Bridging Earth and Mars (BEAM): Engineering Robots to Explore the Red Planet engages the general public and K-8 students in exhibits and programs designed to foster awareness of robotic technology, computer programming, and the challenges and opportunities inherent in NASA missions and S-STEM careers. The Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC) of St. Louis, Missouri is the lead institution and project site; partners include Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis University, the St. Louis regional FIRST Robotics organization, and the Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis. Project goals are to: 1) inform, engage, and inspire the public to appreciate NASA’s Mission by sharing findings and information about NASA’s missions to Mars; 2) ignite interest in S-STEM topics and careers for diverse K-8 students; and, 3) encourage students in grades 6-8 to sustain participation in educational experiences along the S-STEM careers pipeline. The SLSC will design and build a Martian surface and panorama where two rovers can be remotely controlled. Visitors in the McDonnell Planetarium will use controllers to program rover exploration of the Martian landscape in real-time. Visitors in SLSC’s Cyberville gallery, located one-quarter mile away across a highway-spanning enclosed bridge, will program the second rover with simulated time lag and view its movements via a two-way camera system. SLSC will organize and host a series of Innovation Workshops for K-8 students, each featuring teamwork-building engineering challenges from current and updated NASA-based science curricula. Participants will be recruited from SLSC community partners, which include community centers and faith-based programs for underserved families.
The Aviation Adventure Center with Traveling Flight Science Lab is a three-year project developed by the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California with the intention to deliver immersive STEM programming focused on aeronautics, physical science, weather and general aviation subjects for a general museum audience and K-12 school groups. The lead institution is the Hiller Aviation Museum with additional museum partners including Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum, in Pueblo, Colorado, Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas, and New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The two goals of the project are 1) to create an in-house laboratory-style program area, called Aviation Adventure Center, permanently located within the exhibition gallery of the Hiller Aviation Museum and 2) to create a traveling flight simulation program/exhibit, called Traveling Flight Science Lab, that toured four aviation museums, listed above. During three years of the project a total of 48,530 participants were served in 4,476 programs. The project concluded in June, 2012. The Aviation Adventure Center continues as a centerpiece of Hiller Aviation Museum programming to this day.
The Maryland Science Center (MSC) Astrobiology project includes an interactive exhibit and Davis Planetarium program for school and public museum visitors, exploring the search for life in our Solar System, the search for exoplanets and an understanding of extreme forms of Earthly life. Four day-long Educator Workshops have taken place during the project with a total of 179 teachers participating.
Baltimore’s MSC is the lead institution, with the project led by PI Van Reiner, MSC President and CEO and Co-PI Jim O’Leary, MSC Senior Scientist, and science advisors consisting of astronomers, biologists, a geologist and educators representing NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Space Telescope Science Institute, Carnegie Institute of Washington, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland and Maryland School for the Blind.
The project provides visitors with a sense of the Milky Way Galaxy’s size and composition, the galaxy’s number of stars and potential planets, and the number of other galaxies in the Universe. The exhibit explores Earthly extremophiles, what their survival signifies for life elsewhere in the Solar System, and examines possibilities for life on Mars and moons of the Solar System, explores techniques used to detect exoplanets and NASA’s missions searching for exoplanets and Earth-like worlds. The project looks to provide a sense of the vast number of potential planets that exist, the hardiness of Earthly life, the possibilities for life on nearby planets and moons, and the techniques used to search for exoplanets.
The exhibit and Planetarium program premiered November 2, 2012, and both remain as long-term Science Center offerings. Since opening, MSC has hosted nearly a million visitors, and with the Life Beyond Earth exhibit located in a highly trafficked area near the Davis Planetarium and Science On a Sphere, the great majority of visitors have experienced the exhibit. The We Are Aliens program in the Davis Planetarium has been seen by more than 26,000 visitors since opening.
Ascent to Orbit: An Educator Professional Development Program Investigating STEM Concepts for Space Shuttle Missions and Beyond trains upper elementary and middle school teachers to deliver inquiry-based, hands-on activities exploring STEM concepts involved in the evolution of human space exploration. The California Science Center Foundation will engage a total of 100 teachers from the Greater Los Angeles Area, 50 per year for two years. The curriculum will be organized around the Pre-Shuttle Era, Shuttle/International Space Station Era and Future of Human Spaceflight. This coursework will be developed in consultation with Dr. Ken Phillips, the California Science Center's Curator of Aerospace Science to be interdisciplinary and correlate with the newly adopted Next Generation Science Standards. As part of the 16-hour, two-day training session, teachers will view Space Shuttle Endeavour as well as other significant artifacts of human space exploration in the Science Center's singular Air and Space collection, including the Mercury-Redstone 2, Gemini 11 Capsule and Apollo-Soyuz Command Module. The goal is to engage teachers and their students with a core set of STEM concepts that stimulate critical thinking about science and engineering principles. As a result of the professional development, teachers will gain a deeper understanding of core STEM concepts, be motivated to embed STEM and space related concepts into their curriculum, and foster in students an interest in space travel that begins with a trip to see Space Shuttle Endeavour and journeys to the future of human space exploration.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jeffrey RudolphRobin GoseKen Phillips
The Mars Exploration Exhibit is a new public exhibition designed to provide experiential learning opportunities for students, educators and the public while inspiring greater excitement about space science. The exhibit emphasizes the importance of STEM education and careers through practical application and inquiry-based learning. Space Center Houston, the official visitor center of Johnson Space Center, is creating the new Mars landscape simulation in partnership with the Houston Independent School District and University of Houston Clear Lake. The exhibit will offer interactive science education activities that will be delivered through distance learning and onsite instruction at Space Center Houston. Utilizing research-based practices in both formal and informal learning environments, the project will help to attract and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It will also foster life-long learning and enthusiasm toward the promise of space science and innovation. This unique exhibit will enable students and Space Center Houston’s more than 800,000 annual visitors to increase their knowledge of Earth science and apply their learning to the Mars environment. The exhibit will also highlight the role NASA missions serve in scientific innovation. The project will build the capacity of the Greater Houston community and school-based organizations to engage girls, minorities and other underrepresented students in STEM learning. It will offer in-depth science education for low-performing and gifted/talented students, ultimately bridging achievement gaps, increasing student performance and cultivating greater interest in science. Project outcomes will include: a 1,500-square-foot Mars landscape exhibition; interactive video presentations highlighting water recovery and other environmental processes; a standards-based learning curriculum aligned with Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS ) and National Science Standards; and a menu of K-12 experiential learning activities focused on water, air, renewable energy and other critical science topics.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Janet BrownMelanie JohnsonPaul SpanaMeg Naumann
This article explores the development of self-esteem and confidence in the context of an afterschool sports program for adolescent girls. The program focuses on boosting girls' perceived competence and improving skills related to career development, particularly networking.
The purpose of this toolkit is to provide library professionals and library workers who work with and for tweens and teens with materials and resources for professional development, outreach, collections, and programs to successfully integrate Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) into programs and services.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Young Adult Library Services Association (YASLA)Erica Compton
Despite robust research literature on the need for and benefits of summer learning programs, surprisingly few federal policies target summer specifically as a time to support healthy youth development and advance learning. Providing appropriate childcare and enriching activities during the summer has traditionally been viewed as the private responsibility of families. While this arrangement may be sufficient for wealthier children, who typically access a wide variety of resources that help them grow over the summer, poorer families often struggle to access such basic resources as healthy meals
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ron FairchildBrenda McLaughlinBrendan Costigan
As a matter of policy, 21st Century Community Learning Centers rely heavily on community organizations to provide a variety of instructional programs. In this way, 21st Century sites tap the depth and breadth of knowledge available in their communities to provide non-traditional learning experiences that can better meet young participants’ need for engagement and relevance than can a simple extension of school-day routine. However, the inclusion of multiple partners along with school-based site staff at any given 21st Century site means that the quality of instruction can be extremely uneven
This article focuses on three approaches to STEM in out-of-school time that would be instructive for any organization seeking to develop STEM opportunities for teen girls. While Techbridge and Queens Community House focused on reaching populations most underrepresented in STEM—girls of color and those from immigrant and low-income families—the strategies they used could be applied to any population of adolescent girls.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Harriet MosatcheSusan Matloff-NievesLinda KekelisElizabeth Lawner
This paper examines "New Faces, New Places: An Introduction to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math," a program designed to promote the formation of 4-H STEM programs to engage urban youth in science learning.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Walter BarkerEric KillianWilliam Evans
Attention to the differing developmental needs of adolescents—not only between middle school and high school but even among older and younger youth in each bracket—is the key to retention in OST programs.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sarah DeschenesPriscilla LittleJean GrossmanAmy Arbreton