The Space and Earth Informal STEM Education (SEISE) project, led by the Arizona State University with partners Science Museum of Minnesota, Museum of Science, Boston, and the University of California Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and Space Sciences Laboratory, is raising the capacity of museums and informal science educators to engage the public in Heliophysics, Earth Science, Planetary Science, and Astrophysics, and their social dimensions through the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net). SEISE will also partner on a network-to-network basis with other existing coalitions and professional associations dedicated to informal and lifelong STEM learning, including the Afterschool Alliance, National Girls Collaborative Project, NASA Museum Alliance, STAR_Net, and members of the Association of Children’s Museums and Association of Science-Technology Centers. The goals for this project include engaging multiple and diverse public audiences in STEM, improving the knowledge and skills of informal educators, and encouraging local partnerships.
In collaboration with the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD), SEISE is leveraging NASA subject matter experts (SMEs), SMD assets and data, and existing educational products and online portals to create compelling learning experiences that will be widely use to share the story, science, and adventure of NASA’s scientific explorations of planet Earth, our solar system, and the universe beyond. Collaborative goals include enabling STEM education, improving U.S. scientific literacy, advancing national educational goals, and leveraging science activities through partnerships. Efforts will focus on providing opportunities for learners explore and build skills in the core science and engineering content, skills, and processes related to Earth and space sciences. SEISE is creating hands-on activity toolkits (250-350 toolkits per year over four years), small footprint exhibitions (50 identical copies), and professional development opportunities (including online workshops).
Evaluation for the project will include front-end and formative data to inform the development of products and help with project decision gates, as well as summative data that will allow stakeholders to understand the project’s reach and outcomes.
This paper examines STEM-based informal learning environments for underrepresented students and reports on the aspects of these programs that are beneficial to students. This qualitative study provides a nuanced look into informal learning environments and determines what is unique about these experiences and makes them beneficial for students. We provide results of a qualitative research study conducted with the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program, an informal learning environment that has proven to be effective in recruiting, retaining and encouraging
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Cameron DensonChandra Austin StallworthChristine HaileyDaniel Householder
This study explored the effect of depth of learning (as measured in hours) on creativity, curiosity, persistence and self-efficacy. We engaged ~900 parents and 900 students across 21 sites in Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Alabama, Virginia and the United Arab Emirates, in 5-week (10-hr) Curiosity Machine programs. Iridescent trained partners to implement the programs. Thus, this analysis was also trying to establish a baseline to measure any loss in impact from scaling our programs and moving to a “train-the-trainer” model. We analyzed 769 surveys out of which 126 were paired. On
The Clay Center for Arts and Sciences of West Virginia will create professional learning communities of teachers and after-school staff serving 7th grade students at seven partner schools using digital storytelling as a tool to explore energy-related topics impacting their communities. West Virginia's role as a leading coal producer and the impact of natural gas drilling served as strong influencing factors in the creation of this STEAM project, titled emPOWERed Stories. Students will create an exhibit that incorporates these digital stories. The results will inform the broader field on ways to better blend formal and informal education experiences to become more potent learning environments.
This report describes an evaluation of two educational programs that Iridescent offered with a grant from the National Science Foundation. These two programs were developed for youth and their families and were organized around open-ended Engineering Design Challenges. These are hands-on problem-solving activities supported by a web-based platform known as the Curiosity Machine. The Curiosity Machine and the Design Challenges were designed to work together to engage learners in fundamental physics and engineering concepts in fun and open-ended ways, while enhancing their curiosity, creativity
This evaluation reports on the Mission: Solar System project, a 2-year project funded by NASA. The goal of the Mission: Solar System was to create a collection of resources that integrates digital media with hands-on science and engineering activities to support kids’ exploration in formal and informal education settings. Our goal in creating the resources were: For youth: (1) Provide opportunities to use science, technology, engineering, and math to solve challenges related to exploring our solar system, (2) Build and hone critical thinking, problem-solving, and design process skills, (3)
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.
Afterschool and community science programs have become widely recognized as important sanctuaries for science learning for low-income urban youth and as offering them with "missing opportunities." Yet, more needs to be known about how youth, themselves, perceive such opportunities. What motivates youth to seek out such opportunities in the nonschool hours? How do youth describe the doing and talking of science in such programs? Given such descriptions, how do youth perceive the role of these programs in their lives? This paper relies on stories from three youth drawn from a multisited
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jrene RahmMarie-Paule Martel-RenyJohn Moore
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting held in Washington, DC. It discusses the second season of SciGirls, a multimedia project designed to encourage and empower more girls to pursue careers in STEM.
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Twin Cities Public TelevisionRita Karl
This poster shows the development of the project Scientists for Tomorrow during the three years of its implementation: two first years under the full funding of the NSF and the third year as a no-cost extension. Also the poster describes how the project was incorporating more community centers and with it more participants through the development of the "self-sustained" mode of implementation. The poster introduces also the next step of the project - the Scientists for Tomorrow - National Alliance.
This poster describes Skynet Junior Scholars (NSF award numbers 1223687, 1223235, 1223345) project. Skynet Junior Scholars engages middle and high school aged youth in the study of the Universe using the same tools as professionals by: targeting youth audience enrolled in the 4-H program; building accessibility standards into the SJS design ; using research quality, multi-wavelength telescopes. These telescopes are part of the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network.
This poster provides an overview, program goals, evaluation plan, and research questions for the AISL project, Techbridge Broad Implementation: An Innovative Model to Inspire Girls in STEM Careers. The poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting.