Novice teachers require support in learning to attend and respond to students’ thinking as expert teachers do. Video clubs in which groups of teachers respond to videos of one another’s classrooms can help. Van Es and Sherin describe how a video club helped teachers make space for student thinking to emerge, probe students’ understanding, and learn from their students while teaching.
Lobato, Rhodehamel, and Hohensee investigated how learners “transferred” knowledge from one situation to another. They found that both individual cognition and the social organization of the class drove the learners’ process of selecting, interpreting, and working with particular features of mathematical information. They also found the social arrangements of the class influenced what pieces of information students noticed and focused on.
This poster was presented at the 2016 Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) PI Meeting held in Bethesda, MD on February 29-March 2. After-School Math Plus (ASM+) combines inquiry-based, hands-on activities connected to students’ interests outside
of school; standards-aligned skill development; strong focus on reaching groups underrepresented in math; role models and career exploration; and family involvement.
Researchers examined whether engineering activities and lessons can help students apply science and math content in real-world contexts and gain insights into the professional activities and goals of engineers.
The authors of this study investigated the educational potential of a digital math game called Zombie Division in an elementary classroom. Habgood & Ainsworth were interested in the effect of what they called “intrinsic integration” –linking the video game’s core mechanics of play to the educational content. The idea is linked to the field of research called intrinsic motivation, in which the only reward is pleasure in the activity itself. The researchers argue that, while a game like MathBlaster is fun, it does not embody the mathematics lesson as an intrinsic part of game play.
Moving Beyond Earth Programming: “STEM in 30” Webcasts. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM) will develop nine “STEM in 30” webcasts which will be made available to teachers and students in grades 5-8 classrooms across the country. The primary goal of this program is to increase interest and engagement in STEM for students. Formative and summative evaluations will assess the outcomes for the program, which include the following:
Increased interest in STEM and STEM careers, Increased understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Increased awareness and importance of current and future human space exploration, and Increased learning in the content areas.
This series of live 30-minute webcasts from the National Air and Space Museum and partner sites focus on STEM subjects that integrate all four areas. The webcasts will feature NASA and NASM curators, scientists, and educators exploring STEM subjects using museum and NASA collections, galleries, and activities. During the 30-minute broadcasts, students will engage with museum experts through experiments and activities, ask the experts questions, and answer interactive poll questions. After the live broadcasts, NASM will also archive the webcasts in an interactive “STEM in 30” Gallery.
This pathways project would refine and test a game based on the Kinect technology gaming tool to teach seismology concepts in an informal education setting and how they apply to phenomenon in other STEM fields. The game will be developed as a companion tool to the "Quake Catcher Network" a low-cost network of seismic sensors in schools, homes and offices world-wide and tie-ins with seismology programs such as the great California ShakeOut with a participant base of 8.6 million. The project design would select three new learning modules, chosen by a group of scientists and educators, to incorporate into the game and evaluate player experience and knowledge gain. The activities will be conducted at a partner test site, an aquarium, frequented by area youth 8 - 12 years old. The focus of the effort is to add to the knowledge of how gaming can be used effectively in informal learning environments The game places the player as a scientist, allowing the player to make decisions about seismic station deployment strategies following an earthquake, installing the sensors and monitoring incoming data. The game has levels of difficulty and players accrue points by acting swiftly and correctly. Learning goals for the project include making abstract math concepts understandable; involve participants in data collection and the process of scientific investigation, plus demonstrate how scientists and mathematicians use tools of their fields to address real-world issues.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and The Watermen's Museum, Yorktown, VA, will produce an underwater robotics research and discovery education program in conjunction with time-sensitive, underwater archeological research exploring recently discovered shipwrecks of General Cornwallis's lost fleet in the York River. The urgency of the scientific research is based upon the dynamic environment of the York River with its strong tidal currents, low visibility, and seasonal hypoxia that can rapidly deteriorate the ships, which have been underwater since 1781. Geophysical experts believe that further erosion is likely once the wrecks are exposed. Given the unknown deterioration rate of the shipwrecks coupled with the constraints of implementing the project during the 2011-2012 school-year, any delays would put the scientific research back at least 18 months - a potentially devastating delay for documenting the ships. The monitoring and studying of the historic ships will be conducted by elementary through high school-aged participants and their teachers who will collect the data underwater through robotic missions using VideoRay Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and a Fetch Automated Underwater Vehicle (AUV) from a command station at The Watermen's Museum. Students and teachers will be introduced to the science, mathematics, and integrated technologies associated with robotic underwater research and will experience events that occur on a real expedition, including mission planning, execution, monitoring, and data analysis. Robotic missions will be conducted within the unique, underwater setting of the historical shipwrecks. Such research experiences and professional development are intended to serve as a key to stimulating student interest in underwater archeological research, the marine environment and ocean science, advanced research using new technologies, and the array of opportunities presented for scientific and creative problem solving associated with underwater research. A comprehensive, outcomes-based formative and summative, external evaluation of the project will be conducted by Dr. L. Art Safer, Loyola University. The evaluation will inform the project's implementation efforts and investigate the project's impact. The newly formed partnership between the Waterman's Museum and VIMS will expand the ISE Program's objectives to forge new partnerships among informal venues, and to expand the use of advanced technologies for informal STEM learning. Extensive public dissemination during and after the project duration, includes but is not limited to, hosting an "Expedition to the Wrecks" web portal on the VIMS BRIDGE site for K-12 educators providing real-time results of the project and live webcasts. The website will be linked to the education portal at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, the world's largest organization devoted to promoting unmanned systems and to the FIRST Robotics community through the Virginia portal. The website will be promoted through scientific societies, the National Marine Educators Association, National Science Teachers Association, and ASTC. Links will be provided to the Center for Archeological Research at the College of William and Mary and the Immersion Presents web portal--consultants to Dr. Bob Ballard's K-12 projects and JASON explorations. The NPS Colonial National Historic Park and the Riverwalk Landing will create public exhibits about the shipwreck's archeological and scientific significance, and will provide live observation of the research and the exploration technologies employed in this effort.
This article from "The Atlantic" describes ways that teachers are integrating hands-on and experiential STEM learning into the classroom, which include collaboration with informal learning environments through creative field trips.
This is a Science Learning+ planning project that will develop a plan for how to conduct a longitudinal study using existing data sources that can link participation in science-focused programming in out-of-school settings with long-range outcomes. The data for this project will ultimately come from "mining" existing data sets routinely collected by out-of-school programs in both the US and UK. 4H is the initial out-of-school provider that will participate in the project, but the project will ideally expand to include other youth-based programs, such as Girls Inc. and YMCA. During the planning grant period, the project will develop a plan for a longitudinal research study by examining informal science-related factors and outcomes including: (a) range of educational outcomes, (b) diversity and structure of learning activities, (c) links to formal education experiences and achievement measures, and (d) structure of existing informal science program data collection infrastructure. The planning period will not involve actual mining of existing data sets, but will explore the logistics regarding data collection across different informal science program, including potential metadata sets and instruments that will: (a) identify and examine data collection challenges, (b) explore the implementation of a common data management system, (c) identify informal science programs that are potential candidates for this study, (d) compare and contrast data available from the different programs and groups, and (e) optimize database management.
Young people's participation in informal STEM learning activities can contribute to their academic and career achievements, but these connections are infrequently explicitly recognized or cultivated. More systemic approaches to STEM education could allow for students' experiences of formal and informal STEM learning to be aligned, coordinated, and supported across learning contexts. This Science Learning+ planning project brings together stakeholders in two digital badge systems--one in the US and one in the UK--to plan for a study to identify the specific structural features of the systems that may allow for the alignment of learning objectives across institutions. Digital badge systems may offer an inventive solution to the challenge of connecting and building on youth's STEM-related experiences in multiple learning contexts. When part of a defined system, badges could be used to represent and communicate evidence of individual learning, as well as provide youth and educators with evidence-supported indicators for other activities in the system that might be interesting or valuable. Properly designed and supported badge systems could transmit critical information within a network of informal STEM programs and schools that (1) recognize context-dependent, interest-driven learning and (2) provide opportunities to explore those interests across multiple settings. This project advances the field of informal STEM learning in two ways. First, the project documents and analyzes the processes by which two small groups of informal science education organizations and schools negotiate the meaning and value of badges, as proxies for learning objectives, and how they decide to recognize badges awarded by other institutions. This process builds capacity within the target systems while also beginning to identify the institutional, cultural, and material capacity issues that facilitate or constrain the alignment process. Second, the project conducts a pilot study with a small number of youth in the US and UK to investigate factors associated with an individual youth's likelihood of: a) identifying badges of interest; b) connecting the activities of various badge systems to each other and to non-badging institutions, such as school or industry; c) determining which badges to pursue; and d) persisting in a particular badge pathway. Findings from this pilot study will help identify institution- and individual-level factors that might be associated with advancing student interest and progression in STEM fields. Deepening and validating the understanding of those factors and their relative impact on student experiences and outcomes will be the focus of investigations in future studies.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
James DiamondNew York City Hive Learning NetworkMOUSEDigitalMeKatherine McMillan
This is a poster from the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC. It describes KC Empower, a project that explores after school science for children with disabilities.