The National Partnerships for Afterschool Science (NPASS) Project was led by The Center for Science Education (CSE) at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) in Newton, MA in partnership with the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) in Berkeley, CA, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NPASS project approach relied on a professional development training and mentorship model to build the capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) to lead high-quality, hands-on science and engineering activities in their afterschool programming. An overarching project research question
The objective of this project is to develop resources for STEM learning by redesigning and expanding the "Jonathan Bird's Blue World" website; adding components to enable teachers and students to search episodes for specific themes, locations, or scientific concepts; and enhancing the lesson plans to explicitly match the content standards for teaching science. One of the major objectives is to make the "Jonathan Bird's Blue World" web site content more widely accessible as an open source via an internet connection with a dynamic search capability. The project adds a significant amount of educational material and uses ocean topics to illustrate nationally accepted standards for science learning. It is applicable to both formal and informal environments and contains a multi-faceted approach to achieve its goal including the following objectives: (a) build a web site search capability that includes National Science Educational Standards (NSES) and Ocean Literacy Principles with a link to segments illustrating specific NSES; (b) create webisodes that feature specific NSES and develop an interactive map on the web site; (c) create a user survey tool and outreach for these improvements. By partnering with researchers and educators to incorporate nationally accepted standards for science learning into the website redesign, the project has a broad impact on professional development for teachers. It has the potential to reach diverse audiences in schools, homes and afterschool programs. "Jonathan Bird's Blue World" is designed to complement other educational materials and provide a useful resource for teachers everywhere, improving public scientific literacy in informal and formal settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Christine BirdBeth MeInikasJonathan Bird
Working in cooperation with the EarthScope education and outreach community, the project is researching, designing, and producing high production-quality interactive video challenges designed to engage and enlighten young people (primary target audience: middle school, ages 10-14) about EarthScope-related science, people, and projects. The interactive challenges are being developed for a generalized medium; the current effort includes testing for the effectiveness with the target audience of a wide range of media (from stand-alone kiosks to hand-held devices). Focus groups and on-site evaluations are being undertaken to measure and enhance the ability of the project to serve its learning goals, to wit: 1) Science: To make large numbers of young people more aware of basic geoscience concepts relevant to EarthScope, presented in an engaging and memorable way; 2) People: To present to young people the wide cross section of diverse jobs and talents within the EarthScope community; and 3) Projects: To raise awareness of the different components of EarthScope and the impact that they will have on local communities. The content to be created incorporates science education standards to enhance and support classroom work, and can become part of a meaningful visitor center, museum, or after-school experi-ence. The investigators are producing a single proof-of-concept EarthScope challenge, with emphasis on front-end testing consisting of focus groups with students in the target population, in order to gather data on possible content and format for the challenges.
The intent of this project is to use social network methods to study networks of afterschool and informal science stakeholders. It would attempt to create knowledge that improves afterschool programs access to informal science learning materials. This is an applied research study that applies research methods to improving access to and enactment of informal science education programs across a range of settings. The investigators plan to collect data from 600 community- and afterschool programs in California, conduct case studies of 10 of these programs, and conduct surveys of supporting intermediary organizations. The analysis of the data will provide descriptions of the duration, intensity, and nature of the networks among afterschool programs and intermediary agencies, and the diffusion patterns of science learning materials in afterschool programs. The project will yield actionable knowledge that will be disseminated among afterschool programs, intermediary organizations, funding agencies, and policymakers to improve the dissemination and support of afterschool science learning opportunities. The project is focused on free-choice settings where every day the largest numbers of children attend afterschool programs at schools and in other community settings. It seeks information about what conditions are necessary for informal science programs to significantly impact the largest possible number of children in these settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Barbara MeansAnn HouseCarlin LlorenteRaymond McGhee
Science beyond the schoolhouse is the subject of this close-up look at informal science--education in non-traditional settings, including Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H, zoos, aquariums, and public television. More than a dozen writers draw on personal experiences to tell why they became informal science educators and how they use the history and theory of traditional science education in their work. Among the features of this book for informal science educators are a resource directory and a special section on program evaluation. Articles include: (1) "The Symbiosis of Formal and Informal
The aim of the work reported here has been to give an overview of the support that the informal sector provides for learning and engagement with science. In addressing this goal, we have taken the view that engagement with science and the learning of science occur both within and without schools. What is of interest is not who provides the experience or where it is provided but the nature and diversity of opportunities for science learning and engagement that are offered in contemporary UK society. Thus in approaching the work we have taken a systems perspective and looked at informal
Each school year, millions of children participate in organized field trips to museums, zoos, aquaria, and nature centers. Naturally, school groups represent a significant percentage, if not an outright majority, of visitors to such informal educational institutions. Educators at these institutions must often direct the greatest proportion of their time and effort towards educational programming for the streams of visiting school groups. Understandably, many informal educators have a strong interest in evaluating the impact of their efforts directed towards young visitors. Museum education
This study compared grandparent–grandchild groups who experienced an informal science exhibition by visiting a museum or by visiting a website. Although intergenerational learning is often the focus of visitor research, few studies have focused specifically on grandparents as an audience. Do they have unique intergenerational needs that museums and websites are not yet supporting? Do they find museums and websites to be good places to learn alongside their grandchildren? The authors’ findings suggested that grandparents prefer museums as locations for intergenerational learning because the museum
This article explores the development of observation in scientific and everyday contexts. Fundamental to all scientific activity, expert observation is a complex practice that requires the coordination of disciplinary knowledge, theory, and habits of attention. On the surface, observation appears to be a simple skill. Consequently, children may be directed to observe, compare, and describe phenomena without adequate disciplinary context or support, and so fail to gain deeper scientific understanding. Drawing upon a review of science education, developmental psychology, and the science studies
Discusses the objectives of Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies (OBIS), one aspect of the program (lawn communities) and the evaluation of this activity. Includes resultant recommendations. The evaluation criteria are suggested as a model to be used in either designing or in evaluating curricula.
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University of California-BerkeleyJohn H Falk
Free-choice learning, a new paradigm for the learning that youth and their families engage in outside school, can play an important role in the healthy development of youth, their families, and communities.