Researchers and practitioners have identified numerous outcomes of place-based environmental action (PBEA) programs at both individual and community levels (e.g., promoting positive youth development, fostering science identity, building social capital, and contributing to environmental quality improvement). In many cases, the primary audience of PBEA programs are youth, with less attention given to lifelong learners or intergenerational (e.g., youth and adult) partnerships. However, there is a need for PBEA programs for lifelong learners as local conservation decisions in the United States
Science fairs offer potential opportunities for students to learn first-hand about the practices of science. Over the past six years we have been carrying out voluntary and anonymous surveys with regional and national groups of high school and post high school students to learn about their high school science fair experiences regarding help received, obstacles encountered, and opinions about the value and impact of science fair. Understanding what students think about science fairs will help educators make science fairs more effective learning opportunities. In this paper, we focus on the
Two critical challenges in science education are how to engage students in the practices of science and how to develop and sustain interest. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which high school youth, the majority of whom are members of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM, learn the skills and practices of science and in turn develop interest in conducting scientific research as part of their career pursuits. To accomplish this goal, we applied Hidi and Renninger’s well-tested theoretical framework for studying interest development in the context of
Background: Authentic research experiences and mentoring have positive impacts on fostering STEM engagement among youth from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM. Programs applying an experiential learning approach often incorporate one or both of these elements, however, there is little research on how these factors impact youth’s STEM engagement during the high school to college transition. Purpose: Using a longitudinal design, this study explored the impact of a hands-on field research experience and mentoring as unique factors impacting STEM-related outcomes among underrepresented youth
This document provides a brief story about how the Designing our Tomorrow team explored some of their questions about exhibit features by using the C-PIECE Framework: Framework of Collaborative Practices at Interactive Engineering Challenge Exhibits.
This exploratory line of inquiry looked at relationships between exhibit features and visitor groups’ Informed engineering design practices. This brief includes an Introduction, Methods and Findings, Summary, and Implications.
This exploratory line of inquiry was conducted to inform the development of the Designing our Tomorrow exhibit and
Are you interested in co-creating fun activities that exercise groups’ engineering practices? Are you curious about the types of practices that groups can exercise through exhibits?
The Framework of Collaborative Practices at Interactive Engineering Challenge Exhibits (C-PIECE Framework) provides informal education professionals with a guide when co-developing, designing, facilitating, evaluating and researching engineering design challenge experiences.
This framework was developed with input from inter-generational families, including girls 9 to 14 years old. It was adapted from theory
Our museum-based participatory research (PR) project was a collaboration between researchers and educators in an out-of-school time STEM education program for young people that positions STEM as a tool for community social justice. This project drew on literatures on reflective practice in museums and on research-practice partnerships. Yet following existing approaches did not work for us. Aligning research and pedagogical practices, we co-created practical, reflective, and practice-based data generation methods, calling them “embedded research practices:” context-specific, emergent methods
This brief focuses on a participatory study with the high school program of the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) at the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM). Young people are organized into teams of up to 20 youth with an adult practitioner who delivers programming based on a STEM content area. Their activities and project-based learning are based in both STEM and social justice, coined in the KAYSC as “STEM Justice.”
As part of our study, we wanted to understand youth and adult needs that exist in an informal STEM education program that weaves equity into its core. This brief
This brief is for practitioners and researchers in informal learning who want to collaborate in participatory research. While we have learned from similar work (much of which is in formal education or large-scale projects), what we found didn’t always apply to us or our contexts. For instance, content (curriculum) and assessment look different in schools versus on a museum floor. While informal educators don’t have the pressure of high-stakes testing and accountability, they are often part-time workers and may not have as much theoretical training or professional development as formal
The theory of “science capital” is increasingly showing up in formal and informal science education. Both face the common challenge of what is often called a “theory/practice divide”: academic theory not seeming relevant to the day-to-day needs and practices of educators.
This brief shares what happened when practitioners and researchers working with the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) at the Science Museum of Minnesota took both theory and practice seriously, reclaiming terms and ideas in service of our work and communities. It explores how an informal science learning (ISL)
This brief shares youth development insights from a museum-based, informal science learning program that uses STEM as a tool for social justice. Key to the success of this program were young people and adults feeling at home in a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive space; activities that focused on connecting and relationships; a holistically supportive space that attended to family and personal needs; shared norms for conversation and expectations; and science content grounded in young people’s lives, experiences, and communities as well as work with community members.
These needs were
STEMroller events disrupt stereotypes surrounding STEM professionals within a neglected space in science communication; a sports hall. Roller derby inspired STEMroller, both the do-it-yourself culture and creating a space for women and genderqueer people to be themselves. Over 100 female and non-binary STEM professionals volunteered to put this event together for students aged 11–19. STEMroller includes networking with people from over 30 science, technology engineering and mathematics industries, watching roller derby and trying it out — albeit in socks not on wheels. STEMroller uses a pool