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resource research Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Many informal learning institutions are experimenting with STEAM approaches to engage diverse learners. However, what STEAM means, including how to design and enact STEAM experiences, is undertheorized. We are offering a PD series for informal educators that centers around a set of core STEAM practices that support identity work among learners. The series involves in-person sessions, online training, and team coaching during the design phase. This poster was presented at the 2019 NSF AISL Principal Investigators Meeting.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Laura Conner Blakely Tsurusaki Carrie Tzou Mareca Guthrie Stephen Pompea Perrin Teal-Sullivan
resource research Public Programs
The COMPASS conference will bring together 80 participants for two days in September 2018 at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. The first dissemination will take place in a presentation at the ASTC conference the following month in October 2018. A webinar sharing insights from COMPASS and inviting others to engage will be held in March 2019 hosted by ASTC and accessible by ASTC members and non-members alike. A companion COMPASS e-publication will be released for free download, also in March 2019, with summaries of conference proceedings, key issues identified, case histories of ILAM in
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TEAM MEMBERS: Claire Pillsbury
resource research Media and Technology
SciGirls CONNECT 2 is a three-year NSF project that examines how the gender equitable and culturally responsive strategies currently employed in the SciGirls informal STEM educational program influences middle school girls’ STEM identity formation.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Rita Karl Alicia Santiago Karen Peterson Roxanne Hughes
resource research Public Programs
In this participatory research project, a partnership between the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) and the Department of Evaluation and Research in Learning at the Science Museum of Minnesota, participants are working to rename and reclaim theory and research methods so as to foster relevance and equity. We have renamed the theory of science capital: "science capitxl" signals its roots in equity work and invites questioning. We are using what we have called "embedded research practices" for data generation and analysis. This poster was shared at the 2019 AISL PI meeting.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Shannon McManimon
resource research Public Programs
This poster was presented at the 2019 AISL PI Meeting, and describes the evaluation of the STEM Scouts program.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Jennifer Urban Miriam Linver
resource research Public Programs
This poster was presented at the 2019 NSF AISL Principal Investigators Meeting. The project's goals were to: Use a series of 6 museum-facilitated family workshops at pre-kindergarten (pre-k) centers to promote informal STEM learning. Examine 3 conditions in which families and their children most benefit from “doing science and math” together. Focus on populations that are typically underrepresented in STEM fields – families experiencing poverty and families who speak English and/or Spanish at home
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TEAM MEMBERS: Tricia Zucker Cheryl McCallum Michael Assel Janelle Montroy Armando Orduna Gisela Trevino
resource research Informal/Formal Connections
This workshop series, convened by the Kavli, Rita Allen, Packard and Moore Foundations, was intended to view the entire system of people who support scientists’ engagement and communication efforts in order to explore how this system can be most effective and sustainable. The discussions examined where this system is thriving, the limits people within the system face and what can be done to ensure their efforts are commensurate with the demand for quality communication and engagement support. Conducted over four closely scheduled workshops in late 2017 and early 2018, the convenings brought
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TEAM MEMBERS: Brooke Smith
resource research Exhibitions
This paper presents an exhibit assessment tool for science centers that is based on the premise, supported by learning theories and research, that the level to which a visitor is engaged by an exhibit is a direct indicator of the learning taking place. Observable behaviors are used to distinguish three stages or levels of visitor engagement described as initiation, transition, and breakthrough. A distinctive visitor engagement profile can be constructed for an exhibit that can then be used in assessing the effectiveness of subsequent changes made to the exhibit experience. It is suggested that
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TEAM MEMBERS: Chantal Barriault David Pearson
resource research Public Programs
This article shares the results and reflections on the research process conducted by the Maloka Interactive Museum (https://www.maloka.org/) regarding the implementation of the policy that extends the school day in public schools in Bogotá. Based on ethnographic observations, focus groups and interviews with the participants, the text concludes that the communication and education process about science and technology can be understood as a social practice of knowledge exchange among heterogeneous participants whose intention is to promote transformations within their specific settings. This
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TEAM MEMBERS: Gonzalo Peñaloza Lina Quijano Sigrid Falla Sara Marquez
resource research Public Programs
How do we support continued engagement in creative production, even after youth leave our events and programs? As youth development educators and learning scientists interested in supporting long-term, interest driven learning around digital media, we took a crack at this problem, and we hope the lessons we share in this design case study might advance the ways that informal education organizations could think about promoting learning pathways that span contexts. The report we share here documents a series of design experiments that Mouse and Hive Research Lab collaborated on within the
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TEAM MEMBERS: Rafi Santo Dixie Ching Kylie Peppler Christopher Hoadley Alex Flemming Maggie Muldoon
resource research Public Programs
In this research study, we explore the ways that youth engage in “interest signaling”, actions youth undertake that communicate their needs in ways that motivate adults and peers to mobilize resources to support them. We highlight how interest signaling is a key factor driving the process of brokering – signals are critical mechanisms for adults to understand what youth interests and expertise are, and, thus, be able to act as effective learning brokers. Through observing after-school digital media-making programs, and interviews we conducted with focal youth, program staff, and other support
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resource research Public Programs
This article makes a case for the importance of brokering future learning opportunities to youth as a programmatic goal for informal learning organizations. Such brokering entails engaging in practices that connect youth to events, programs, internships, individuals and institutions related to their interests to support them beyond the window of a specific program or event. Brokering is especially critical for youth who are new to an area of interest: it helps them develop both a baseline understanding of the information landscape and a social network that will respond to their needs as they
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