RISES (Re-energize and Invigorate Student Engagement through Science) is a coordinated suite of resources including 42 interactive English and Spanish STEM videos produced by Children's Museum Houston in coordination with the science curriculum department at Houston ISD. The videos are aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, and each come with a bilingual Activity Guide and Parent Prompt sheet, which includes guiding questions and other extension activities.
This report is the summative evaluation of Moon Adventure Game. The Moon Adventure Game is a challenge-based immersive game, inspired by “escape room” experiences, which asks visitors to take on activities to help them think about what people might need to live and work on the Moon.
The goal of this evaluation was to determine how museum visitors responded to the museum's existing live animal exhibits and identify recommendations for their new Live Animal Garden exhibit.
The Children’s Museum will collaborate with six Hartford Public Library branches, three Hartford Family Centers, and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center to provide hands-on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) - based programs to over 1,000 local 3 to 14-year old children and their care givers. Program design and development will include planning for field trips to the museum. All participants will be given age-specific, supplemental STEAM materials to continue their learning activities at home, and families can attend more than one week of library programs, or more than three Saturdays of family center programs. The goal will be to help urban Hartford youths find new pathways toward responsible citizenry and fiscal stability.
The Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts is one of the world’s largest science centers and the most visited cultural institution in New England. Located in Science Park, a piece of land that spans the Charles River, the museum is conveniently situated close to Boston and Cambridge. The museum has more than 700 interactive exhibits and a number of live presentations offered daily. One of these daily shows include live animal presentations, where museum visitors can learn more about some of the many animals that the museum cares for in its live animal center. An evaluation of these live
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sarah RosenthalKristina OhlSadia Sehrish IslamMaría José Brito Páez
The Bay Area Discovery Museum will address the need for STEM education by delivering engineering outreach programming to schools and libraries throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The museum's mobile engineering lab, Try It Truck, will introduce the engineering design process to students and teachers in grades K-5 with hands-on activities (both on and off the truck) where they can collaborate, experiment, and design solutions to engineering challenges. The Try It Truck will serve 21,600 children, parents, and educators throughout the Bay Area, with at least 50 percent of all participants coming from underserved communities and Title I schools. The museum will work with an external evaluator to design survey instruments for both formative and summative evaluation, analyze summative evaluation data, and produce a report. Museum staff will share project results with colleagues at national and statewide conferences.
The Hands On Children's Museum will build on two of its most distinctive features-an Outdoor Discovery Center and a Young Makers program-to create a Nature Makers program. The interdisciplinary project will link nature-based learning with maker activities that use natural materials. Partnerships with Native American tribes, scientists, maker groups, and others will enrich the staff-led offerings. Nature Makers addresses two of the most significant needs in early learning-inspiring early STEM education and connecting children with the outdoors. Nature Makers will increase children's exposure to outdoor tinkering to build the foundation for STEM success in school; educate parents, caregivers, and teachers about the important role outdoor exploration plays in STEM achievement; and stimulate children's curiosity about the natural world and increase the time they spend outside. Evaluation findings will be shared internally to inform continuous improvement of program offerings, and externally to serve as a model for outdoor making activities.
This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).
Despite the rich scientific evidence of adaptations and their evolutionary basis, there are concerning public misconceptions about evolution, processes of natural selection, and adaptations in the biodiverse world. Such misconceptions begin early. Younger elementary school children are often resistant to the idea that one “kind” of animal could descend from a completely different kind of animal, and they see features as having always existed. Other misconceptions lead to an inaccurate belief that changes in individual organisms acquired in a lifetime are passed directly on to offspring or that entire populations transform as a whole. These cognitive biases and "intuitive” misunderstandings can persist into adulthood. This Innovations in Development project will counter that narrative through an informal science project focusing on the blue whale one of nature’s most spectacular stories of adaptation. It is a species that lives life at extremes: a long-distance migrator, a deep diver, an extravagant eater, the largest animal to ever exist. With its awe-inspiring size and rich mosaic of anatomical, physiological, and behavioral specializations, it serves as a bridge to an enriched understanding of universal concepts in elementary biology and can begin to dispel the deeply rooted misconceptions. The project deliverables include a giant screen film documenting the field work of research scientists studying the blue whales in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Mexico; multi-platform educational modules and programs that will build on the blue whale content from the film for use in science center programs and rural libraries; and professional development webinars that will offer content utilization and presentation skills for ISE facilitators. Project partners include California Science Center, STAR Library Education Network, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and SK Films.
The external evaluation studies will gather data from 20 participating rural libraries and 6 science museums. A formative evaluation of the film will be conducted in a giant screen theater setting with 75 families. After viewing a fine-cut version of the film they will complete age-appropriate post-viewing surveys on the film’s engagement, storytelling, content appeal and clarity, and learning value in communicating key science concepts. An external summative evaluation will include three studies. Study 1 will assess the implementation of the project at the 26 organizations, addressing the question: To what extent is the project implemented as envisioned in the libraries and science center settings? Baseline information will be collected, and later partners will complete post-grant surveys to report on their actual implementation of the project elements. In addition, the study will examine outcomes relating to professional development. Study 2 will be an evaluation of the film as experienced by 400 youth and parents in science centers and examining the question: To what extent does experiencing the film engage youth and parents and affect their interest, curiosity, and knowledge of blue whales, adaptations, and the scientific process? Study 3 will examine: To what extent and how does experiencing an educational module (virtual field trips, hands on activities, augmented reality) affect youth and parents’ interest, curiosity, and knowledge of adaptations and scientific process?
The making and tinkering movement has become increasingly mainstream over the past decade, pioneered in part through the popularity of magazines like `Make', events such as Maker Faire and DIY websites including `Instructables'. Science centres and museums have been developing their own ideas, notably the Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium. In this commentary piece, we reflect on why this movement has a strong appeal for the Life Science Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne and why we are in the process of developing a new making and tinkering space to help us enact our centre's vision to `Enrich
Engineering is a critical yet understudied topic in early childhood. Previous research has shown that even young children can engage in (versions of) engineering design practices and processes that are similar to those of adult engineers and designers. In this session, we will share and discuss current research projects to explore how different in-school and out-of-school contexts and activities support 3- to 8-year-old children as they engage in engineering design. We will consider ways that the different characteristics of the activities and spaces, as well as the practices of teachers
Emerging research suggests that families are key to developing the science interests and career aspirations of youth. In order to increase the diversity and numbers of individuals choosing to pursue STEM careers, it is important to better understand the factors that influence career aspirations. The influence parents have on their children’s career aspirations comes from many factors including their science capital and family science habitus. This study examined the influence of a museum-based family STEM program geared to increase the STEM career aspirations of elementary youth on the parent