The goal of a two-year SEPA grant, Phase II of a collaboration between Columbia University (CU) and the New York Hall of Science (NYHoS), was to enhance science teaching and learning through the use of portable laboratories and hands-on modules to study biotechnology and microscopy in middle and secondary school classes. Four multi-day workshops were held at the NYHoS to train teachers to use the portable laboratory kits. The primary goals of this evaluation are to assess: 1) the workshops' value for teaching the hands-on kit curriculum, 2) teachers' perception of the portable laboratories'
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ellen GiustiNew York Hall of Science
resourceevaluationProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This report summarizes findings from Inverness Research's evaluation of the PIE Institute project. It outlines the project's approach and philosophy, the activities of the project and key features, and the contributions of the project to participating museum educators, their institutions, and the larger field of informal science education institutions.
This report highlights the findings from Inverness Research's summative study of the TEAMS III Collaborative. In particular, it highlights the lessons learned from a study to incorporate research on how to design exhibits that promote more effective conversations into the exhibit development process.
Museums are shifting from being object and collection centered, towards a focus on space, affect and audience by producing multi-dimensional spatial non-lineal experiences. Interactivity is used unquestionably to verify this shift. Through the findings of a case study the ‘High Arctic’, a temporary exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, the paper will discuss how the museum interprets and practices the notion of interactivity. Through examining the multiplicity of museum with the focus being on process, the possibility of opening and creating new models of experience can be evaluated
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Irida Ntalla
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
For document visualization, folding techniques provide a focus-plus-context approach with fairly high legibility on flat sections. To enable richer interaction, we explore the design space of multi-touch document folding. We discuss several design considerations for simple modeless gesturing and compatibility with standard Drag and Pinch gestures. We categorize gesture models along the characteristics of Symmetric/Asymmetric and Serial/Parallel, which yields three gesture models. We built a prototype document workspace application that integrates folding and standard gestures, and a system for
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Patrick ChiuChunyuan LiaoFrancine Chen
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Open Exhibits held a Design Summit bringing together 30 professionals from the field to help guide future development. The Design Summit was convened in Corrales, New Mexico near the design studios of Ideum, the principal organization of Open Exhibits. It was held March 9th to 11th of 2011. Attendees came from large and small science centers, planetariums, zoos, local museums, and several other open source software initiatives. They were educators, evaluators, designers, researchers, software engineers, and museum professionals. Participants engaged in a combination of short presentations
The Institute for Learning Innovation, in collaboration with Mary Miss Studio and the Institute for Urban Design, is conducting an exploratory research and development project on sustainable practices related to the built infrastructure of New York City. The work will (1) pilot test and study new interpretive strategies for urban "place-based" public learning experiences that focus pedestrians' attention on a city's ecology and existing built sustainability infrastructure; (2) engage urban design professionals and STEM researchers to explore how these new strategies have the potential to transform how urban design fields inform, dialog and interact with the public about sustainable urban design and planning; and (3) assess the effectiveness of these public interpretation programs on STEM learning beyond traditional Informal Science Learning Environments (ISEs) such as science museums. Project participants also include faculty from the City College of NY Graduate Program in Urban Design, STEM faculty from Columbia University, and staff of the Provisions Library in Washington, D.C. The project is an early phase of the "City as Living Laboratory" initiative that can leverage the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Urban Design Week program in New York City scheduled to occur September 15 - 20, 2011. This request to NSF adds an additional track to the process to specifically focus on STEM learning and urban sustainability. From the promotional materials: "The Institute for Urban Design is currently preparing for the first annual Urban Design Week, a public festival created to engage New Yorkers in the fascinating and complex issues of the public realm and celebrate the city's exceptional urbanity. Through a rich roster of charettes, summits, installations, film screenings, exhibitions, and tours, Urban Design Week will draw in citizens from every borough and walk of life and highlight the idea that cities are made by collective effort, and that each of us can be a part of that great endeavor." The project goal is to generate new models for public engagement with science in the city environment and to explore how urban designers and planners, as they design for sustainability, can more effectively collaborate with STEM researchers and with the public. The project has both research and programmatic deliverables. Research activities include: Public Audiences: observational study of pedestrians in the installation environment; intercept surveys of the public about their experiences with the streetscape installations. Professional Audiences: pre-installation surveys on the role of public space science interpretation for altering public discourse about urban planning and sustainable cities; focus group assessment of professionals' experiences with observing public interactions with the installations; online delayed- post experience survey on learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, attitude, motivation and anticipated impacts on professional practices; analysis of blog postings and public media surrounding the installation; survey of attendees at an ISE forum on the project, its goals, outcomes and potential for future developments. Programmatic deliverables include: a workshop that engages urban design students in the development of experimental streetscape installations; a pilot installation on streets in the City College of NY (consistent with approvals already received by NYC Dept. of Transportation); a City as Living Laboratory art-science workshop for Urban Design Week professionals to highlight possible benefits of inter-disciplinary collaboration; a panel discussion around new forms of citizen engagement through a "city as a science learning environment"; a forum specifically for ISE professionals to explore the research findings and potential for use as a strategy to increase science learning in city places.
This broader implementation project will create a professional network of individuals and institutions increasing their capacity to develop, implement, and evaluate the impact of large scale community science festivals. The project builds on a previous award that supported the implementation of science festivals in Cambridge, MA; San Francisco, San Diego, and Philadelphia. Each festival reached 50-70,000 attendees, many of them families from low-income, ethnic communities. Festival organizers and participants include science center practitioners, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) researchers, STEM related businesses, public television STEM producers, universities, K-12 schools, and government and foundation stakeholders. The summative evaluation indicated significant impacts on participant's STEM interest, learning, and connections to STEM resources in their community. The number of science festivals across the country is increasing. Consequently this new project will create a professional network with numerous benefits to professionals in the Informal Science Education (ISE) field and other stakeholders including: timely access to information, knowledge and experience related to science festivals; rich relationships to draw on when facing challenges; credibility of the festival concept; ability to partner with multiple festivals and magnify the reach of existing ISE institutions and program; diffusion of knowledge and innovation; and collective intelligence and inclusive consultation. It is expected that the network will involve supporting approximately 50 science festivals during the grant period. A business plan will be developed for long term sustainability of the network and the subsequent growth of science festivals. This is a collaborative proposal with 4 project partners who have distinct roles in creating and sustaining the network: MIT, University of California at San Francisco, University of North Carolina/Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, and The Franklin Institute. MIT's project deliverables include hosting the central management and administrative functions of the network and providing conferences, workshops, individual mentoring of new science festival champions, maintaining the network website, etc. UCSF will develop tools, resources, and linkages to increase participation of scientists in festivals. UNC/Morehead Planetarium and Science Center will provide expertise in statewide festival organizing. The Franklin Institute will help network participants build capacity for engaging low-income families with programming examples, community asset analysis tools, and webinars. This multi-hub approach is a new innovative strategy for creating and sustaining the first ever professional network for science festival organizers. The project evaluation will focus on the network\'s vibrancy, connectivity and effect. Network vibrancy impact data will be collected on how members share goals, enhance leadership, and expand geographic and model diversity. Network connectivity evaluation will study the strength and growth of the relationships within the SFA network. Network effects will study the ways the Science Festival Alliance (SFA) network is achieving science festival organizational capacity looking at increases in the number of science festivals, geographic spread, science festival innovations, and the presence of a SFA sustainability plan. This project will add new knowledge about the impact of networks on the development and impact of science festivals throughout the country.
This paper was prepared for the symposium, "Learning Science in Out-of-School Time: Research Directions," presented at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans. The authors discuss research efforts related to the nature of afterschool science offerings in publicly funded afterschool programs for elementary school students in California and the sources of support for science programming and afterschool staff development. Findings from the Afterschool Science Network (ASN) are outlined.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Barbara MeansAnn HouseCarlin Llorente
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
These opening remarks took place at the start of the Citizen Science Toolkit Conference, held at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York on June 20-23, 2007.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This PDF includes a synthesis of presentations and discussions that took place at the Engaging and Learning for Conservation Workshop on Public Participation in Scientific Research, held at the American Museum of Natural History on April 7 & 8, 2011. In a series of introductory presentations, participants are offered an overview of workshop goals and session formats, as well as opening thoughts on public participation in scientific research, illustrated by brief presentations of four project case studies. Co-PI Rick Bonney provides an overview of the state of the field, including early work on