Informal STEM education needs high quality program evaluation. Research is particularly needed on the relationship between STEM outcomes and positive youth development (PYD) / socio-emotional learning (SEL). This pilot and feasibility project involves a collaboration between experts in STEM education, out-of-school time programs (OST), PYD, SEL, evaluation, and program development. STEM Scouts helps youth grow in character and develop skills using experiential activities and interaction with STEM professionals. This project expands the implementation of the Systems Evaluation Protocol (SEP), an evidence-based approach to evaluation planning.
The goals are to: 1) develop a theory of change for STEM Scouts highlighting the relationship between STEM outcomes and PYD/SEL outcomes; 2) pilot enhancements to the SEP (System Mapping, Ecosystem Modeling, and Model Validation); and, 3) determine the feasibility of conducting a national STEM Scouts study. STEM Scouts leadership and project researchers will work through the SEP to generate a stakeholder map, logic model, and pathway model (PM). Five STEM Scouts Labs across the country will participate in focus groups where they will complete SM to identify the system in which the Lab exists (e.g., stakeholders and decision-makers), review and revise their system maps, identify key outcomes and connections in the PM, and discuss how the PM reflects their STEM Scouts experiences. It is hypothesized the enhanced SEP will enable the working group to better understand factors hindering or enabling program and evaluation feasibility and success. Findings will be disseminated to the evaluation/research community, OST program providers/developers and the public.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's 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 research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. This specific project will advance new knowledge about the nature of and functions for rural libraries as informal STEM learning environments. Research will identify the social contexts and relational capabilities of libraries to acquire new scientific knowledge that exists externally and to integrate it into community knowledge-building and forums. The research outcomes should lead to actionable strategies for library and science communication practitioners about who and how to influence public engagement in citizen science drought monitoring. Furthermore, collaborations with these rural libraries will lead to new resources for rural communities and informal STEM education. This project will focus on the design, development, and evaluation of informal science education programs and educational media for use in rural libraries in drought prone areas of the Great Plains. The target audiences include public librarians in rural communities of Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Colorado, as well as the general public (adults and children) they serve. The project goals are to leverage the professional skills and community knowledge of rural librarians to support local drought monitoring networks. The model prepares librarians to introduce citizen science processes and practices within the context of community dialogue and deliberation about drought. In collaboration with partners at the Community Collaborative for Rain, Hail, and Snow (CoCoRaHS), and the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), the project will increase public participation in citizen science and improve the communication of science-based knowledge about drought. The project deliverables include: (1) a professional development workshop series for rural librarians, (2) a drought infographic booklet and poster series, and (3) co-designed library programs for rural public audiences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings. Using community-based participatory research, human-centered design, and developmental evaluation approaches, this project will co-create a national community science project, which is a form of Public Participation in STEM Research (PPSR) or citizen science. The project seeks to increase inclusion and equity in STEM, while building capacity in research and science through leadership and participation by both historically underrepresented communities and established academic institutions. Participants will record their levels of perceived stress and well-being in relation to their local soundscape. This project will help to connect participants, specifically youth and their families from communities underrepresented and underserved in STEM, with science and nature through learning that is authentic and relevant to their lives. With support of a mobile app, community science project participants explore and map soundscapes to identify areas of "excessive noise" as well as "noise refuges." Community-led dissemination of results will inform adoption of community science projects by other community-based organizations. The project is a collaboration involving fifteen community leaders, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Metro Atlanta Urban Farm in Atlanta, WorldBeat Center in San Diego, CLUES in St. Paul, MN, and Camp Compass in Allentown, PA. PPSR has exciting potential to engage broad audiences in STEM learning and research, particularly when projects are genuinely co-created by local communities, scientists, and educators. Using a community-based participatory research approach in the project fosters direct involvement from community members in integration of science practices and learning, from the development of the research questions, design of the study, to analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of results. Human-centered design is important as it is an established collaborative approach for addressing real-world problems facing human communities. In this project, human-centered design will include technology in the problem-solving phases of inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Developmental evaluation will provide on-going direct feedback to the project team over the project lifespan with respect to equity and inclusion in PPSR, an informal STEM learning environment. The project will further knowledge and understanding of soundscapes and noise pollution, enable use of mobile apps to map soundscapes in urban environments, and contribute to the relationship of noise to well-being.The project will produce conceptual frameworks and practical resources (toolkits) to guide future community-based PPSR efforts. Results from this project will advance knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors of PPSR practitioners regarding equity, diversity, and inclusion of underrepresented audiences in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Karen PurcellBobby WilsonMakeda CheatomJohn AnnoniTanya SchuhDavid BonterRick Bonney
Gathering evidence for the long-term impact of programs for youth on their involvement in STEM studies and careers continues to be a challenge, especially for program interventions happening in earlier stages of development (e.g., elementary, middle, high-school years. Work that focuses on mechanisms for mitigating these challenges is important. The conference and associated activities aim to build a research action agenda that is rooted in practice to support better understanding of the long-term impacts of informal STEM programs for girls provided by cultural institutions, along with methods and approaches for measuring them. The project team will use a collaborative co-design approach to establish a STEM for Girls Research Alliance. The Alliance will include three levels of participants, with different levels of commitment: a core planning group (CPG) of 8-10 people, approximately 20-25 participating members (PM) and 50-60 interested stakeholder group representatives (SGR). The project team will utilize face-to-face meetings, digital engagement strategies, and surveys to develop the agenda and solicit multiple rounds of feedback and input. The CPG, consisting of leaders and representatives from state-based STEM for Girls organizations that are part of the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) and members of the New York State STEAM for Girls Collaborative, will be responsible for setting priorities and guiding the action agenda. The PM will include representatives (educators and researchers) from informal STEM programs at cultural institutions that participate in the state-based collaboratives. The PM will be regularly consulted on important aspects of the action agenda that relate to their work. Finally, the SGR will include representatives from several audiences that are being served by or work with the participating members: girls and young women, parents, educators, funders, researchers and employers. The SG will be engaged via focus groups virtually or at national meetings to which these individuals attend.
To support broader involvement of professionals working in this sector, a comprehensive digital engagement plan using web and social media networks will be developed. The plan will utilize a consistent hashtag, #STEMeffect, allowing participants to follow the conversation across social media platforms. Social media platforms to be utilized will include Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Snapchat and others. More than 60,000 people will be engaged via the networks of the NY STEAM Collaborative, NGCP, WSKG Public Media and project partners. A robust research action plan will position researchers to further explore the role of informal STEM education experiences in shaping the career choices of girls and identify where there are breaks in the hoped-for pathways to STEM college and careers. It also will benefit informal STEM organizations by yielding information that will help them to fine-tune their programs for girls and young women. Ultimately, contributions to the knowledge base will result in broadened participation of girls and women in STEM programs and careers. This work is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program as part of its strategy to enhance learning in informal environments and support innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of settings.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Lynda KennedyAlicia SantiagoBabette Moeller
The Multi-Site Public Engagement with Science—Synthetic Biology (MSPES) initiative was an Innovations in Development project funded by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1421179) through the Advancing of Informal STEM Learning program (AISL). MSPES promoted public engagement with science (PES)—a model of mutual dialogue and learning between public and scientist audiences—through the creation and distribution of PES kits to nearly 200 informal science education sites around the country. Kits included two types of learning experiences: (1) forum programs during which scientists and teen or
The Rural Informal STEM Learning Conference, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and held at its headquarters on September 13–14, 2018, was the first of its kind to bring together key innovators and experts in rural STEM learning outside of school. People who live in rural settings are a frequently overlooked and significantly under-represented STEM audience. At the conference, which was led by the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, we addressed this key question: How can we build on recent innovations to create more effective experiences and pathways for informal (out-of
The Anthropologist is a film by Ironbound Films, Inc. that focuses on the impact of climate change on indigenous cultures around the world, through the lens of anthropologist Susie Crate and her daughter Katie. The goals of the film are to (1) Increase viewers’ knowledge of how climate change affects communities and cultures and help viewers understand how scientists are responding to these changes; (2) Inform viewers’ attitudes towards climate change and how it will affect communities around the world; (3) Motivate viewers to become actively involved in assisting people adversely affected by
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
A science-based companion guide to 46 feature films—including HIDDEN FIGURES, THE MARTIAN, PRIMER, and THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT. Each film received development or distribution support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation because of its scientific content. The guide indexes each film by scientific subject matter and provides supplemental science content, meant to encourage audiences inspired by films to explore the scientific subject matter further. It also includes links to how to watch the film. The guide is available to access online or download as a PDF.
The Sloan Science & Film Teacher's Guide indexes by scientific subject matter over 50 short fiction films funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, that can be streamed for free anytime. The Guide offers an introduction, teaching framework, study questions, and additional resources. Each film is correlated with Next Generation Science Standards as well as New York City Science Standards. The Guide can be viewed online or downloaded as a PDF.
Exploration Place, with funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), contracted RK&A to conduct a summative evaluation of Design Build Fly, an exhibition and program series that explores what happens behind-the-scenes in Wichita’s aircraft plants. The goals of the study were to identify how visitors use the exhibition, explore what meaning visitors make from Design Build Fly, and understand to what extent visitors’ meaning-making aligns with intended outcomes.
How did we approach this study? RK&A conducted timing and tracking observations of visitors to the
The Collaboration for Ongoing Visitor Experience Studies (COVES) is designed to unite science centers across the country to systematically collect, analyze, and report on visitor experience data. We envision a collaborative museum community seeking to better understand and improve the visitor experience. We believe that studying the visitor experience in science centers—who visits a particular museum, why they visit, what they experience during their visit, and how they react to different aspects of their experience—can help organizations learn about their visitors, make evidence-based