The overall objective of this planning project was to examine the potential effectiveness of the Signing Science Pictionary (SSP) in increasing the ability of parents and their deaf and hard of hearing children to engage in informal science learning. To achieve this objective, research and development included four goals. 1) Design several SSP-based activities to help family members engage in informal science learning. 2) Examine the potential effectiveness of the SSP in increasing family member’s signed science vocabulary. 3) Find out about the potential effectiveness of the SSP in
To this volume on out-of-school STEM learning, we contribute an example of science. Our charge is to discuss what it means for children to be doing science and how educators can assess it. To that end, we’ve chosen an especially clear case. It happens to have taken place in school, but that shouldn’t matter for our purpose here; it’s the substance of the children’s reasoning that we’re assessing as the beginnings of science. We open with the case. We then articulate how it is an example of science, in particular of science as a pursuit. Finally we discuss what this view means for science
This pilot study was funded by the Museum of Science’s Women in Science Committee to examine the impact of competition on children participating in Design Challenges engineering experiences, and in particular, to see what effect, if any, the competitive design of these engineering activities had on girl participants. The research questions for this study included: 1. How does competition affect participants' engagement in engineering activities? 1.a Does this differ for boys and girls? 2. How does competition affect participants' desire to take part in future engineering activities? 2.a. Does
How can professional learning for out‐of‐school staff be organized to promote equity in STEM learning? This is the question a group of out-of‐school educators and educational researchers gathered to discuss at the Exploratorium on January 30‐31, 2015. The meeting was sponsored by the Research+Practice Collaboratory, an NSF-‐funded project that develops and tests new models for integrating research and practice perspectives for the improvement of science and mathematics education. Four big ideas for supporting equity-oriented facilitation emerged from the group's discussions: (1) Seeing
STARBASE Minnesota strives to increase the knowledge, skills, and interest of inner-city elementary school youth in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for greater academic and lifelong success. This study examines the potential long-term impacts of participation, including interest and engagement in STEM, academic achievement, high school graduation, and college enrollment.
This report applies a practice-based approach to learning and making in the context of a museum makerspace (The Makeshop at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh). This perspective draws upon theories of cultural and social learning, which assert an understanding of learning as fundamentally tied to the social and cultural contexts in which it occurs and focuses on the "practices" that define learning communities. The practices identified in this report are observable and/or reportable evidence of learners' engagement in making as a learning process.
Connected learning is an educational approach designed to make learning relevant to students, creating a deeper form of learning and understanding that will help students become life-long learners who will grow and thrive in school, work and life. Afterschool programs have long been implementing this approach that ties together students interests, peer networks and academic pursuits. This report explores the benefits of using a connected learning approach, the variety of ways afterschool programs are offering connected learning opportunities to engage students in learning, and shares ideas on
The Franklin Institute (TFI) engaged Insight Evaluation Services (IES) to conduct a review of TFI museum/community partnership programs from 1993 through 2014 for the purpose of identifying "lessons learned", that is the successes and challenges of working together to achieve a common goal. IES reviewed over 40 research studies and evaluation reports for fourteen programs in which TFI was a partner in a long-term collaborative relationship with one or more community-based organizations, informal learning organizations, and/or other education-oriented public service institutions, including: The
Media Arts within primary and secondary education is a relatively new avenue of research. Within the context of the arts classroom, rarely is learning to program emphasized despite its importance for creative expression in a digital medium. We present outcomes from an extensive field study at a digital studio where youth accessed programming environments emphasizing graphic, music and video. Learning the language of creative coding is essential to expression in a digital medium — one with increasing importance for youth and society at large. Here, we argue that it’s not just in the viewing or