The Northwest Passage Project (NPP) is a collaborative effort between the University of Rhode Island (URI), Inner Space Center (ISC), Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO), the film company David Clark Inc., and several other partners, including six Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and three informal science education institutions. The project centers on a research expedition into the Arctic's Northwest Passage, which will engage intergenerational cohorts of high school, undergraduate, and graduate students in hands-on research aboard the U.S. tall ship SSV Oliver Hazard Perry (OHP). During the expedition, a professional film crew will produce a two-hour documentary focused on the NPP's innovative model of interdisciplinary informal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning and highlight the expedition's research, participants, and the sociological issues related to the changing Arctic environment. Because the Canadian Arctic is remote and costly to access, the project will maximize NSF's investment by giving broad audiences access to the science and excitement of the expedition through the documentary. In addition, this informal science learning opportunity will not only engage students with scientists in authentic research, but also train the students to deliver daily live broadcasts from sea to three well-established U.S. informal science education institutions: the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), the Exploratorium, and the Alaska Sea Life Center (ASLC). The daily broadcasts will also reach the public in real time via the project's interactive website, providing the opportunity for people to post questions to the scientists and students onboard the ship. The NPP has great potential to benefit society by enhancing awareness of the changing Arctic's ecosystems and increasing science literacy. The hands-on research experiences will enhance the college readiness of the participating high school students and encourage the undergraduate students from the six partner MSIs to consider a graduate course of study and/or pursue STEM careers. The graduate students will also be more career-ready, as they gain public communication and leadership skills necessary for 21st century scientists. The Northwest Passage Project is designed to advance knowledge and understanding within the practice of informal science education, as well as in the field of Arctic science. The project goals include: increasing public awareness and understanding of the changing Arctic ecosystem; increase public understanding about Arctic research and the scientific process; increase the Informal Science Education (ISE) field's understanding of the public's learning process when engaged in live interactions with scientists and student 'science communicators'; increase the ISE field's understanding of the value of immersive science experiences and impact on students from underserved and underrepresented populations; and to build or extend the capacity of ISE institutions to make connections between polar scientists, students, journalists and the public. The NPP is creative in that it combines the engagement of students in field-based scientific research, live broadcasts from sea to ISE institutions, and the production of a full-scale documentary for public audiences. A potentially transformative component to the ISE activities involves six Minority Serving Institution partners--Florida International University; University of Illinois, Chicago; California State University, Channel Islands; Texas State University; Virginia Commonwealth University and City College of New York--whose students will have the opportunity for a life-changing experience that may tip the scale toward their interest in STEM careers. Each of these students will develop news stories, host screenings of the film at their respective campuses, and share their experiences with peers, providing visual role models for other underrepresented students, who may never have thought themselves capable of becoming a scientist or science communicator. An additional project goal is to enhance the capacity and infrastructure of the three ISE partner institutions so that they may receive live broadcasts from the Inner Space Center in the future, beyond the funding period of the project. People, Places & Design Research will conduct the project's front-end and formative evaluation; MEM & Associates will conduct the summative evaluation. Some of the key evaluation questions will be: * Have ISE and MSI institution public visitors, who view either the live broadcasts or the documentary film (or both), become more aware of the changing Arctic ecosystem and the importance of scientific research in the Arctic? * What is the relative impact of the live broadcasts compared to the finished documentary, and the strengths and weakness of the respective media in translating the on-board experience? * Does a real environmental and social context for scientific evidence stimulate audiences to become more interested in the role of science/STEM? * Have students gained leadership skills and the ability to communicate science to their peers? * Have students increased their motivation and interest in pursuing STEM careers? This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Gail ScowcroftDavid ClarkBrice LooseDwight Coleman
This award supports the production of a longitudinal video documentary of the evolution of Advanced LIGO and will chronicle the most critical and exciting period in the history of gravitational wave science in the past 100 years. LIGO resumed the search for gravitational waves in 2015 with a newly upgraded detector and on September 14, 2015 detected gravitational waves for the first time, astounding not only the scientific community but the entire world. Using footage captured at critical periods between August 2015 and March 2016 during the discovery phase as well as new filming taking place over the next two years, the team will produce films which will impact at least hundreds of thousands of people and possibly many more than that. The goal is to educate, inspire, and motivate. Students at the high school and undergraduate levels may be more inspired to pursue STEM careers after watching scientific vignettes focusing on the exciting science and technology of Advanced LIGO. Scientific historians and sociologists will have the opportunity to use the hundreds of hours of available film clips as a video database to investigate in detail the discovery of gravitational waves as a case study of large scale collaborations ("Big Science"). Videos highlighting the cutting edge technological advances brought about by Advanced LIGO and their impacts on other fields of science and technology may prove effective for educating officials and policy makers on the benefits of fundamental science.
During the course of the project, a series of professionally made video shorts will be produced for the LIGO Laboratory and LSC for education and public outreach purposes through distribution on LIGO Laboratory, LSC web sites, and the LIGO YouTube Channel. Through an extensive series of film shoots, XPLR Productions will work with the LIGO Laboratory and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) to capture key moments as LIGO scientists work to achieve Advanced LIGO's design sensitivity and carry out a series of observing runs over the next two years. The team will produce a series of video shorts explaining the important scientific and technological concepts and issues of Advanced LIGO by the scientific experts who create them. In the longer term, footage will used to produce either a feature length documentary film or a twelve-part series on television entitled 'LIGO' chronicling the discovery of gravitational waves and the exploration of exotic high-energy astrophysical phenomena such as colliding black holes. Intended for broad distribution through cinema or television, 'LIGO' will bring science to life for a wide audience.
On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will traverse the United States from Oregon to South Carolina. Millions of Americans will witness totality, in which the Moon completely blocks the Sun, and over 500 million people across North America will experience a partial eclipse. In this project, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) will forge an umbrella organization consisting of an eclipse project manager, a centralized website of resources, and a mini-grants program to coordinate and facilitate local and national activities that will educate the public about the science of this rare event. The project will leverage this fascinating display of beauty to engage as many people as possible in the endeavor of science.
This project will involve scientists, educators, and amateur and professional eclipse observers in developing extensive plans for unique outreach activities to reach a significant fraction of the diverse U.S. population. The goal is to use the eclipse, which will generate significant media attention, to educate a broad audience about the associated science and to encourage young people from widely diverse backgrounds to pursue careers in science. Special emphasis will be placed on citizen science projects and on educational activities targeting groups that are underrepresented in STEM disciplines. A mini-grants program will be established to fund efforts specifically targeting underrepresented groups in order to increase their participation. The evaluation plan will focus on the utilization of the materials on the website and the learning gains of participants in specific activities funded by the mini-grants. All lessons learned will be collated in a publicly available formal report and will lay the groundwork for a strategic plan to fully capitalize on the next U.S.-based solar eclipse in 2024. Because this project aligns well with the objectives of multiple NSF directorates, this award is co-funded by the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Division of Research on Learning in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources; the Division of Astronomical Sciences in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences; and the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences in the Directorate for Geosciences.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kevin MarvelAngela SpeckShadia HabbalRichard Fienberg
Citizen science engages members of the public in science. It advances the progress of science by involving more people and embracing new ideas. Recent projects use software and apps to do science more efficiently. However, existing citizen science software and databases are ad hoc, non-interoperable, non-standardized, and isolated, resulting in data and software siloes that hamper scientific advancement. This project will develop new software and integrate existing software, apps, and data for citizen science - allowing expanded discovery, appraisal, exploration, visualization, analysis, and reuse of software and data. Over the three phases, the software of two platforms, CitSci.org and CyberTracker, will be integrated and new software will be built to integrate and share additional software and data. The project will: (1) broaden the inclusivity, accessibility, and reach of citizen science; (2) elevate the value and rigor of citizen science data; (3) improve interoperability, usability, scalability and sustainability of citizen science software and data; and (4) mobilize data to allow cross-disciplinary research and meta-analyses. These outcomes benefit society by making citizen science projects such as those that monitor disease outbreaks, collect biodiversity data, monitor street potholes, track climate change, and any number of other possible topics more possible, efficient, and impactful through shared software.
The project will develop a cyber-enabled Framework for Advancing Buildable and Reusable Infrastructures for Citizen Science (Cyber-FABRICS) to elevate the reach and complexity of citizen science while adding value by mobilizing well-documented data to advance scientific research, meta-analyses, and decision support. Over the three phases of the project, the software of two platforms, CitSci.org and CyberTracker, will be integrated by developing APIs and reusable software libraries for these and other platforms to use to integrate and share data and software. Using participatory design and agile methods over four years, the project will: (1) broaden the inclusivity, accessibility, and reach of citizen science; (2) elevate the value and rigor of citizen science software and data; (3) improve interoperability, usability, scalability and sustainability of citizen science software and data; and (4) mobilize data to allow cross-disciplinary research and meta-analyses. These outcomes benefit society by making citizen science projects and any number of other possible topics more possible, efficient, and impactful through shared software and data. Adoption of Cyber-FABRICS infrastructure, software, and services will allow anyone with an Internet or cellular connection, including those in remote, underserved, and international communities, to contribute to research and monitoring, either independently or as a team. This project is also being supported by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Gregory NewmanLouis LiebenbergStacy LynnMelinda Laituri
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This project will convene a workshop focused on digital micro-credentials, also known as digital badges, and the role they might play in the high-stakes process of college admission. Digital micro-credentials represent one potential mechanism for broadening access for underrepresented groups to higher education. Digital micro-credentials enable students to present a broader view of themselves as learners that connects different domains of their lives: academic, social, and personal interest-driven. As such, digital micro-credentials enable students to represent expertise and potential in ways that go beyond traditional high school grade point averages and standardized test scores. The workshop addresses questions such as: Can micro-credentials serve as valid and reliable measures of learning? What "gap" in current assessment practices can be filled by micro-credentials? What is required for micro-credentials to be useful as evidence of preparation for future learning in the college admission process?
The project's principal investigators will employ case studies, drawn from the Chicago City of Learning network (chicagocityoflearning.org) and Mouse (mouse.org) in New York City, to better understand the use of micro-credentials for learning in STEM-focused extracurricular activities. During the workshop, participants with expertise in student learning from a range of perspectives will design representations of the knowledge or skills demonstrated by students. Participating admissions officers and STEM faculty will critique the designs with respect to how well the designs demonstrate evidence of preparation for future learning by students. The workshop outcomes will include sample designs of micro-credentials that show promise to both promote learning and support college admissions. The workshop will also result in a white paper discussing the potential of micro-credentials for college admission in STEM fields by youth from underrepresented groups.
The achievement gap begins well before children enter kindergarten. Research has shown that children who start school having missed critical early learning opportunities are already at risk for academic failure. This project seeks to narrow this gap by finding new avenues for bringing early science experiences to preschool children (ages 3-5), particularly those living in communities with few resources. Bringing together media specialists, learning researchers, and two proven home visiting organizations to collaboratively develop and investigate a new model that engages families in science exploration through joint media engagement and home visiting programs. The project will leverage the popularity and success of the NSF-funded PEEP and the Big Wide World/El Mundo Divertido de PEEP to engage both parents and preschool children with science.
To address the key goal of engaging families in science exploration through joint media engagement and home visiting programs, the team will use a Design Based Implementation Research (DBIR) approach to address the research questions by iteratively studying the intervention model (the materials and implementation process) and assessing the impact of the intervention model on parents/caregivers. The intervention model will include the PEEP Family Engagement Toolkit that will support 20 weeks of family science investigations using new digital and hands-on science learning resources. It will also include new professional development resources for home educators as well as and the implementation process and strategies for developing and implementing the Toolkit with families.
The proposed research focuses first on refining and improving program design and implementation, and second, on investigating whether the intervention improves the capacity of parent/caregivers to support young children's learning in science. Ultimately this research will accomplish two important aims: it will inform the design of the PEEP family engagement intervention model, and, more broadly, it will build practical and theoretical understanding of: 1) effective family engagement models in science learning; 2) the types of supports that families and home educators need to implement these models; and 3) how to implement these models across different home visiting programs. Given the reach of the home visiting programs and the increasing interest in supporting early science learning the potential for broad impact is significant. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.
Situated within the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program, this Research in Service to Practice award seeks to design, implement, and evaluate an intervention aimed at fostering a culture of productive failure practices. The project responds to a broad concern in educational research and practice: Experiences of failure are frequently so negative that students shut down, lose agency, and develop low self-efficacy and learned helplessness. Surrendering too quickly to obstacles is particularly unfortunate, given evidence that initially "getting it wrong" ultimately breeds deep and sustained learning. In order to learn how students can make the most of productive failure, the proposed project will study how a community of practice that includes middle school youth and their mentors attempts to change its handling of learning obstacles. Building on prior research documenting storytelling practices in an afterschool program, the team now aims to embolden young students' productive practices of failure storytelling in computer science, a field in which experts practice candid, pervasive, and collaborative discourse around errors ("bugs"). Pulling together the domains of narrative analysis, meta-cognitive reflection, and control theories of motivation, within the context of authentic computer-science debugging activity, this study develops a theoretical framework that views productive responses to failure as a discipline-specific process of reflecting as a community on how to locate obstacles, how to construct causal theories about why those obstacles emerged, and how to plan productive responses. A design-based research approach will investigate three questions: (1) What is the impact of the interventions on students and instructors' actions and discourse when they are debugging errors in computer code? (2) What is the impact of the interventions on students and instructors' reflections back on their prior debugging experiences and on failure in general? and (3) What is the impact of the instructor-development efforts on the instructors' capacity to foster students' productive attitudes toward failure? The study focus will be 15 summer and weekend coding workshops with 5th-8th grade students from populations typically under-represented in STEM. The interventions are (a) setting new norms and practices for debugging, (b) instructor education, and (c) coding software that provides students with feedback on their productive struggle. Data sources include video and audio recordings of the learning environment, artifacts produced during the activities, and semi-structured interviews. Measures will capture variations in debugging activities, reflections on debugging, students' ideas about grit and growth mindset, and instructors' struggles and successes with the new curriculum. The empirical results will consist of mixed-methods, micro-longitudinal accounts of how a community of practice works to reform its orientation to failure. The products of this work include empirical knowledge, theory, and curriculum about how learning communities help students develop robust and efficient responses to failure. These will be disseminated through journals, open-source software, and workshops/conferences for researchers and practitioners working with youth afterschool programs. The products may be useful for exploring practices in the classroom. This project is being conducted by the 9 Dots Community Learning Center, UCLA and UC Berkeley.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Melissa ChenDor AbrahamsonNoel EnyedyFrancis SteenDavid DeLiema
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement (NCSCE) will conduct a Collaborative Planning project to maximize the collective impact of two well-established national STEM learning networks, National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net) and Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER). Through a strategic collaboration that leverages their respective achievements, resources, and expertise, the combined networks can advance informal science education that engages and empowers citizens and their communities as they address the complex civic challenges. The project will conduct a strategic planning process to envision how to unify two networks to increase a durable and identifiable infrastructure for cross-sector collaboration focused on linking science and civic engagement. It is supported by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds research and innovative resources for use in a variety of settings, as a part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments.
The project objective of the planning process is to create a new and expanded national infrastructure that will increase the capacity of science centers and other informal learning organizations to enhance the public's engagement with science through attention to civic issues, and access new partners, participants, and resources from higher education institutions. The project's core activity will be a three-stage planning process: Phase 1, an assessment of assets, resources, and regional complementarity of the networks, and the development and investigation of key research questions; Phase 2, a planning workshop involving 29 project leaders from both organizations and stakeholders from formal and informal science to identify and develop specific collaborative strategies; and Phase 3, an evaluation and dissemination of the planning results to the networks and the development of a new multi-year project to strengthen the national infrastructure for formal and informal STEM education.
Currently, many young people - especially girls and youth of color - lose confidence and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) pathways due to a perceived disconnect between their own identity and STEM fields. To address this challenge, Twin Cities PBS (TPT) is implementing SciGirls CONNECT2. This three-year Research in Service to Practice award examines how gender equitable and culturally responsive teaching strategies influence middle school girls' confidence, interest and motivation around STEM studies, and their choices around STEM careers. A set of research-based strategies, called the SciGirls Seven, are currently employed in SciGirls, an NSF-funded informal STEM educational outreach program serving 125+ educational partner organizations nationwide. The goal is to update and enrich the SciGirls Seven, providing educators with a critical, current, and more effective resource to motivate girls in STEM studies and careers. It is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.
Florida State University will conduct a formal research study investigating the hypothesis that STEM programs that use gender equitable and culturally responsive strategies contribute to girls' positive STEM identity development, including their sense of self-efficacy, persistence and aspirations around future STEM careers. This research will include a literature review and a study of girls' STEM identity creation. The mixed methods study will include quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis measuring changes in students' STEM identity and teachers' confidence in STEM teaching. The quantitative data will come from the student, parent and teacher pre/post surveys. The qualitative research will be conducted via case studies at four sites and the qualitative data will include observations, focus groups and interviews. Girls at all partner sites will create videos that will allow the research team to gather additional insight. The independent firm Knight Williams, Inc. will conduct the project's external evaluation.
The project will work with a subset of 16 current SciGirls partners. These geographically diverse partners will reach youth in all-girls and co-ed informal STEM education programs in a variety of settings. More than half serve Hispanic or other minority populations. The updated strategies will be disseminated to the 2,500 educators within the SciGirls partner network and the 18,800 STEM education organizations of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) network. Dissemination of the strategies and literature review will focus on the informal STEM education field through publications and presentations, posts at PBS LearningMedia, a free online space reaching 1.5 million teachers and educators.
The purpose of this proposal is to convene scholars at a two-day conference to closely examine validity-related measurement issues, create a guidelines for the field of mathematics education research that addresses key ideas (e.g., validity, validity arguments, evidence for validity and measurement at-scale), and set a clear pathway for scholars to discuss quantitative measurement within mathematics education. Invitees will include a mix of young, older and diverse scholars in mathematics education research. Products include refereed journal articles along with a website.
The workshop will engage the Mathematics Education, Policy, Statistical, Psychometrics and other education research communities in examining and critiquing measurement validity evidence of mathematics education research with the long-term goal of increasing the quality of quantitative inference in mathematics education research (to include improvements in the training of doctoral students).
Young people learn about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in a variety of ways and from many sources, including school, the media, personal experiences, and friends and family. Yet STEM participation and identification by youth are not equal across social, economic, and cultural communities. This project will study a long-term, out-of-school program for high school-age youth, who are from groups under-represented in STEM academics and careers: girls, youth from low-income households, and youth of color. Located in the urban context of the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) engages youth in applying culturally rich STEM content to work toward social justice and community building. Specifically, this project will examine how the learning practices of the KAYSC model support youth in identifying with, engaging in, and participating in STEM. Through studying the KAYSC's STEM Justice model, which centers youth as learners, teachers, and leaders who address critical community issues through STEM, this project will develop resources that informal science educators in a variety of contexts and programs can use to promote positive social change, equity, inclusion, and applied STEM learning.
The Science Museum of Minnesota will use design-based implementation research to study this model. This research will draw on and further the emerging theoretical framework of science capital. Science capital attempts to capture multiple aspects of science learning and application, including science knowledge, social and cultural resources, and science-related behaviors and practices. Empirically developing the theory of science capital has the potential to build concrete understanding of how to address inequalities in science participation. Four teams will work independently and collaboratively to do so: an adult research team, a high school youth research team, a practitioner team, and a co-design team composed of representatives from the other three teams. Research teams will collect data in the form of observations, semi-structured interviews, practitioner activity reports, artifacts, and the experience sampling method. Initial cycles of design will occur at the Science Museum of Minnesota as researchers and practitioners document, analyze, and iteratively design learning practices within the STEM Justice model. In the second half of the grant, the team will work with an external out-of-school time youth leadership site to implement the redesigned model. Participatory research and design methods involving both youth and adults can advance understanding of what makes out-of-school time STEM learning meaningful, relevant, and successful for marginalized youth and their communities. Grounded in culturally and socially relevant, community-based resources and programming, this project will study how leveraging STEM out-of-school time learning connected to social justice can broaden access to STEM as well as develop workforce, and leadership, and STEM skills by under-represented youth. The project also builds staff capacity for promoting equity and access in informal learning settings.
This project is being funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. Using hand-held mobile devices this project would test specialized Signing Glossaries for Science Exhibits (SGSE). The glossaries are developed from 5000 unique signing terms specific to the science in 6 partner institutions and designed to reach families with at least one member, ages 5-12+, who is deaf or hard of hearing and uses American Sign Language (ASL) for communication. The project would demonstrate the potential effectiveness of the venue-specific signing glossaries to enhance access to STEM learning during visits to informal STEM learning environments such as aquariums, botanical gardens, natural history museums, nature centers, science museums, and zoos.
While utilizing existing domain specific signing terms, the project will adapt and improve on their use in content specific informal science venues to increase the opportunity for the target audience to both enjoy and benefit from the wide array of informal science learning opportunities available to this group. The research should reveal how this approach might benefit those with other types of disabilities. The research questions are designed to understand both how family members might interact with a hearing disabled family member as well as how the disabled individual might learn more about a variety of STEM content in a setting that is not domain specific but uses the influence of science exhibits to inform, engage and interest members of the public generally.
Domain specific signing dictionaries have been developed, many by this PI, to address access to content specific topics in STEM. This proposal extends this concept to informal learning environments that are content specific to increase the opportunity for those with hearing disabilities to increase their capability to both enjoy informal science learning venues and to understand more of what these venues provide in terms of science learning.