One in three children in the US is overweight or obese. One in five lives in food-insecure households that struggle to put food on the table. Both problems are linked to poor academic performance, behavior problems, and high rates of school absenteeism. To address these issues, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Out-of-School Time initiative has been working since 2011 in eight cities to support the adoption of the National Afterschool Association's healthy eating and physical activity (HEPA) standards by before-school, afterschool, and summer programs.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Daniel HatcherCrystal Weedall FitzsimonsJill Turley
What would it be like to increase the number of youth-serving volunteers who can competently lead science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities? This question guided the Inquiry in the Community project, launched in 2008. Along with Girl Scout staff colleagues and volunteers, the project created a system for embedding inquiry-based science into a youth development organization.
Over the last ten years, out-of-school-time (OST) science programs have multiplied to increase young people’s exposure to science. However, there are still not enough opportunities for long-term engagement, which is essential to move youth from having interest in science to having the skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy to pursue careers in science. This article describes findings from exploratory research conducted to document the experiences of a small group of young women of color who participated in a museum-based OST program during their middle and high school years.
With 8.4 million children in the US spending an average of eight hours a week in afterschool programs, afterschool providers are an important part of the network of caring adults who can help to keep children safe. This article explores the topic of mandated reporting of suspected child abuse by afterschool staff.
Grounded in literature on best practices in science education, this article describes a systematic and intentional approach to developing out-of-school time (OST) science curricula and professional development models. Examples from the California 4-H Science, Engineering, and Technology Initiative demonstrate promising practices in action.
This article from "The Atlantic" describes ways that teachers are integrating hands-on and experiential STEM learning into the classroom, which include collaboration with informal learning environments through creative field trips.
This is a Science Learning+ planning project that will develop a plan for how to conduct a longitudinal study using existing data sources that can link participation in science-focused programming in out-of-school settings with long-range outcomes. The data for this project will ultimately come from "mining" existing data sets routinely collected by out-of-school programs in both the US and UK. 4H is the initial out-of-school provider that will participate in the project, but the project will ideally expand to include other youth-based programs, such as Girls Inc. and YMCA. During the planning grant period, the project will develop a plan for a longitudinal research study by examining informal science-related factors and outcomes including: (a) range of educational outcomes, (b) diversity and structure of learning activities, (c) links to formal education experiences and achievement measures, and (d) structure of existing informal science program data collection infrastructure. The planning period will not involve actual mining of existing data sets, but will explore the logistics regarding data collection across different informal science program, including potential metadata sets and instruments that will: (a) identify and examine data collection challenges, (b) explore the implementation of a common data management system, (c) identify informal science programs that are potential candidates for this study, (d) compare and contrast data available from the different programs and groups, and (e) optimize database management.
Young people's participation in informal STEM learning activities can contribute to their academic and career achievements, but these connections are infrequently explicitly recognized or cultivated. More systemic approaches to STEM education could allow for students' experiences of formal and informal STEM learning to be aligned, coordinated, and supported across learning contexts. This Science Learning+ planning project brings together stakeholders in two digital badge systems--one in the US and one in the UK--to plan for a study to identify the specific structural features of the systems that may allow for the alignment of learning objectives across institutions. Digital badge systems may offer an inventive solution to the challenge of connecting and building on youth's STEM-related experiences in multiple learning contexts. When part of a defined system, badges could be used to represent and communicate evidence of individual learning, as well as provide youth and educators with evidence-supported indicators for other activities in the system that might be interesting or valuable. Properly designed and supported badge systems could transmit critical information within a network of informal STEM programs and schools that (1) recognize context-dependent, interest-driven learning and (2) provide opportunities to explore those interests across multiple settings. This project advances the field of informal STEM learning in two ways. First, the project documents and analyzes the processes by which two small groups of informal science education organizations and schools negotiate the meaning and value of badges, as proxies for learning objectives, and how they decide to recognize badges awarded by other institutions. This process builds capacity within the target systems while also beginning to identify the institutional, cultural, and material capacity issues that facilitate or constrain the alignment process. Second, the project conducts a pilot study with a small number of youth in the US and UK to investigate factors associated with an individual youth's likelihood of: a) identifying badges of interest; b) connecting the activities of various badge systems to each other and to non-badging institutions, such as school or industry; c) determining which badges to pursue; and d) persisting in a particular badge pathway. Findings from this pilot study will help identify institution- and individual-level factors that might be associated with advancing student interest and progression in STEM fields. Deepening and validating the understanding of those factors and their relative impact on student experiences and outcomes will be the focus of investigations in future studies.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
James DiamondNew York City Hive Learning NetworkMOUSEDigitalMeKatherine McMillan
This Science Learning+ project will develop a Youth Access & Equity Research & Practice Agenda, focusing on addressing equity issues for youth, ages 11-14, primarily from non-dominant backgrounds. The project will involve researchers and practitioners from three ISL settings/contexts, (1) Designed spaces, e.g., museums; (2) Community-based, e.g., afterschool clubs; and (3) Everyday science, e.g., science media. The goal of the agenda will be to advance scholarly understanding of equity issues in relation to these three contexts. Taking an ecological view of STEM learning as a sociocultural process of participation and transformation, the project will employ a Complex Adaptive System lens to document multiple pathways youth take (or not) within/across ISL settings over time, the impact these pathways have on learning and development, and their influence on ISL organizations themselves. These lenses will help us identify aspects of learning environments which shape youth access and development, and the value and impact of the equity ideas, tools and practices.
Relatively little is known about how Natural History Museums (NHMs) and schools can complement one another to maximize learning among school-age learners. Nor do we fully understand the long-term benefits to learning and engagement with science that NHMs have. In this Science Learning+ project researchers in UK and US universities will work with practitioners in NHMs and school teachers in the UK and the US to address these questions. The project will (a) undertake a critical review of the published and grey literature to examine the contributions to learning and engagement that NHMs have made; (b) develop improved instruments that are common across schools, NHMs and other out-of-school settings to determine the efficacy of learning experiences; devise protocols to explore the possibility of data obtained from museum evaluations being matched with national databases, thus improving our understanding of the consequences of such experiences; (c) map the areas of science curricula (using the latest version of the science National Curriculum in England and the Common Core Standards in the US) that NHMs might most valuably address; d) through researcher-practitioner collaboration review current pedagogical approaches employed by schools and NHMs, with a view to developing and studying new practice models in Phase 2. The project will devise validated instruments (of the sort that are increasingly used in large-scale social psychology studies) and explore whether data obtained from museum visitors can be matched, both in the UK and in the US, onto external datasets (e.g. the National Pupil Database in the UK; Elementary/Secondary Information System in the US).
From intimate science cafes to massive science festivals, the public science events sector encompasses an enormous diversity of activity involving a wide range of practitioners and target audiences. As unique as each instance of an event can be, public science events are all live, in-person programs designed to engage the public with science in a social context. This activity is already taking place on a grand scale in both the US and UK, and initial evaluations of some of these event forms have begun to demonstrate distinct beneficial impacts. Despite some significant leaps forward, there are several issues that this Science Learning+ project seeks to address: (1) insufficient connectivity and communications between many event organizers; (2) little overall tracking of event activity; (3) few comparative evaluations across different event forms; and (4) lack of shared terminology, key facts, and a coherent narrative for the role live events play in the science learning ecosystem. A landscape study, organized into a single document and simple website, is the main deliverable. This will summarize existing activity and findings related to events, and provide an overview of potentially fruitful areas for future investigation.
The "Mentored Youth Building Employable Skills in Technology (MyBEST)" project, a collaboration of the Youth Science Center (YSC) and Learning Technology Center (LTC) at the Science Museum of Minnesota, is a three-year, youth-based proposal that seeks to engage 200 inner-city youngsters in learning experiences involving information and design technologies. The goal of the project is to develop participants' IT fluency coupled with work- and academic-related skills. The program will serve students in grades 7 through 12 with special emphasis on three underrepresented groups: girls, youngsters of color, and the economically disadvantaged. Project participants will receive 130 contact hours and 70% will receive at least 160 hours. Each project year, including summers, students participate in three seasons consisting of five two-week cycles. Project activities will center on an annual technology theme: design, engineering and invention; social and environmental systems; and networks and communication. The activities that constitute project seasons include guest presenter workshops; open labs facilitated by guest presenters, mentors and adult staff; presentations of student projects; career workshops and field trips. The project cycles feature programming (e.g., Logo computer language; Cricketalk), engineering and multi-media production (e.g., digital video; non-linear editing software). Each cycle will interface with an existing museum-related program (e.g., the NSF-funded traveling Cyborg exhibit). Mentors will work alongside participants in all technology-based activities. These mentors will be recruited from university, business, community partners and participant families. Leadership development is addressed through teamwork and in the form of internships and externships. Participants obtain work experience related to technology in the internship and externship component. The "MyBEST" project will serve as a prototype for the Museum to test the introduction of technology as central to the design and learning outcomes of its youth-based programs. An advisory board reflecting expertise in youth development, technology and informal science education will guide the program's development and plans for sustainability. Core elements of the "MyBEST" program will be integrated into the Museum's youth-based projects sponsored by the YSC and LTC departments. The Museum has a strong record of integrating prototype initiatives into long-standing programs.