This full-scale development project would use a multi-platform approach (TV, Field School, and Web site) to engage public audiences and underserved youth in archaeology research and discovery. The project will advance knowledge and practice in the field of ISE by establishing the utility of archaeology as an entry point to multiple STEM fields showing how it answers important questions about human origins-culture, history, and the natural environment. The target audience includes a broad demographic of viewers who will watch the PBS broadcasts. The other key audience is underserved youth who will participate in the archeology digs and be featured in the national broadcast. They will engage other underserved youth who will have the opportunity to participate in the interactive online virtual field school. Primary organizational partners include the Crow Canyon Archaeology Center in Colorado and other archeology organizations at the 4 field sites. Deliverables include four hours of PBS programming filmed at four archaeological sites telling the stories of diverse cultures (Native American, African American, Hispanic); field schools designed for underrepresented youth both onsite and online; blogs, online discussions, and user-generated videos. The evaluation will determine the impact of the television series, online content, and the on-site Field School on audiences' understanding of, interest in, and interactions around STEM topics within the context of archaeology. Formative evaluation will provide input and help refine the television programs, web site, and field school. The summative evaluation will use a variety of methods and artifacts to determine the degree to which the process of the TV series, web site, and Field School was successful. The television programs are expected to reach 13 million viewers via broadcast, 300,000 via streaming video and 50,000 unique web site visitors. The lessons learned from this project will be disseminated to other media and ISE organizations.
The Lost Ladybug Project (LLP) is a Cornell University citizen science project that connects science to education by using ladybugs to teach non-scientists concepts of biodiversity, invasive species, and conservation. The project has successfully engaged thousands of children (ages 5-11) in collecting field data on ladybugs and building a ladybug biology database that is useful to scientists. It has also reached 80,000 people over the Internet. The goal of the project is to promote lifelong appreciation of biodiversity and science, and provide scientists with data on the changing distribution and abundance of ladybug species across the country. The current project is broadening the Lost Ladybug Project's reach geographically, culturally, demographically, and contextually by creating new tools and materials for the website, and forging new connections with (1) youth groups, (2) science centers, community centers, botanical gardens, nature centers, and organic farms, (3) adults, (4) Native Americans, and (5) Spanish-speakers. The expanded project could potentially involve tens of thousands of new individuals in ladybug monitoring research. An evaluation study is measuring the impacts of the expansion on new participants' knowledge, skills, attitudes, interests, and behavior. The Lost Ladybug Project has been important in advancing scientific discovery and building scientific knowledge. Data collected by the project's volunteers have improved scientists' understanding of (1) ladybug species presence/absence, (2) shifts in ladybug species composition, (3) shifts in ladybug species ranges, and (4) change in ladybug body size and spot number. Evaluation data show that the project has a broad audience reach and is achieving its learning goals for adults and children. Broadening the project's reach will further increase the project's importance to ecology, conservation biology and biodiversity research, as well as education research.
The Herpetology Education in Rural Places & Spaces (HERPS) project is a four-year full-scale development project designed to engage diverse North Carolina residents from the Central Piedmont, Eastern Piedmont, and Inner Coastal Plain regions of the state in conservation and field experiences focused on herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. The project targets rural underrepresented groups in STEM; predominately African-Americans, Hispanics, and Lumbee Native Americans. The University of North Carolina-Greensboro and its partner organizations, Elon University and University of North Carolina-Pembroke, will partner to develop and implement all phases of the project. Ultimately, the project aims to increase knowledge of and interest in herpetology and related conservation issues, provide authentic research experiences, and better understand identity-related motivations and affordances of the casual, regular, and enthusiastic participant across project strands. HERPS builds on four pilot studies and will engage people of all ages in a broad range of herpetological activities including: (a) an annual herpetology-focused community event (HERPS Celebrations), (b) technology resources such as a project website and customized mobile applications (HERPS Cyberhub), (c) summer and year-long herpetological research experiences (HREs) for high school students and teachers, and (d) in-depth longitudinal herpetological study opportunities (e.g., box turtle study). In addition, there is separate but integrated research stand that will focus on identity and HERPS experiences, as settings for informal science learning. The identity research will study: (a) identity-related motivations and (b) identity-related affordances of casual, regular and enthusiastic participants across threads. In addition, an extensive formative and summative evaluation will be conducted using a mixed methods approach by an external evaluator. Using a multiple-entry-points approach for learning and engagement, this project could serve as a replicable model for similar efforts in other settings. In addition, the results of the identity reseach strand could fill a critical gap in the identity and informal science education research bases. With an average estimated reach of nearly 15,000 people of all ages and diverse backgrounds, the potential broader impacts of this project could be extensive.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Catherine MatthewsAndy AshTerry TomasekAnn SomersHeidi Carlone
The purpose of this three-year collaborative design research project is to examine the role of culture in the development of knowledge and reasoning about the natural world and the subsequent sense-making of and participation in natural resource management. The PIs propose to examine the ways in which culture impacts observational habits, explanation constructing, uses and forms of evidence, and orientations towards socio-scientific challenges such as natural resource management. Collaborating on this project are researchers from the American Indian Center of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. The audience for this study includes the academic informal science education community and indigenous science educators. This project also offers extensive cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary research opportunities for pre- and post-doctoral research trainees. The project will employ a mixed methods approach and proposes evaluation through an advisory board and community input. A community assessment team is proposed to review activities, obtain feedback from the larger community, and identify challenges to the effective implementation of the program. The project is comprised of two main panels of studies: the first consisting of a series of investigations of learning in everyday activities and the second consisting of two community design experiments that engage two Native American communities and two non-Native communities, one rural and one urban for both communities, in a culturally based citizen science (CBCS) project focused on ecosystem disruption (e.g. invasive species; climate change) and natural resource management. The CBCS project will engage participants in question formation, data collection, data analysis, forming policy recommendations, and citizen action around the findings. This project will develop a citizen science model that effectively engages diverse communities towards productive science learning, helpful scientific data collection, and citizen engagement in community planning and local policy decisions. The researchers believe that fundamental advances in STEM teaching and learning are needed across the broad landscape of learning environments and that the success of such advances may pivot on innovations and discoveries made in informal environments. Insights obtained from prior research on learning in indigenous cultures, especially in biological and environmental sciences, combined with the anticipated results from this study could lead to a deeper understanding of cross-cultural similarities and differences in science learning.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Karen WashinawatokMegan BangDouglas MedinUniversity of Washington
The Change (working title) is a film project with supporting website and resource materials to document how climate change is impacting indigenous peoples in the most climate sensitive regions, and how anthropologists, environmental scientists, engineers, and others are working with these communities to help mitigate the effects. The documentary features Dr. Susie Crate, an NSF-funded anthropologist, and her bi-national teenage daughter Katie, whose father is from Siberia. The Viliui Sahka in Siberia, Alaska Natives in Nome, and South Pacific Islanders on Tuvalu are the communities portrayed in the film. The Change is a Full-Scale Development project produced by Ironbound Films. Outreach partners include the Center for Climate Change Communication (4C) at George Mason University, the Global Climate Adaptation Partnership (GCAP), the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA), the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), and the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP). Ironbound Films has designed this project to build upon its successful prior documentary work, The Linguists. Deliverables include a documentary for limited theatrical release and television and Internet broadcast along with an interactive website, curriculum guide, a shorter classroom version of the film, and a robust outreach strategy in collaboration with project partners. One of the components of the outreach in conjunction with SfAA will be to create the first social networking site around climate change adaptation. Another in conjunction with GCAP is to create a series of four virtual climate change tours for Google Maps and Earth applications. SmartStart Educational Consulting Services will conduct front-end, formative, and summative evaluations. The real-life characters and communities featured in the film will illustrate how climate change is affecting people today in various parts of the world. The project gives voice to anthropologists who have been working to understand climate change as a cultural phenomenon, a perspective rarely showcased in the media. Anthropologists have expressed the need for an effective means to share this work and its results with the public. The story is based on contemporary climate science and anthropology, but features the personal perspective of the bi-national teenage daughter, and is intended to appeal to an audience not typically drawn to a climate change documentary, especially the young or underserved. An aggressive, targeted marketing and outreach campaign reflects the film's innovative approach.
In this full-scale research and development project, Oregon State University (OSU), Oregon Sea Grant (OSG) and the Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitors Center (HMSCVC) is designing, developing, implementing, researching and evaluating a cyberlaboratory in a museum setting. The cyberlaboratory will provide three earth and marine science learning experiences with research and evaluation interwoven with visitor experiences. The research platform will focus on: 1) a climate change exhibit that will enable research on identity, values and opinion; 2) a wave tank exhibit that will enable research on group dynamics and problem solving in interactive engineering challenges; and 3) remote sensing exhibits that will enable research on visitor interactions through the use of real data and simulations. This project will provide the informal science educaton community with a suite of tools to evaluate learning experiences with emerging technologies using an iterative process. The team will also make available to the informal science community their answers to the following research questions: For the climate change exhibit, "To what extent does customizing content delivery based on real-time visitor input promote learning?" For the wave tank exhibit, "To what extent do opportunities to reflect on and share experiences promote STEM reasoning processes at a build-and-test exhibit?" For the data-sensing exhibit, "Can visitors' abilities to explain or use visualizations be improved by shaping their visual searches of images?" Mixed-methods using interviews, surveys, behavioral instruments, and participant observations will be used to evaluate the overall program. Approximately 60-100 informal science education professionals will discuss and test the viability of the exhibit's evaluation tools. More than 150,000 visitors, along with community members and local middle and high school students, will have the opportunity to participate in the learning experiences at the HMSCVC. This work contributes to the fields of cyberlearning and informal science education. This project provides the informal science education field with important knowledge about learning, customized content delivery and evaluation tools that are used in informal science settings.
The Exploratorium and the Museum of Life and Science will develop, evaluate and implement Science of Sharing, a three-year full-scale development project designed to bring the scientific study of human social behavior to a broad public audience. Science of Sharing will create new ways for visitors to experiment with social psychology and will generate important information for informal science institutions committed to involving visitors in discussions of personal, societal, and scientific responses to real-world challenges. Science of Sharing addresses a critical ISE issue: creating ways for visitors to experiment with inquiry based exhibits and activities that heighten public knowledge of the study of human social behavior. Based on research in social psychology and game theory, the project (a) fosters public engagement in activities exploring collaborative behavior and resource sharing; (b) promotes awareness of connections between these experiences and STEM-related research in psychology and economics; and (c) links individual behaviors to real-world issues of resource depletion and group conflict. The primary audience is youth and youth-adult museum visitors, with particular focus on underrepresented communities with limited access to communication technologies. The secondary audience is ISE professionals with interest in new kinds of interactive experience and visualization tools focusing on social behavior and techniques for fostering social interaction and public discussion of science. The project will (1) conduct front end evaluation to assess visitor attitudes and knowledge about issues of cooperation and resource use; (2) design, prototype, and evaluate 15 inquiry-based exhibits and 4 Experimonths (public events with web, museum, and community-based components on social-psychological topics); (3) conduct design-based research to investigate aspects of these exhibits and activities that prompt self-reflection and build metacognitive skills; and (4) work with local school districts to adapt exhibits for classroom use.
Engaging Latinos in Informal Science Education is designed to address the low participation rate of Latino youth and adults in activities conducted by parks, refuges, nature centers, and other informal science education venues. The project objectives are to expand upon existing studies that attempt to identify barriers to Latino participation, work with communities to identify the tools needed to overcome barriers, and utilize the tools in established programs. Surveys and interviews conducted with Latino communities are designed to identify key measures that will improve participation in informal learning programs which are then implemented in the International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) program. Park Flight international interns from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and the US will work in Latino communities near seven sites that host annual IMBD. Deliverables include a comprehensive technical report resulting from the analysis of surveys and a toolkit to promote the involvement of Latino communities in informal science education. The multi-stage evaluation includes the annual evaluation of participation levels at seven treatment and five control sites, pilot testing of the key strategies for family involvement identified in the survey results, and formative evaluation of the project toolkit. Project partners are the National Park (NPS) Service, NPS Park Flight Migratory Bird Program, Colorado State University, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, PRBO Conservation Services, and six national parks. Strategic impact will be realized through the development and national dissemination of the project toolkit to almost 1000 partner offices across the US.
This project identifies TV meteorologists as a potentially important source of informal science education on the topic of climate change. These professionals are a well-respected source of scientific information in their local communities, yet rarely address climate change in their weather broadcasts. Proposers will conduct a series of studies that explore both mechanisms and obstacles to using TV broadcasts as effective informal communication vehicles for scientific information about climate change. In Study 1, they will identify methods already in use by "early adopters," compare them to best explanatory practices in informal science education, and make recommendations to improve practice. In Study 2, they will survey meteorologists and their news directors to determine their motivations and needs for information and materials regarding climate change. Based on their findings, and informed by prior work, they will develop a set of educational materials, principally a set of 30-second segments that can serve as a resource for TV meteorologists nation-wide. In Study 3, they will conduct a quasi-experimental evaluation of the materials with a TV station in Columbia, South Carolina to determine their impact on viewers. The core project team includes experts in science communication and education, physical oceanography, broadcast meteorology, and media effects evaluation, and the advisory board includes the Vice President of Programs at the National Environmental Education Foundation and the Chief Meteorologist at The Weather Channel. Dissemination mechanisms will include a range of publications and presentations for the research findings, and a website for the sharing of materials used by the early adopters. Overall, the project will advance the informal science education field's understanding of both effective explanatory practices in broadcast media and the motivations and practices of an understudied group of professionals. It will investigate an innovative means of increasing public awareness and understanding of important topics in climate change, and as well as creating a set of video-clips and related materials based on careful study and best practices.
The Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), in collaboration with the Yale Project on Climate Change and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, is conducting a three-year project whose goal is to build the capacity of twelve science centers as well as of twelve NSF-funded Long-term Ecological Research Centers (LTER) for the purpose of engaging the public in climate change science. The twelve sites span the USA from the east coast to Hawaii. The goal of these simultaneous projects is to illustrate local indicators of global change. Additional partners include ScienCentral, Inc. (TV media producers), the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the American Geophysical Union, NOAA, Natural History magazine, and a national board of advisors. Deliverables include: (1) twelve local demonstration projects with launch programs, exhibits/programs, TV spots, citizen science activities, and an interactive map illustrating the work of the twelve sites, (2) professional development for informal STEM education professionals and LTER research faculty, (3) a national survey to assess the USA population's climate literacy, and (4) a culminating workshop for the ISE field, a permanent resource database, and a final publication. Evaluation processes are being conducted by David Heil & Associates.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is creating a new type of interactive, question-driven, online bird-identification tool called "Merlin," along with associated games, social networking tools, and other media. Unlike existing bird-identification guides, which are based on traditional taxonomic keys written by scientists, Merlin uses machine learning algorithms and crowd-sourced data (information provided by thousands of people) to identify birds and improve Merlin's performance with each interaction. The tool will help millions of people identify birds and participate in a collective effort to help others. The Crowd ID project will make it easier for people to discover the names of birds, learn observation and identification skills, find more information, and appreciate Earth's biodiversity. The summative evaluation plan is measuring increases in participants' knowledge, engagement, and skills, as well as changes in behavior. Impacts on participants will be compared to a control group of users not using Merlin. Merlin tools will be integrated into the Cornell Lab's citizen science and education projects, which reach more than 200,000 participants, schoolchildren, and educators across the nation. Merlin will be broadly adapted for use on other websites, social networking platforms, exhibits, mobile devices, curricula, and electronic field guides. Once developed, Merlin can be modified to identify plants, rocks, and other animals. Merlin will promote growth of citizen science projects which depend on the ability of participants to identify a wide range of organisms.
Building on their successful traveling exhibition and Web site, "Invention at Play," funded by the NSF Informal Science Education Program, the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (National Museum of American History) in collaboration with Smithsonian Affiliates around the country developed "Places of Invention" (POI). Major deliverables included an interactive 3,300 square-foot permanent exhibition at NMAH and a Web site that focus on practicing inventive skill-building and illustrating the ways that place and social collaboration shape the creative process. The POI exhibition features six stories about "hot spots" of American invention from the mid-19th century to the present, each providing hands-on experiences that relate to particular "21st Century skills" and to the social, psychological, and spatial dimensions of invention, science, and engineering. The project also intends to establish a new model for the co-creation of exhibition content among NMAH visitors, Web site users, Lemelson Center staff, and 12 partnering Smithsonian Affiliate museums through an Interactive Map. Here both in-gallery and online visitors can explore stories and videos produced by NMAH and Smithsonian Affiliate staff (and their community partners) and also share stories of their own communities as “places of invention.”