As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. The project will further develop, roll out, and conduct research on a set of materials that will introduce middle school age youth to innovative and engaging engineering challenges in the Boys and Girls Club (B&GCs) context. Building on substantial prior work and evaluation-based learning, WISE Guys and Gals - Boys & Girls as WISEngineering STEM Learners (WGG) will: (1) combine engineering design activities with the (open source, online) WISEngineering infrastructure; (2) scale-up the infrastructure; (3) engage youth in informal afterschool experiences; and (4) collect a wealth of rich data to further our understanding of how youth learn through these experiences. This work will be conducted by Hofstra University's Center for STEM Research in conjunction with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), The CUNY Graduate Center's Center for Advanced Study in Education (CASE), the Boys & Girls Club of America, and 25 B&GCs in New York and New Jersey. The underlying theoretical framework builds on proof-of-concept work supported by NSF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. An open source, on-line interface (WISEngineering) provides numerous virtual tools (e.g., social networking, Design Journal, embedded assessments) that promote learning and collaboration through challenging, thoughtful, and creative work. WGG will explore how to incorporate creativity, social networking, connections to real-world STEM needs/careers, and teamwork into challenges that can be completed in a one-hour period, an activity time constraint in many B&GC settings. Staff from the clubs will participate in face-to-face and virtual professional development in an effort to build their capacity as facilitators of STEM learning. Research will focus on: (1) how activities developed for 60-minute implementation and guided by informed engineering design and interconnected learning frameworks support youth learning and engagement; and (2) characteristics of the professional development approach that support B&GC facilitators' capacity development. By the end of the project, over 6,000 middle school aged youth, the majority from groups underrepresented in STEM areas, will gain experience with engineering design as they develop engineering thinking, new STEM competencies, STEM career awareness, and an appreciation for the civic value of STEM knowledge.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David BurghardtXiang FuKenneth WhiteMelissa Rhodes
This Advancing Informal Science Learning Pathways project, Using Technology to Research After Class (UTRAC), explores whether a combination of technology (e.g., iPad-enabled sensors, web-based inquiry-focused portal) and facilitated visits improves learning outcomes for rural and Native American elementary-age youth in after school programs. Expected outcomes include improved engagement, knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Project goals include promoting STEM learning through science inquiry activities keyed to specific Next Generation Science Standards as well as improving how technology can be used to enhance learning outcomes in afterschool programs. The experimental design of this project - testing the effects of physical or virtual facilitation visits on learning outcomes - will lead to improvements in STEM learning outcomes among rural and underrepresented students. This project will employ several innovations in utilizing technology to teach STEM topics including: (i) hands-on, real-time, crowd sourced data collected by participants in their schoolyards; (ii) a pedagogic emphasis on communication of schoolyard data among and between participants; (iii) testing of motivational incentives; and (iv) partnerships between after school providers, preservice teachers, and university researchers as facilitators. The entire process will be modularized so that it can be modified in terms of place, STEM topic or student cohort. The topic focus of the project -- Life Under Snow -- is relevant to participating students, as Montana school playgrounds lie blanketed under snow for the majority of the school year; it includes elements of snow science, carbon cycle science, and a combination at the intersection of three recent literacy initiatives (e.g., Earth Science, Climate, or Energy). UTRAC will pilot and evaluate facilitated snow science/carbon cycle science activities that couple real-time schoolyard data with tools patterned after those available through WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment; wise.berkeley.edu). Participants will collect and compare data with other youth participants, and researchers will use formative assessments to define interventions with potential to maximize student engagement and learning improvements among underserved youth. The project will advance understanding of informal education's potential to improve STEM engagement, knowledge, skills and attitudes by quantifying how - and to what extent - youth engage with emerging technologies iPad-enabled sensors, and crowdsourcing and visualization tools. The deliverables include a quantifying metric for learning outcomes, a training model for the iPad sensors and web application, an orientation kit, a social media portal, and database for the measurements.
This project will help address the urgent need for a new engineering workforce. Middle school students will be entering a workforce that is increasingly global. They will need not only technical skills but also global competencies including: the ability to investigate the world, recognize perspectives, communicate ideas, and take action. This model integrates engineering with global competencies and will provide new knowledge about how this type of learning experience impacts students and educators. This project builds on the success of the previous Design Squad project funded by NSF and developed by WGBH, which has implemented a national model for engineering education for middle school youth. This project expands the model internationally, connecting U.S. based youth with those in Southern Africa (including South Africa, Botswana, and Swaziland). The project partners are FHI 360, a non-profit organization in 60 countries around the world that helps build capacity for improving lives. They will facilitate the implementation of the afterschool programs in Southern Africa . The US dissemination partners include Promise Neighborhoods Institute, Middle Start, Every Hour Counts, and the National Girls Collaborative Project. Project deliverables include a global engineering curriculum; a web platform with videos, games, activities; an afterschool Club Guide; and a Community of Practice for informal engineering educators. A knowledge building component will provide new evidence on how high quality accessible resources and strategies can impact students' development of global competencies and engineering skills to solve real world problems. An iterative approach will be used to develop the resources including the global engineering afterschool curriculum, Club guide, and other components. The methodology uses a continuous cycle of improvement including: assess/design, test/ implement, synthesize/reflect, and utilize/disseminate. The Summative Evaluation will generate evidence about whether and how this kind of collaborative work builds children's understanding of engineering, motivation to participate, and confidence in taking informed action on behalf of pressing global problems. This will contribute to a larger body of work about whether and how engaging with global, collaborative engineering problems leads to greater self-efficacy for children with very different backgrounds, experiences, and opportunities. This project will add new knowledge about how the well-honed Design Squad model in the U.S. can be expanded with a global context and global partners. This proposal was co-funded by EHR/DRL, Engineering/EEC, and International Science and Engineering. During the project period approximately 125,000 children in the US and 5000 children in southern Africa will be reached. In the long term, with the continued global access to the resources, the reach will potentially be in the millions.
Calabrese Barton and colleagues examine the beliefs and science practices of two students in a two-year study across settings. The study seeks to answer the question, “What do girls from non-dominant populations do to author themselves into or out of science, in spite of – or because of – their grades?” The study also examines how structures such as teacher support, community organizations, and school tracking systems promote or hinder opportunities for these students to author identities in science.
Students with special educational needs score significantly below their peers across several measures of science achievement. However, educational approaches that provide appropriate scaffolding and support, such as the inquiry-based science writing heuristic described in this paper, can benefit special educational needs students and ensure an equitable experience for all.
This study examines how youth navigate socioscientific issues through the case studies of two students in an afterschool program. The study explores how the students’ thinking changed during the program and what influenced the students’ final stance on whether or not to build a new hybrid power plant in their community.
In this paper, Anderman and colleagues examine the skills adolescents need in order to learn science effectively. They note that many negative experiences associated with science learning could be avoided if educators were more aware of the abilities of adolescents and the types of environments that foster particular abilities. They offer seven recommendations to practitioners.
This Hundal and Keselman paper describes the design of an afterschool curriculum aimed at supporting argumentation skills in the context of environmental health. It frankly describes the tensions between the teachers and researchers in the co-design of the project. It acknowledges differences in perspectives in a way that may guide the co-design efforts of others.
This study examines the effectiveness of a teacher professional development program that sought to address the integration of Native American students’ cultures with classroom science teaching. Informal science education practitioners interested in reaching non-dominant populations can use this study as evidence that professional development focusing on cultural points of intersection has a positive effect.
Through a critical ethnography, Birmingham and Calabrese Barton examined why and how a group of six middle school girls took civic action, defined as “educated action in science,” after studying green energy in an afterschool science program. The paper follows the students’ process in planning and implementing a carnival to engage their community in energy conservation and efficiency issues.
Lundh and colleagues compare afterschool science offerings to the model of informal science education defined in the National Research Council’s report on learning science in informal environments. Case studies explore how common site-based constraints and the support of external partners influence science program differences as seen through the lens of the NRC model.
Dabney and colleagues examine the relationship between university students’ reported interest in STEM careers and their participation in out-of-school time science activities during middle and high school. The researchers examined the specific forms of OST science activities associated with STEM career interest and the correlations among those forms.