The Museum of Science partnered with the Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing to create a sequence of professional development experiences in science communication and hands-on learning for graduate students and post-docs. The Sharing Science Workshops were intended to help graduate students who work with the CHN program to improve their abilities to present their research to a variety of scientific and nonscientific audiences. The sequence included a half-day "Sharing Science" workshop, a half-day guided "Practicum" with museum visitors, and optional participation in NanoDays events at MOS
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Donahue Institute Research and Evaluation Group
Because the NISE Network bridges the cultures of museums and the academic research world, participants from one profession may not always know the lingo of the other. At the same time, a shared vocabulary is essential for educators and researchers who want to truly collaborate on projects such as writing grant proposals. Therefore, we present the NISE Network Glossary of Two Worlds.
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NISE Network
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This research agenda is a living document, constructed in response to on-going field-wide conversations following the 21st Century Natural History Settings Conference at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. At the conference, natural history professionals explored new directions for museums and other natural history institutions, including zoos, aquaria, botanical gardens, and nature centers. The research agenda is intended to be edited, discussed, and fleshed out by the field as we work together and make progress. New research questions will emerge spurred by surprising findings
Proposals to the AISL program are due November 4, 2015. Available below is a narrated powerpoint presentation that addresses a number of elements of the solicitation to help prospective submitters prepare proposals.
This is the solicitation for proposals to the NSF 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 for public and professional audiences; provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and develop understandings of deeper learning by participants.
There are a number of places evaluators can share their reports with each other, such as the American Evaluation Association’s eLibrary, the website informalscience.org, and organizations’ own websites. Even though opportunities to share reports online are increasing, the evaluation field lacks guidance on what to include in evaluation reports meant for an evaluator audience. If the evaluation field wants to learn from evaluation reports posted to online repositories, how can evaluators help to ensure the reports they share are useful to this audience? This paper explores this question through
This evaluation examines visitor engagement at the “Science On a Sphere” (SOS) exhibit at Pacific Science Center, Seattle, WA. Evaluators varied characteristics of the data presentation—such as topic presented, presence of a question prompt, and image rotation—and measured the resulting visitor engagement for each of the different treatments. Furthermore, the evaluation examined visitors’ interest in the SOS exhibit, as well as the extent to which visitors connect the exhibit to surrounding exhibits. This study examines different treatments to the SOS exhibit to determine the presentation
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University of Washington | Pacific Science CenterDylan HighDanielle AcheampongEllie KleinwortTravis Windleharth
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
As a part of the strategy to reach the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Science Education and Public Outreach Forum Objective 1.2: Provide resources and opportunities to enable sharing of best practices relevant to SMD education and public outreach (E/PO), the Informal Education Working Group members designed a nationally-distributed online survey to answer the following questions: 1. How, when, where, and for how long do informal educators prefer to receive science, mathematics, engineering, and/or technology content professional development? 2. What are the professional development and
Global Climate Change as Seen by Zoo and Aquarium Visitors reports on the findings of a summer 2011 survey conducted at 15 zoos and aquariums. The study was designed to characterize the readiness of U.S. zoo and aquarium visitors to engage with the issue of global climate change. This included describing visitors' cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral predispositions toward climate change in addition to describing their attitudes and beliefs regarding wildlife, nature, and conservation actions. Results indicate that zoo and aquarium visitors are receptive audiences for climate change
Field trips to science museums can provide students with educational experiences, particularly when museum programs emphasize scientific inquiry skill building over content knowledge acquisition. We describe the creation and study of 2 programs designed to significantly enhance students' inquiry skills at any interactive science museum exhibit without the need for advanced preparation by teachers or chaperones. The programs, called Inquiry Games, utilized educational principles from the learning sciences and from visitor studies of museum field trips. A randomized experimental design compared
Some of the most intriguing science museum exhibits start with a counter-intuitive outcome, a result that runs counter to visitors' expectations. Although counter-intuitive events often succeed in captivating visitors, they rarely lead to visitor-driven inquiry. The author argues that this is primarily due to two factors: first, for the counter-intuitive effect to be presented reliably and repeatedly, the visitor's interaction must be limited to a narrow set of options. Without multiple options for visitors to explore, extended inquiry is nearly impossible. Second, counter-intuitive outcomes