In fall 2019, the Bell Museum received funding via a NASA TEAM II grant to create Mars: The Ultimate Voyage, a full-dome planetarium show and accompanying hands-on activities that focus on the interdisciplinary roles that will be needed to send humans to Mars. This report from Catalyst Consulting Group presents the findings from the summative evaluation completed in March–May 2023.
We present the assets that collaboration across a land grant university brought to the table, and the Winterberry Citizen Science program design elements we have developed to engage our 1080+ volunteer berry citizen scientists ages three through elder across urban and rural, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and formal and informal learning settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Katie SpellmanJasmine ShawChristine VillanoChrista MulderElena SparrowDouglas Cost
We used a youth focused wild berry monitoring program that spanned urban and rural Alaska to test this method across diverse age levels and learning settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Katie SpellmanDouglas CostChristine Villano
resourceevaluationProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Summative evaluation study for the Space Earth and Informal Science Education (SEISE) project examining professional impacts including project reach, partnerships, professional knowledge, and professionals' use of the project’s public-facing products and their implementation of practices for engaging the public
Over the course of the five-year NASA grant, the Space and Earth Informal STEM Education (SEISE) project offered a range of free professional development opportunities and resources to support informal educators’ ability to offer Earth and space programming and to partner with others
Growing Beyond Earth (GBE) is Fairchild’s NASA-funded classroom science project designed to advance research on growing plants aboard spacecraft. As NASA looks toward a long term human presence beyond Earth orbit, there are specific science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) challenges related to food production. GBE is addressing those challenges by expanding the diversity and quality of edible plants that can be grown in space. On Earth, GBE is also improving technologies for gardening in urban, indoor, and other resource-limited settings.
GBE is unique in its focus on real
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marion LitzingerCatherine RaymondCarl LewisAmy Padolf
During the school year of 2017-2018, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Fairchild) implemented the second year of a four-year project entitled: Growing Beyond Earth (GBE). NASA is providing funding support for project implementation as well as an external project evaluation. The evaluation activities conducted this year were focused on understanding project implementation and assessing project outcomes using data collected between September 2017 and May 2018. This report’s findings and accompanying recommendations inform next year’s project implementation and evaluation activities.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Catherine RaymondMarion LitzingerCarl LewisAmy Padolf
Beyond Spaceship Earth is a multi-faceted project at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis that includes an immersive permanent exhibit about the International Space Station, the Indianan Astronaut Wall of Fame, the Schaefer Planetarium and Space Object Theater; museum theater and facilitated programs throughout the exhibit; complementary programming for schools and families in the museum's STEMLab; and a freely available unit of study for classroom teachers of 3rd-8th grades. The summative evaluation of the project used qualitative and quantitative methods including timing and tracking
This poster, which was presented at the Association of Science and Technology Centers Annual Conference on October 22, 2017, compares and contrasts evaluation findings across components of the Beyond Spaceship Earth project at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The project focuses on educating families and students about life and work aboard the International Space Station and generating interest in STEM topics and careers. Project components reviewed include an exhibit, a space object theater, and workshop-style programs focused on engineering and robotics for both families and school
The Growing Beyond Earth Project (GBE) is a STEM education program designed to have middle and high school students conduct botany experiments, designed in partnership with NASA researchers at Kennedy Space Center, that support NASA research on growing plants in space. GBE was initiated by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in collaboration with NASA's Exploration Research and Technology Programs and Miami-Dade County Public School District. Project goals are to: (1) improve STEM instruction in schools by providing authentic research experiments that have real world implications through curricular activities that meet STEM education needs, comprehensive teacher training, summer-long internships and the development of replicable training modules; (2) increase and sustain youth and public engagement in STEM related fields; (3) better serve groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields; and (4) support current and future NASA research by identifying and testing new plant varieties for future growth in space. During the 2016-17 academic year, 131 school classrooms participated in the program. To date, students have tested 91 varieties of edible plants and produced more than 100,000 data points that have been shared with the researchers at KSC.
During the school year of 2016-2017, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (Fairchild) implemented the first year of a four-year project entitled: Growing Beyond Earth (GBE). NASA is providing funding support for project implementation as well as an external project evaluation.
The evaluation activities conducted this year were focused on understanding project implementation and exploring project outcomes using data collected between September 2016 and May 2017. This report’s findings and accompanying recommendations inform next year’s project implementation and evaluation activities.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Catherine RaymondAmy RubinsonCarl LewisMarion LitzingerAmy Padolf
The purpose of the Lenses on the Sky project is to create diverse skywatching-related experiences for youth across Oregon with a special focus on underserved Hispanic, African American, Native American, and rural communities. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) will create and implement the project in collaboration with Portland’s Rose City Astronomers amateur astronomy club, Rosa Parks Elementary School in Portland, the Libraries of Eastern Oregon (LEO), and ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum in southern Oregon. The goals of the project are for participants to 1) understand the “big idea” that “humans have used observational tools and techniques across culture and time to understand space phenomena”, 2) recognize the relevance, value, and scientific achievements of NASA missions, and 3) be inspired to learn more about topics related to space science, STEM careers, and NASA. Audiences will explore these topics through three main “lenses” or frames: a NASA lens, a tools lens, and a cultural lens. The project will result in 1) a small, permanent, bilingual (Spanish/English) exhibition in OMSI’s free, public spaces adjacent to its planetarium, 2) three observational astronomy events held in Portland, Southern Oregon, and Eastern Oregon, 3) hands-on activities conducted at partner museums/libraries and shared with other educational institutions, 4) an Educator's Guide including lesson plans aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and 5) over 150 email communications to hundreds of recipients featuring space news updates.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark PatelKyrie Thompson Kellett
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Engineering Enabling Science - A NASA GSFC Informal Education Environment Collaborative is a collaborative relationship between and among NASA Goddard Education Office, Greenbelt and Wallops Visitor Centers, Port Discovery Children’s Museum of Baltimore, The Maryland Science Center, and Prince George’s County Public Schools Owens Science Center to leverage current and past NASA Goddard Office of Education and Science Mission Directorate and Engineering investments in Earth Sciences, Astrophysics, Heliophysics, and Planetary Science and NASA Missions. The goal of GSFC’s collaborative is to interface with a number of organizations to provide leveraging, expand their activities and to utilize NASA-related activities in a broader context than that of the individual organization thereby reducing redundancy of effort and services. Specifically, the Office of Education-GSFC Visitor Centers (Greenbelt and Wallops) will develop an integrated model for sharing and delivering high quality education services and activities based on NASA unique capabilities within a network of organizations and institutions serving the general public. The common thread across all proposed activities will be NASA-unique content that flows from the science and technology work of NASA’s Mission Directorates and its Engineering directorate, thereby demonstrating that engineering truly enables science by applying the engineering cycle to the four science themes of Earth Science, Astrophysics, Planetary Science, and Heliophysics. The products of these activities will directly relate to the Educator Professional Development (EPD) and STEM Engagement (SE) lines of business established by NASA educators, as well as showing the interactions and shared STEM learning opportunities between informal and formal education communities rather than viewing informal and formal education as stovepipes.