As part of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is conducting regional STEM workshops, entitled NFB STEM2U, for blind youth [youth], grades 3 – 6. During this first regional workshop in Baltimore, the NFB operated three different programs simultaneously: one program for youth, a second program for their parents/caregivers, and a third program for a group of teachers who work with visually impaired students. A fourth program, for Port Discovery museum staff, was conducted earlier to prepare the museum staff to assist with the youth program
Over 200 zoos and aquariums in North America are accredited members of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA), with a shared vision of the future: a world where all people respect, value and conserve wildlife and wild places. Through programs & experiences that reach millions of people each year, we hope to encourage caring and empathy towards all living things, but we lack the tools that are needed to assess whether – and how – we’re reaching this goal. The overall goal of this 2 year collaborative project is to create tools that zoos and aquariums can use to assess whether they’re meeting their goal of encouraging caring and empathy towards wildlife. Project partners (Woodland Park Zoo, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, & Seattle Aquarium) aim to develop, test and share tools that can be used by accredited zoos & aquariums to assess whether their educational programs are having the desired impact of encouraging children’s empathy towards animals. To better inform our understanding of the empathic experience and the role it plays in human relationships with animals, an advisory team comprised of conservation psychologists and evaluation practitioners in the zoo and aquarium field, has been formed to aid in this two year project.
The long-term goal of this project is to expand and disseminate our innovative internship and near-peer mentoring models for minority youth and women in the biomedical sciences, thus increasing the number of minority students participating in the quantitative disciplines. Dissemination and expansion of the program will take place in three steps: (1) Within the national capital region through the Internet and cooperative arrangements with established educational initiatives within DCPS system; (2) For year 2, expand to one site outside the national capital area. The site would be for a group that had already begun to model its fledgling program on our STARS program, or one of the specific sites discussed in Aim 3. The likely site would be at Fort Monmouth, N.J., since Dr. Constella Zimmerman is planning to start a STARS initiative; and (3) Extend the program to specific sites within selected cities, and utilize current contacts in states that do not yet have a SEPA program to disseminate.
This paper, commissioned as part of a consensus study on successful out-of-school STEM learning from the National Research Council's Board on Science Education, explores evidence-based strategies developed in out-of-school time STEM programs for successfully engaging youth from underrepresented demographics in STEM learning.
How can professional learning for out‐of‐school staff be organized to promote equity in STEM learning? This is the question a group of out-of‐school educators and educational researchers gathered to discuss at the Exploratorium on January 30‐31, 2015. The meeting was sponsored by the Research+Practice Collaboratory, an NSF-‐funded project that develops and tests new models for integrating research and practice perspectives for the improvement of science and mathematics education. Four big ideas for supporting equity-oriented facilitation emerged from the group's discussions: (1) Seeing
Project Exploration’s week-long summer Environmental Adventurers program immersed eleven Chicago Public School middle and high school students into the world of urban bees and biodiversity research. We employed a place-based approach to ground learning experiences and exploration within uniquely urban spaces. Students used mobile technology to explore the environment, document native bees, and engage in authentic fieldwork research and data analysis. Students maximized the potential of the technology in ways that forced program leaders to rethink the potential of mobile technology as an
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jameela JafriGabrielle LyonStephanie MadziarRebecca ToniettoProject ExplorationChicago Botanic GardenNorthwestern University
The UMN MRSEC conducts an ambitious and multi-faceted education and outreach program to extend the impact of the Center beyond the university, providing undergraduates, college faculty, high school teachers, and K-12 students with opportunities that augment their traditional curriculum and increase their appreciation of materials science and engineering (MS&E). Our summer research program provides high-quality research and educational experiences in MS&E to students and faculty, drawn primarily from undergraduate institutions with limited research opportunities, while placing a strong emphasis on inclusion of women and members of underrepresented groups.
This paper explores how participating in a program spanning an informal science institution and multiple school sites engaged youth with science in a different way. In particular, teens in the program selected and researched science topics of personal interest, and then authored, revised, and published science news stories about those topics in an authentic publication venue with an outside editor. Through five case studies analyzed according to a sociocultural framework for engagement understood as involving actions, interests and identifications, the authors describe how the news story
The National Science Foundation and other funding agencies are increasingly requiring broader impacts in grant applications to encourage US scientists to contribute to science education and society. Concurrently, national science education standards are using more inquiry-based learning (IBL) to increase students’ capacity for abstract, conceptual thinking applicable to real-world problems. Scientists are particularly well suited to engage in broader impacts via science inquiry outreach, because scientific research is inherently an inquiry-based process. We provide a practical guide to help
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Lisa KomoroskeSarah HameedAmber SzoboszlaiAmanda NewsomSusan Williams
The Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC) project Bridging Earth and Mars (BEAM) will engage the general public and children from schools and community groups with the National Aeronautical and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) exploration of Mars through exhibits simulating control of robotic rovers on the surface of Mars as well as related educational programming. This front-end evaluation for BEAM youth programs provides information to the BEAM project team about the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and skills among low-income and minority young people who are part of the field trip workshop
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Saint Louis Science CenterCarey Tisdal
Our role as external evaluators is to provide Maker Ed and its stakeholders with an outside perspective on two questions. First: How does Maker Corps impact the MCMs and Host Sites that participate and the audiences they serve? Second: In what ways can the Maker Corps program improve to better serve these participants and their audiences? This report is an executive summary of our full report, in which we present a complete summary of the findings from surveys, interviews, and case studies during the 2014 Maker Corps program.
Maker Corps increases the capacity of youth-serving organizations nationwide to engage youth and families in making. Diverse Maker Corps Members expand the current network of makers, mentors, and community leaders poised to lead creative experiences for youth. (http://makered.org/makercorps/) In this report of Maker Corps' second year, we address the following questions: 1. How does Maker Corps impact the Maker Corps Members, participating Host Sites, and the audiences they serve? 2. In what ways can the Maker Corps program improve to better serve these participants and their audiences? We