The goal of the Hawaii Science Career Inspiration grant (HiSCI) is to enhance science education resources and training available to teachers and students in disadvantaged communities of Hawaii in order to ensure a maximally large and diverse workforce to meet the nation’s biomedical, behavioural and clinical research needs. The HiSCI Program will build on the knowledge gained from two past SEPA grants and the University of Hawaii Center for Cardiovascular Research and leverage resources from all corners of the state to accomplish four specific aims:
1) Increase student interest and exposure to health science careers by providing multiple science exposure opportunities and mentoring along the primary, intermediate, and secondary school experiences for at least 300 students a year and a printed and web-based STEM career resource guide and career posters to alert students, counsellors and teachers to all available opportunities;
2) Provide professional development for 20 middle and high school teachers a year, to include scientific content and foster an understanding of the scientific research process, in addition to medical students mentoring intermediate and high school students;
3) Listen, respond to, and connect the science teacher community in Hawaii by holding innovative listening groups for teachers across the state; and
4) Provide tools and supplies for at least twenty K-12 classrooms a year through a mini-grant process and alert teachers across the state to free resources both locally and nationally. The HiSCI Program is highly relevant to Hawaii’s public health and science infrastructure as it will provide an innovative way to gain knowledge of science training needs and will provide many of the resources to teachers and students across the state by leveraging, communicating and sharing existing resources.
Citizen science refers to partnerships between volunteers and scientists that answer real world questions. The target audiences in this project are middle and high school teachers and their students in a broad range of settings: two urban districts, an inner-ring suburb, and three rural districts. The project utilizes existing citizen science programs as springboards for professional development for teachers during an intensive summer workshop. The project curriculum helps teachers use student participation in citizen science to engage them in the full complement of science practices; from asking questions, to conducting independent research, to sharing findings. Through district professional learning communities (PLCs), teachers work with district and project staff to support and demonstrate project implementation. As students and their teachers engage in project activities, the project team is addressing two key research questions: 1) What is the nature of instructional practices that promote student engagement in the process of science?, and 2) How does this engagement influence student learning, with special attention to the benefits of engaging in research presentations in public, high profile venues? Key contributions of the project are stronger connections between a) ecology-based citizen science programs, STEM curriculum, and students' lives and b) science learning and disciplinary literacy in reading, writing and math.
Research design and analysis are focused on understanding how professional development that involves citizen science and independent investigations influences teachers' classroom practices and student learning. The research utilizes existing instruments to investigate teachers' classroom practices, and student engagement and cognitive activity: the Collaboratives for Excellence in Teacher Preparation and Classroom Observation Protocol, and Inquiring into Science Instruction Observation Protocol. These instruments are used in classroom observations of a stratified sample of classes whose students represent the diversity of the participating districts. Curriculum resources for each citizen science topic, cross-referenced to disciplinary content and practices of the NGSS, include 1) a bibliography (books, web links, relevant research articles); 2) lesson plans and student science journals addressing relevant science content and background on the project; and 3) short videos that help teachers introduce the projects and anchor a digital library to facilitate dissemination. Impacts beyond both the timeframe of the project and the approximately 160 teachers who will participate are supported by curriculum units that address NGSS life science topics, and wide dissemination of these materials in a variety of venues. The evaluation focuses on outcomes of and satisfaction with the summer workshop, classroom incorporation, PLCs, and student learning. It provides formative and summative findings based on qualitative and quantitative instruments, which, like those used for the research, have well-documented reliability and validity. These include the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument to assess teacher beliefs; the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol to assess teacher practices; the Standards Assessment Inventory to assess PLC quality; and the Scientific Attitude Inventory to assess student attitudes towards science. Project deliverables include 1) curriculum resources that will support engagement in five existing citizen science projects that incorporate standards-based science content; 2) venues for student research presentations that can be duplicated in other settings; and 3) a compilation of teacher-adapted primary scientific research articles that will provide a model for promoting disciplinary literacy. The project engages 40 teachers per year and their students.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Karen OberhauserMichele KoomenGillian RoehrigRobert BlairAndrea Lorek Strauss
Flying Higher will develop a permanent hands-on exhibit that conveys the fundamentals of flight, technology, materials science, and NASA’s role in aeronautics for learners ages 3-12 years and their parents/caregivers and teachers. The exhibit, public programs, school and teacher programs, and teacher professional development will develop a pipeline of skilled workers to support community workforce needs and communicate NASA’s contributions to the nation and world. An innovative partnership with Claflin University (an historically black college) and Columbia College (a women’s liberal arts college) will provide undergraduate coursework in informal science education to support pre-service learning opportunities and paid employment for students seeking careers in education and/or STEM fields. The projects goals are:
1) To educate multi-generational family audiences about the principles and the future of aeronautics; provide hands-on, accessible, and immersive opportunities to explore state-of-the-art NASA technology; and demonstrate the cultural impact of flight in our global community.
2) To provide educational standards-based programming to teachers and students in grades K–8 on NASA-driven research topics, giving the students opportunities to explore these topics and gain exposure to science careers at NASA; and to offer teachers support in presenting STEM topics.
3) To create and implement a professional development program to engage pre-service teachers in presenting museum-based programs focused on aeronautics and engineering. This program will provide undergraduate degree credits, service learning, and paid employment to students that supports STEM instruction in the classroom, explores the benefits of informal science education, and encourages post-graduate opportunities in STEM fields.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Julia Kennard
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Understanding the Sun Through NASA Missions. The Maryland Science Center (MSC) initiative is targeted to rural educators and library patrons in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The Maryland Science Center is lead partner collaborating with Prince George’s County, Maryland Public Schools and its Howard B. Owens Science Center, and with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to develop Educator Workshops and library exhibits for the Maryland counties of Cecil, Kent and Washington and NASA Wallops Visitor Center (Virginia) and NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Center (West Virginia). The project will make participants aware and better informed of NASA Heliophysics science and NASA missions studying the Sun. Participants in the programs will come to a better understanding of the Sun, space weather, and the Sun’s far-reaching influence on our planet and the rest of the Solar System. Educators will be better prepared to teach students using NASA-developed hands-on materials demonstrated and provided in the workshops, as well as Sun Spotters and Solar Scopes to examine solar surface features, helping to engage them and their students in better understanding our closest star. Rural libraries patrons will encounter NASA mission science, and MSC visitors will acquire better comprehension of the Sun. All participants will come away with a renewed appreciation of our Sun and how it works, its variability, its ongoing effects on our planet, the nature of the scientific study of the Sun, and how and why NASA is exploring the Sun with its current missions.
Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) Howard B. Owens Science Center (HBOSC) will infuse NASA Earth, Heliophysics, and Planetary mission science data into onsite formal and informal curriculum programs to expand scientific understanding of the Earth, Sun, and the universe. The goal of the project is to develop a pipeline of programs for grades 3-8 to enhance teacher and student understanding of NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Earth, Planetary, and Heliophysics science and promote STEM careers and understanding of NASA career pathways using the HBOSC Planetarium, Challenger Center and classrooms. During the school year, PGCPS students in Grades 3 through 8 will experience field trip opportunities that will feature NASA Sun-Earth connection, comparative planetology, Kepler Exoplanet data, and NASA Space Weather Action Center data. PGCPS Grade 3 through 8 teachers will receive summer, day, and evening professional development in comparable earth and space science content both engaging the HBOSC Planetarium and Challenger facility and its resources. The students and teachers in four PGCPS academies (Grades 3 through 8) will serve as a pilot group for broader expansion of the program district-wide. ESPSI will provide opportunities for county-wide participation through community outreach programs that will promote NASA Earth, Heliophysics, and Planetary mission data. Community outreach will be offered through piloting the Maryland Science Center outreach program to four of PGCPS southern located schools and monthly evening planetarium shows along with quarterly family science nights that will include guest speakers and hands-on exhibits from the local science community and Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
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.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
David BurghardtXiang FuKenneth WhiteMelissa Rhodes
For over 60 years annual Science Fairs and Engineering competitions have been held in schools and communities throughout the country, engaging large numbers of middle school students and culminating in national and international events. Science fairs are at the intersection of formal learning in school and informal science learning in other settings including science centers, after-school programs, and clubs. However, in spite of their wide implementation and long history, there are few empirical studies that have examined the relationship between student participation in these fairs and their learning and interest in science. Additionally, there have been no studies to understand the real cost of these programs relative to the student benefits. This educational research project will fill that gap in understanding. It will systematically document and describe science fair models; measure their impact on learning; and provide evidence about the costs of various models and related benefits. The findings from this study will inform a wide range of stakeholders (including teachers, science fair leaders, volunteers, parents, and businesses) about these models and how they impact students' mastery of science and engineering practices. This four-year study in all regions of the country will be conducted in two phases: Phase 1 will be a survey of 3800 middle school science teachers will define the characteristics of science fair models; Phase 2 will use those understandings to conduct case studies in 20 schools. Deliverables include handbooks for teachers and the science fair community, articles in journals summarizing findings, the Science and Engineering Practice and Interest Inventory, and a suite of data collection instruments for scoring rubrics to describe science fairs and measure their impact. Research questions will include: (1) What are the basic models of middle school science fairs? (2) To what extent does participation in a particular model enhance students' mastery of science and engineering practices and/or their interest in science? (3) What student-teacher and school-level factors contribute to or inhibit students' mastery? (4) What resources, human and financial, are required to implement an effective middle school science fair? and (5) What are the most cost-effective aspects of the science fair experience, and how can they be applied or adapted by science fair leaders and teachers to strengthen students' mastery of science and engineering practices? Findings from this study will have the potential to improve current practices in the design and implementation of science fairs and their impact on student learning; they will be widely disseminated to the various stakeholders through publications, conference presentations, and educational association channels.
The Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies Program funds efforts that will help in envisioning the next generation of learning technologies and advancing what we know about how people learn in technology-rich environments. Development and Implementation (DIP) Projects build on proof-of-concept work that showed the possibilities of the proposed new type of learning technology, and project teams build and refine a minimally-viable example of their proposed innovation that allows them to understand how such technology should be designed and used in the future and answer questions about how people learn with technology. Although for years researchers have believed technology could afford anytime-anywhere learning, we still don't understand how learners behave differently across contexts, such as home, school, and in the community, and how to get youth to identify as learners across those contexts. This proposal aims to use mobile devices and strategically placed shared kiosks to 'scientize' youth in two low-income communities. Through strategic partnerships with community organizations, educators, and families, the innovation is to get primary and middle-school students engaging in scientific inquiry in the context of their neighborhoods. Research will help determine how the technology can best be deployed, but also answer important questions about how communities can provide support to help kids think like scientists and identify with science. This project will design and implement ubiquitous technology tools that include mobile social media and tangible, community displays (collectively called ScienceKit) that are deeply embedded into two urban neighborhoods, and demonstrate how such ubiquitous technologies and related cyberlearning strategies are vital to improve information flow and coordination across a neighborhood ecosystem, in order to create environments where children can connect their science learning across contexts and time (e.g. scientizing). A program called ScienceEverywhere comprised of partnerships between tightly connected neighborhood organizations with mentors, teachers, parents, and researchers will help learners develop scientifically literate practices both in and out of school, and will demonstrate students' learning to their communities. Research will consist of mixed methods studies of use of the tools, including iterative design-based research, ethnography, and the use of participant observers from the community; these will be triangulated with usage logs of the technologies and content analysis of microblogs by the learners on their identities and interests. Discourse analysis of interviews with focal learners will orient the qualitative work on identity development, and analysis using activity theory will inform the influences of the social practices and sociotechnical systems on learner trajectories. Formative evaluation will help shed light on if and how the sociotechnical system promotes STEM literacy and STEM identity development.
The Cyberlearning Resource Center (CRC) has responsibility for promoting integrative collaboration among cyberlearning grantees (across NSF programs); synthesis and national dissemination of cyberlearning findings, technologies, models, materials, and best practices; creating a national presence for Cyberlearning; helping the disparate Cyberlearning research and development communities coordinate efforts to build capacity; and providing infrastructure (technological and social) for supporting these efforts. Monitored through the Cyberlearning: Transforming Education program, the CRC serves as a resource for all NSF grantees and programs with cyberlearning components, helping to promote synergy and integrate projects across NSF's cyberlearning investments. Among society's central challenges are amplifying, expanding, and transforming opportunities people have for learning and more effectively drawing in, motivating, and engaging young learners. Engaging actively as a citizen and productively in the workforce requires understanding a broad variety of concepts and possessing the ability to collaborate, learn, solve problems, and make decisions. Whether learning is facilitated in school or out of school, and whether learners are youngsters or adults, to develop such knowledge and capabilities, learners must be motivated to learn, actively engage over the long term in learning activities, and put forth sustained cognitive and social effort. Consistent with NSF's mission and strategic plan, a variety of programs at NSF invest in research aimed towards achieving these goals. In support of this important thematic thrust, the Cyberlearning Resource Center works with researchers and NSF program officers to identify and disseminate findings from across programs and projects; develop ways to broker productive partnerships and collaborations; convene meetings for purposes of envisioning the future, integrating findings, and building capacity,; and monitor the cyberlearning portfolio and its influences and impacts.
EvalFest (Evaluation Use, Value, and Learning through Festivals of Science and Technology) will test innovative evaluation methods in science festivals that are being held across the country and assess in what ways and how effectively they are used. Morehead Planetarium and Science Center (at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) and the University of California, San Francisco, in collaboration with over twenty science festivals, will (1) investigate whether a multisite evaluation approach is an effective model for creating common metrics for informal STEM education, (2) develop common methods to measure the effects of Festivals, (3) create a query-able database of 50,000 Festival attendees to share with the informal STEM learning field, and (4) document whether these efforts also result in new knowledge related to informal STEM education. The project will develop the Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) system and query-able database for the festival community. EFMs are systems, including processes and software, that enable groups (such as the festival network) to collect, organize, analyze and share data. The EFM system will be designed to integrate data across sites and to allow users to extract data of interest. The project will refine evaluation tools currently used within the Science Festival Alliance that assess self-reported festival learning, and the effects of festival attendance, motivation, and future science participation. It will collect economic impact data and longitudinal festival attendee data. The project will also develop some new evaluation tools such as secret shopper observational protocols. Data from festival attendees will be collected onsite at participating festivals.
This project will bring STEM education to rural communities through local public libraries. Museum quality exhibits labelled as "Discover Earth", "Discover Technology", and "Discover Space" will spend 3 months at a series of locations around the Nation. Twenty four medium sized libraries will be chosen for the large exhibits and forty small libraries will be chosen for scaled down versions. The project's intent is to provide exhibits in every state and to reach as many under-represented individuals as possible. The significance of this project is that rural areas of this country are underserved regarding STEM education and since this segment of society is represented by 50-60 million residents, it is important to reach out to them. There is a significant segment of the Nation's population (50-60 million) that is underserved by out-of-school learning venues such as museums and science centers. An earlier phase 1 project demonstrated at 18 sites that rural libraries and librarians could provide STEM education to community members ranging in age from adults to children using these hands-on exhibits. Each exhibit (earth, space or technology) includes information about the topic and technologically enabled models to provide interesting and fun discovery mechanisms. They use common layman friendly language that highlights the most recent discoveries in each area. Each exhibit will be placed in the selected library for 3 months during which the library will organize events to feature and advertise the STEM learning opportunities. Another feature of this project will be to determine the models of learning in library settings and as a function of the demographics. The partners in this project that bring the necessary expertise are the American Library Association, the Afterschool Alliance, the Association of Rural and Small Libraries, the University of Colorado Museum, Datum Advisors, LLC, Evaluation and Research Associates, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, the American Geophysical Union, and the Space Science Institute.
The mission of the New Mexico Informal Science Education Network (NM ISE Net) is to provide opportunities and resources for informal educators to work together to impact science teaching, science learning, and science awareness throughout the state of New Mexico. The NM Museum of Natural History and Science leads NM ISE Net with support from NM EPSCoR.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
New Mexico Museum of Natural HistorySelena ConnealyCharlie Walter