AAAS describes public engagement with science as intentional, meaningful interactions that provide opportunities for mutual learning between scientists and members of the public. Through the Alan I. Leshner Leadership Institute for Public Engagement with Science, AAAS empowers scientists and engineers to practice high-impact public engagement by fostering leaders who advocate for critical dialogue between scientists and the public and lead change to enable their communities, institutions, and others to support public engagement. This bibliography, with additional work on understanding
With the suite of environmental challenges faced by today’s society growing ever more imminent, the potential role of science and natural history museums as social institutions to promote environmental stewardship is being realized. A recent collaborative effort between the
EcoTarium in Worcester, MA and six other institutions across the country, the NSF funded City Science exhibit serves to introduce the public to new research on human-ecology interactions in urban settings. The project also supports the inclusion of Public Participation in Science Research (PPSR) elements in museum exhibits
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marissa GallantShana HawrylchakJacqueline DeLisa
“Investigating the Long-term Effects of Informal Science Learning at Zoos and Aquariums” aimed to identify the opportunities for and barriers to researching the long-term effects of informal science learning experiences at zoos and aquariums, and to construct a proposal for a five- to ten-year study as the first attempt to measure those effects. This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the one-year project, which concluded in November 2015.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sarah ThomasNicole ArdoinMurray Saunders
To support learning across settings, educators need to develop ways to elicit student interests and prior experiences. McClain and Zimmerman describe how, during outdoor walks at a nature center, families talked about prior experiences with nature, which were mostly from non-school settings. They used the prior experiences to remind, prompt, explain to, and orient one another during shared meaning-making activity.
This Learning Research Agenda was collaboratively developed by the Museum, King's College London, the University of Bristol, and other UK and overseas contributors. It provides a conceptual map of learning in natural history institutions while considering the the complexity of practice.
The author provides a synopsis of the Learning Research Agenda collaboratively developed by the Museum, King's College London, the University of Bristol, and other UK and overseas contributors. It includes a discussion of the research agenda process, the importance of natural history museums, and the types of research methods and questions encompassed by the agenda.
How do people make sense of conflicting beliefs? Although Gottlieb & Wineburg’s paper is about highly educated professionals reading history, informal science educators will recognize similar issues when working with people who hold beliefs incompatible with scientific ways of understanding the world. “Epistemic switching” was a way of considering criteria for truth, reliability, and validity according to one belief system or another. Rather than simply believing or excluding ideas as people who held to only one value system, the people with multiple, competing affiliations actually more
This commentary forms the conclusion of a special Virtual Issue of Science Education focusing on the intersection of informal STEM education and the learning sciences.
While the opportunity to engage in scientific reasoning has been identified as an important aspect of informal science learning (National Research Council, 2009), most studies have examined this strand of science learning within the context of physics‒based science exhibits. Few have examined the presence of such activity in conjunction with live animal exhibits at zoos and aquariums. A video study of 41 families at four touch‒tank exhibits, where visitors can observe and interact with live marine species, revealed that families engaged in making claims, challenging claims, and confirming
The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and the National Museum of American History (NMAH) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a summative evaluation of Places of Invention (POI), an exhibition funded by the National Science Foundation. The evaluation was designed to determine the extent to which the exhibition achieved its outcomes: 1)Visitors identify the 21st century skills that inventors practice; 2)Visitors identify characteristics that support innovative communities; 3)Visitors express interest in learning about inventions and/or inventors; 4
Natural History museums have identified a need to transform their traditional spaces into vital forces for science education. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) will implement “Seeing as a Scientist,” a design-based research initiative to develop and test gallery interventions that have the potential to increase scientific observation skills for family groups. Working with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments (UPCLOSE), CMNH will pilot a series of quick changes and additions to dioramas and outline expectations for each. Visitors will be observed to measure the degree of engagement in scientific observation (deliberate looking in order to understand visual evidence)--an essential skill for learning across scientific disciplines. The four most promising interventions will be evaluated to determine which are most successful in providing the necessary support for families to establish shared focus and two-way, science-based conversation. The project will include a blog to share information and to disseminate the results to other museums.
This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency and are having an increasing effect on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mike SharplesAnne AdamsNonye AlozieRebecca FergusonElizabeth FitzGeraldMark GavedPatrick McAndrewBarbara MeansJulie RemoldBart RientiesJeremy RoschelleKea VogtDenise WhitelockLouise Yarnall