Poster on NSF grant DRL-1114335 (""Collaborative Research: Research: Zoo And Aquarium Action Research Collaborative (ZAARC)"") presented at the 2012 ISE PI Meeting.
Presentation on NSF grant DRL-1010818 (""Crowd ID: Collaborative Tools Connecting People to Biodiversity through Social Networks and Machine Learning"") presented at the CAISE Convening on Sustainability Science and Informal Science Education, February 6th, 2012.
To find out if zoos and aquariums successfully promote conservation, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) formed strategic partnerships and undertook a three-year, nationwide study of the impacts of a visit to a zoo or aquarium. We found that going to AZA accredited zoos and aquariums in North America does have a measurable impact on the conservation attitudes and understanding of adult visitors.
In June of 2007, scientists, educators, technology specialists, and other experts of varied backgrounds, gathered at the Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY, to discuss how to best support new and existing projects. Ideas generated during the conference were used to develop the Citizen Science Toolkit, and are now inspiring a broader conversation about collaborative research ventures.
This study, conducted in New Zealand, is an analysis of the questions that students in their final year of high school were anticipated asking, and asked, during a visit to a biomedical research institute. The analysis highlights, along with the interview findings, the ways in which students developed an understanding of biomedical research, saw science as a process, and acknowledged a commonality of values between themselves and the scientists. This study will be of interest to ISE educators who facilitate interactions between students and scientists and who organize opportunities for
In explaining complex scientific concepts, metaphors are often used. However, the types of metaphors can have an influence on our understanding of the scientific concepts. Pramling considers the metaphors Darwin used to explain evolution and the implications of those metaphors in learning evolutionary theory. He argues that his use of particular metaphors has complicated the ways in which people understand and reason about evolution, partly because they require a complex understanding of time that is difficult to grasp.
This paper describes a study designed to investigate whether fiction can help students to develop their opinions on socio-scientific issues. The findings suggest that fictional accounts can be effective, but the study did not investigate the quality of the reasoning underlying the opinions, nor their longevity.
Students working in small groups during a field trip to a nature center prioritized the maintenance of social roles within groups of friends rather than exhibiting the behaviors that educators might desire a well-functioning group to engage in for science learning. ISE professionals may consider teaching strategies to help students learn to work through disagreements and discussion within a group, which students perceive as having long-lasting negative social consequences.
How do students understand through talk and interaction with their resources? This series of articles reviews conceptual change through social interaction, learning opportunities that support students’ gaining understanding of genetics, and institutional constraints that influence students’ discussions.
This study is an examination of the patterns of explanation in adult museum visitors about evolution and creationism, and the coherence of their reasoning patterns, including the persistence of intuitive childhood beliefs. The responses of all the visitors were a mix of novice naturalistic (intuitive), informed naturalistic (evolutionary), and creationist reasoning patterns. This paper can be of help to science educators to recognize different patterns of visitors’ reasoning about evolution to support the development of a more informed understanding of natural selection, the micro- and macro-
What are the core ideas of learning genetics? How can we build coherent learning experiences to support these ideas? Learning progressions are an approach to outline how learners come to understand abstract concepts over time. This article describes a learning progression that promotes understanding of genetics from late elementary school into high school.
This study examines how early elementary school-aged children develop theories of the origin of species. It may interest ISE educators who are developing strategies for engaging their audiences with theories and processes of evolution. The article provides background on the research literature about teaching and learning of evolution. The results of this study suggest that direct instruction or interactions with Darwinian models, even at a young age, can support children's understanding of evolutionary theory, and may be as important as developmental or cultural concerns already documented in