, and construct a 3- 4,000 square foot "process" oriented exhibition with a 2-story exhibit tower and 12-15 replicable exploratory workstations, 3) a program component that offers explorations for children adapted for museums, preschools and elementary school classrooms. Target audiences include young children and their parents, pre- and in- service early childhood teachers, and museum professionals interested in reaching very young children.
Maryland Instructional Television, in conjunction with the National Science Teachers Association, will use the expertise of scientists and educators and the medium of television to create an exciting science video series for children ages four through seven. The activities of the project include the identification of content, design of instructional video and ancillary print materials, and formative evaluation. Fifteen video programs will be developed, each containing two or three separate sub-programs. These will be supplemented by teacher and parent guides which will suggest activities designed to expand upon the material covered in the program. The series content and materials will explore everyday events in the lives of young children and will integrate science and mathematics concepts, skills and application into a variety of curricular areas. The companion activities will make use of objects already in the child's world or easily accessible in the home. This project is funded jointly with the Instructional Materials Development Program.
After-School Program Exploring Science (APEX) proposes to develop and implement a training model that will enhance the capacity of community-based after-school programs to provide science-learning opportunities for children ages 5-10. Capacity building will center on expanding the human resource base as well as access to hands-on resources that enable investigative science in informal settings. " APEX" will create a series of engaging hands-on science investigations that will be designed for replication in a wide range of informal learning environments. "APEX" community partners include the YMCA, YWCA and Family Christian Association of America (FCAA). The Miami Museum of Science will also partner with Miami-Dade Public Schools, Florida International University and Miami-Dade College to formalize opportunities for paraprofessionals and pre-service teachers to meet a portion of their certification requirements by leading "APEX" Science investigations in after-school programs thereby providing community-based after-school programs with a more stable workforce while at the same time supporting future teachers in the development of inquiry-based teaching skills. Through "APEX" over 275 after-school provider staff will be trained along with up to 300 pre-service teachers and paraprofessionals. The project will work with 93 after-school programs and impact roughly 7,000 high-need students.