In this paper, Elena Pol and Mikel Asensio of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid discuss their research about how visitors perceive different kinds of artistic representations and which elements they interpret from masterpieces. The authors provide an overview of their work in this area, including three studies about artistic style.
The University of Washington’s Museology Program, in partnership with the Woodland Park Zoo and the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments Research Center is developing a model of university-community collaboration where students work with client museums, zoos and aquaria to evaluate exhibits and programs under the guidance of a research mentor. Students will gain experience in audience research and evaluation, as well as in project management, collaboration, and leadership. Staff at participating museums will advance their personal knowledge about visitors and the field of museum evaluation. The project will prepare a new generation of evaluators and museum practitioners through an innovative apprentice-styled laboratory that integrates the strengths of mentoring, fieldwork, academics, and client-centered experiences. Project Advisors include John Falk, Julie Johnson, Randi Korn, Marjorie Schwarzer, and Patterson Williams. Project started January, 2009 with 24 graduate students in the first cadre.
This research study involves collaboration between researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park and Bowie State University, an HBCU, to examine a multi-component pre-service model for preparing minority students to teach upper elementary and middle level science. The treatment consists of (1) focused recruitment efforts by the collaborating universities; (2) a pre-service science content course emphasizing inquiry and the mathematics of data management; (3) an internship in an after school program serving minority students; (4) field placements in Prince Georges County minority-serving professional development schools; and (5) mentoring support during the induction year. The research agenda will examine each aspect of the intervention using quantitative and qualitative methods and a small number of case studies.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
James McginnisSpencer BensonScott Dantley
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This four year project led by The American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) will continue fostering interactions among projects funded by the Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12)through a series of meetings that include one annual meeting and two special focus meetings every year. The annual meeting will be broad and will target all different GK-12 participants (PIs, Fellows, Teachers, Project Coordinators, Evaluators and Faculty Members). The special focus meetings will target a specific GK-12 group or will explore a theme or issue of special interest to the GK-12 program or GK-12 projects. AAAS also will update the current website and revise and expand its content to provide a resource to the GK-12 community. Some of the additions to the website will be: an e-newsletter, alumni directory, evaluation instruments, ready access to STEM activities and statistical data on projects.
Evaluators sought to determine impact on math attitude and content knowledge of students (3rd - 6th grade), and math literacy workers (high school and college students), based on pre-post testing and observation of YPP after school programs, in which college and high school students teach math games to elementary and middle school students in marginalized and vulnerable communities. The study focused on the Chicago YPP site, 1 of 7 in the YPP national network. Increases in math attitude scores were not statistically significant, however in some instances evaluators found significant increases
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Norman LedermanYoung People's Project, Inc.
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This guide provides effective practices for anyone — university faculty member, K–12 teacher, or administrator — who wants to create a project that partners science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students (Fellows) with K–12 teachers on a sustained basis. These recommendations come from the community of faculty members, graduate students, K–12 teachers, program managers, and evaluators who participated in the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate STEM Fellows in K–12 Education (GK–12) Program from its start in 1999 through 2012. The guide was written to
This volume explores the integration of recent research on everyday, classroom, and professional scientific thinking. It brings together an international group of researchers to present core findings from each context; discuss connections between contexts, and explore structures; technologies, and environments to facilitate the development and practice of scientific thinking. The chapters focus on: * situations from young children visiting museums, * middle-school students collaborating in classrooms, * undergraduates learning about research methods, and * professional scientists engaged in
This study compared grandparent–grandchild groups who experienced an informal science exhibition by visiting a museum or by visiting a website. Although intergenerational learning is often the focus of visitor research, few studies have focused specifically on grandparents as an audience. Do they have unique intergenerational needs that museums and websites are not yet supporting? Do they find museums and websites to be good places to learn alongside their grandchildren? The authors’ findings suggested that grandparents prefer museums as locations for intergenerational learning because the museum
Genetics was developed by The Tech staff in collaboration with Stanford University and was funded by the National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program. The evaluation documents the impact and effectiveness of the exhibition using timing and tracking observations and exit interviews. It also examines the partnership between The Tech and Stanford University through interviews with graduate students, who conduct programs in the exhibition, and their supervisor (results are not included in this summary).
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Randi KornThe Tech Museum of Innovation
In MIT’s NSF-funded Terrascope Youth Radio (TYR) program, urban youth, many from groups historically underrepresented in the sciences, worked as paid interns who received training in radio production, reporting and writing stories with scientific content and audio storytelling to create environmentally oriented audio pieces that were engaging and relevant to their own and their peers’ lives. Teen interns participated between July 2008 and Autumn 2012. TYR’s goals were to improve a broad audience of teens’ engagement with, knowledge of, and attitudes about science, technology, engineering, and
The EDC Center for Children and Technology (CCT), a nonprofit international research organization, conducted the formative evaluation of the first year's implementation of the Be A Scientist! (BAS) project. The goal of this five-year afterschool family science program project is to provide quality science and engineering courses to underserved families in New York City and Los Angeles. It targeted underserved first graders and their families in the Spring 2010. Guiding by formative research questions (e.g., X) and using multi-method research approach (e.g., X), CCT researchers uncovered
This front-end study aimed to capture baseline information about students' science interests and skills in support of the development of a new program called the Koshland Youth Research Lab. Specifically, the evaluation was driven by the following questions: 1) What are students' current attitudes and interests toward four selected science topics: adolescent sleep needs, teen sexuality and risky behaviors, water quality in your community, and adolescent health and nutrition? 2) What are students' current knowledge and skills with regard to scientific research methods and research design? Data
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jes A. KoepflerMarian Koshland Science Museum