As teachers respond to the demands of educational reform and strive to meet increasing pressures of educational benchmarks and standards, there is less and less time to utilize innovative teaching techniques. Education reform expectations, coupled with increasing class size and shrinking budgets has significantly impacted the way that science education is delivered in schools. 4-H Wildlife Stewards, a Master Science Educator's Program was developed in response to these emerging concerns in science education. The program is based on the premise that trained volunteer Master Science Educators
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mary ArnoldMichael DaltonMaggie LivesayRobin Galloway
SciGirls is a national outreach program of DragonflyTV supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation's Program for Gender Equity. SciGirls empowers PBS outreach professionals and science museum educators, often partnering with local youth organizations, educators and parents, to deliver hands-on science encouragement and career guidance to girls in their communities. SciGirls is based on existing standards-based DragonflyTV outreach resources, which teach scientific inquiry.
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of engaging children ages 8 to 13 in the wonders of science and the application of scientific principles through the transmedia SCIENTASTIC! project. The study will also demonstrate that the television series will help students answer questions and solve problems for themselves and their community. The American public supports the advancement of scientific knowledge and our investment in scientific research leads the world. However, Americans are falling behind in educating the next generation of scientists. Late elementary school is an ideal time to capture students' attention and engage them in STEM activities. Using rigorous evaluation techniques we will show that SCIENTASTIC! encourages hands-on learning by exploration, questioning and thinking. The innovative television program and integrated companion resources provide scientific role models and demonstrate the scientific process in an entertaining way. The associated web site, Apps, Web 2.0 repository and teaching aids allow students, teachers, and parents to further explore concepts introduced in the show. Preliminary analysis reveals that the SCIENTASTIC! target audience liked the show, would watch the show and learned from the show. Further analysis will demonstrate that the transmedia approach increases viewer interest and learning. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will play a transformative role in encouraging students to take STEM courses in college, pursue scientific careers, and become a scientifically informed electorate. By developing the story beyond the story, transmedia SCIENTASTIC! has strong commercial value. Dissemination through public television allows for a potential audience of 250 million people. Commercial and noncommercial sponsorships will be sold with associated on-air credits. Additional direct funding will be sought from industries with interests in promoting science and health literacy. A commercial version of the program will be offered to cable networks on a licensing basis, with DVDs, Apps and study guides sold to schools, homeschoolers, and parents. With a broad and commercially viable dissemination, SCIENTASTIC! will show children the joys of science by demonstrating and engaging in hands-on, team- based learning in real-world contexts. This process will improve student retention and will show that SCIENTASTIC! introduces new ways to learn. The SCIENTASTIC! project will evaluate teaching techniques information that will be shared with policy-makers, educational institutions, and teachers to improve education nationwide. By spreading successful methods for engaging children in math and science, SCIENTASTIC! shoiuld have significant societal benefit creating a generation of scientifically educated decision-makers.
The Massachusetts Linking Experiences and Pathways Follow-on (M-LEAP2) is a three-year longitudinal empirical research study that is examining prospectively how early formal and informal STEM education experiences are related to gender-based differences in STEM achievement-related choices in middle and high school. M-LEAP2 serves as a complement to - and extension of - a prior NSF-funded study, M-LEAP, which was a largely quantitative research study that followed overlapping cohorts of 3rd - 6th grade female and male students for three years. M-LEAP surveyed over 1,600 students, 627 student-parent pairs, and 134 second parents in 8 diverse public schools across Massachusetts. In contrast, M-LEAP2 is a heavily qualitative three-year study using in-depth interviews with a diverse range of 72 of these students and their families to study how formal and informal science experiences shape the students' science-related beliefs, interests, and aspirations as they progress though middle and high school.
The overall objective of this planning project was to examine the potential effectiveness of the Signing Science Pictionary (SSP) in increasing the ability of parents and their deaf and hard of hearing children to engage in informal science learning. To achieve this objective, research and development included four goals. 1) Design several SSP-based activities to help family members engage in informal science learning. 2) Examine the potential effectiveness of the SSP in increasing family member’s signed science vocabulary. 3) Find out about the potential effectiveness of the SSP in
As part of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is conducting regional STEM workshops, entitled NFB STEM2U, for blind youth [youth], grades 3 – 6. During this first regional workshop in Baltimore, the NFB operated three different programs simultaneously: one program for youth, a second program for their parents/caregivers, and a third program for a group of teachers who work with visually impaired students. A fourth program, for Port Discovery museum staff, was conducted earlier to prepare the museum staff to assist with the youth program
With this 3-year project, TERC and the Museum of Science (MoS) Boston are studying how family and school visitors integrate iPod Touch versions of the Signing Science Pictionary (SSP), Signing Science Dictionary (SSD), and Signing Math Dictionary (SMD) into their museum experience and the impact of dictionary use. This report focuses on family visitors. Each dictionary includes more than 700 standards-based science or mathematics terms. The SSP (funded in part by grants from the Shapiro Family Foundation and the U. S. Department of Education, Grant #H327A080040) is intended for children ages 5
With this project, TERC and the Museum of Science (MoS) Boston are studying how family and school visitors integrate iPod Touch versions of the Signing Science Pictionary (SSP), Signing Science Dictionary (SSD), and Signing Math Dictionary (SMD) into their museum experience and the impact of dictionary use. This report focuses on a sub-study involving family visitors to the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH). Prior to this sub-study, TERC and the MoS conducted a primary study that examined use of the dictionaries at the MoS. Findings from this study showed the following: (1) Visitors
Over 200 zoos and aquariums in North America are accredited members of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA), with a shared vision of the future: a world where all people respect, value and conserve wildlife and wild places. Through programs & experiences that reach millions of people each year, we hope to encourage caring and empathy towards all living things, but we lack the tools that are needed to assess whether – and how – we’re reaching this goal. The overall goal of this 2 year collaborative project is to create tools that zoos and aquariums can use to assess whether they’re meeting their goal of encouraging caring and empathy towards wildlife. Project partners (Woodland Park Zoo, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, & Seattle Aquarium) aim to develop, test and share tools that can be used by accredited zoos & aquariums to assess whether their educational programs are having the desired impact of encouraging children’s empathy towards animals. To better inform our understanding of the empathic experience and the role it plays in human relationships with animals, an advisory team comprised of conservation psychologists and evaluation practitioners in the zoo and aquarium field, has been formed to aid in this two year project.
Supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Safari Adventure Advisory Committee Workshop was held on March 11, 2013 at the Bronx Zoo, with the following experts and educators in the fields of children and nature education, hands-on and place-based learning, and digital learning: Professor Louise Chawla, educator David T. Sobel, Urban Assembly high school principal Mark Ossenheimer, researcher Ingrid Erickson, and noted author and environmentalist Richard Louv. Through this workshop, we obtained scholarly input for the purpose of assessing the conceptual
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Wildlife Conservation SocietyLee Patrick
Plum Landing (https://pbskids.org/plumlanding/) is produced by WGBH Educational Foundation (http://wgbh.org), the Public Broadcasting Service affiliate based in Boston, MA. The website, Plum Landing, follows the adventures of an animated space alien, named Plum, after her spaceship crash-lands on Earth. With funding from the National Science Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Kendeda Fund, and the Northern Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. WGBH worked closely with a panel of science advisors to create an “innovative, environmental science
This is a report of an evaluation of the content and design of the science components of the Education Development Center's TV411 program, conducted by Owen Consulting, Inc. In 2010, EDC received a grant from NSF to reconstruct the TV411 website, produce new science content, including videos and web lessons, improve user interactivity, and develop materials to support adult educators who work with the site's target population of low literacy adults. This report lays out the evaluation design, provides an overview of site web metrics, describes the registered user population discusses the ways
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Education Development CenterEric GraigDavid Owen