With funding from the NASA Science Activation program, the Space Science Institute (SSI) launched NASA@ My Library in 2016. The vision of NASA@ My Library was to help public libraries and state library agencies increase NASA and STEM learning opportunities for library patrons throughout the U.S., including those in geographic areas and populations currently underserved in STEM education. SSI worked closely with its partners, including the American Library Association (ALA), Cornerstones of Science (CoS), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), and the Pacific Science Center’s Portal to the
With funding from the NASA Science Activation program, the Space Science Institute (SSI) launched NASA@ My Library in 2016. The vision of NASA@ My Library was to help public libraries and state library agencies increase NASA and STEM learning opportunities for library patrons throughout the U.S., including those in geographic areas and populations currently underserved in STEM education. SSI worked closely with its partners, including the American Library Association (ALA), Cornerstones of Science (CoS), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), and the Pacific Science Center’s Portal to the
With funding from the NASA Science Activation program, the Space Science Institute (SSI) launched NASA@ My Library in 2016. The vision of NASA@ My Library was to help public libraries and state library agencies increase NASA and STEM learning opportunities for library patrons throughout the U.S., including those in geographic areas and populations currently underserved in STEM education. SSI worked closely with its partners, including the American Library Association (ALA), Cornerstones of Science (CoS), the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), and the Pacific Science Center’s Portal to the
The assumptions, expectations, and potential for conducting a research synthesis (or any type of literature review) have evolved significantly in recent decades. With advancements in sophisticated and accessible analytical software, combined with the use of systematic protocols, reviews are increasingly generating results that can advance knowledge and practice. But, while reviews, synthesis or meta-analysis have the capacity to inform practice in unique ways, they are also fraught with their own methodological, ethical, and practical issues.
Drawing on the Addressing Societal Challenges
Informal learning environments offer a range of educational observations. Lately, many venues have adopted livestreaming and digital archiving, both as additional access for a wider offsite audience and as alternative ways to engage the onsite audience. Students can observe animals and plants from a different continent through a live camera feed, or they can watch an online recording of a science experiment even if they missed the live demonstration. However, livestreamed or archived observations remain a mostly passive experience, offering limited interactions beyond watching the videos. One way to create more active learning opportunities from these observations is to use sensors such as thermal cameras as additional streaming devices, which transmit real-time images and data that not only reveal more about what is being observed, but also allow the audience to ask deeper questions, find answers by interacting with the data, apply science knowledge in a relevant context, and become an active participant in scientific inquiry.
This project has created Telelab, a cloud platform for livestreaming and archiving interactive observations to promote citizen science. Powered by the Internet of things (IoT), Telelab allows informal science educators to present exhibits, living organisms or ecosystems through the use of sensors and actuators. Audiences both onsite and offsite can visualize biological processes in situ, such as thermoregulation, thermogenesis, metabolism, etc., or they can investigate physics and chemistry experiments by analyzing experimental data in combination with the video stream.
This work is funded by The Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning opportunities for the public in informal environments; provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and engage the public of all ages in learning STEM in informal environments.
Imprecise definition of key terms in the "public participation" domain have hindered the conduct of good research and militated against the development and implementation of effective participation practices. In this article, we define key concepts in the domain: public communication, public consultation, and public participation. These concepts are differentiated according to the nature and flow of information between exercise sponsors and participants. According to such an information flow perspective, an exercise's effectiveness may be ascertained by the efficiency with which full, relevant
We characterize the factors that determine who becomes an inventor in the United States, focusing on the role of inventive ability (“nature”) vs. environment (“nurture”). Using deidentified data on 1.2 million inventors from patent records linked to tax records, we first show that children’s chances of becoming inventors vary sharply with characteristics at birth, such as their race, gender, and parents’ socioeconomic class. For example, children from high-income (top 1%) families are ten times as likely to become inventors as those from below-median income families. These gaps persist even
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Alex BellRaj ChettyXavier JaravelNeviana PetkovaJohn Van Reenen
In November 2020, President-elect Joe Biden identified four priority areas for the incoming administration: COVID-19; climate change, economic recovery, and racial equity. These crucial areas of national interest will be the focus of media attention, policy debates, funding initiatives, and community discussions over the next four years. Will museums be part of these important conversations and initiatives? Are there opportunities for museums to affirm or to reposition their roles within the difficult public deliberations ahead? Addressing Societal Challenges through STEM (ASCs) is a research
Pulsar: A Science Podcast is a science and technology podcast produced by the Museum of Science, Boston. The podcast has grown and expanded in recent months as the museum turned its attention to developing online resources during the coronavirus pandemic. This evaluation seeks to understand the ways the Pulsar team may improve their product in order to better suit listeners’ preferences and to expand the podcast’s reach.
This evaluation is grounded in two primary objectives: (1) describing the podcast’s current audience and (2) understanding factors that impact listeners’ engagement with
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Alia QatarnehAbigail FeldmanMason Hill
This paper describes the methodology and the development of the instruments for collecting and analyzing data to better understand 1) what people bring with them to their visit, 2) what people do during a visit, and 3) what people take away from a visit. Elements of what they bring intersect with Knology’s work, and what they do and what they take away intersect with Oregon State University’s work on WZAM3.
COSI’s Center for Research and Evaluation (CRE) led a study was conducted in four phases with three study components. These phases serve to organize the remainder of this report::
This study looks at the types of awe guests feel when they leave art and science cultural institutions of various sizes and context, and how it may be related to what they remember learning. We surveyed 899 guests at the end of their visit and 550 of them again about one week later. Measures included a scale of awe-related perceptions (both positive and negative) along with questions about memories guests have about what they learned during their visit. Results show awe-related perceptions were consistent across institutions with only one significant difference, even when grouped by context
Face-to-face conversations between scientists and public audiences in an informal learning environment provide a valuable opportunity to support public engagement with scientific research. These types of experiences have significant benefits for members of the public and for scientists. For public audiences, interacting face-to-face with a scientist can expand awareness of the range of careers in science, spark new questions about scientific topics, and increase interest in learning more about the scientist’s topic (Tisdal, 2011; Ong, 2014). Scientists, too, are positively impacted by this