How a discipline's history is written shapes its identity. Accordingly, science communicators opposed to cultural exclusion may seek cross-cultural conceptualizations of science communication's past, beyond familiar narratives centred on the recent West. Here I make a case for thinking about science communication history in these broader geotemporal terms. I discuss works by historians and knowledge keepers from the Indigenous Australian Yorta Yorta Nation who describe a geological event their ancestors witnessed 30,000 ybp and communicated about over generations to the present. This is likely
This commentary introduces a preliminary conceptual framework for approaching putative effects of scholarly online systems on collaboration inside and outside of academia. The first part outlines a typology of scholarly online systems (SOS), i.e., the triad of specialised portals, specialised information services and scholarly online networks which is developed on the basis of nine German examples. In its second part, the commentary argues that we know little about collaborative scholarly community building by means of SOS. The commentary closes with some remarks on further research questions
The Space and Earth Informal STEM Education (SEISE) project, led by the Arizona State University with partners Science Museum of Minnesota, Museum of Science, Boston, and the University of California Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and Space Sciences Laboratory, is raising the capacity of museums and informal science educators to engage the public in Heliophysics, Earth Science, Planetary Science, and Astrophysics, and their social dimensions through the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net). SEISE will also partner on a network-to-network basis with other existing coalitions and professional associations dedicated to informal and lifelong STEM learning, including the Afterschool Alliance, National Girls Collaborative Project, NASA Museum Alliance, STAR_Net, and members of the Association of Children’s Museums and Association of Science-Technology Centers. The goals for this project include engaging multiple and diverse public audiences in STEM, improving the knowledge and skills of informal educators, and encouraging local partnerships.
In collaboration with the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD), SEISE is leveraging NASA subject matter experts (SMEs), SMD assets and data, and existing educational products and online portals to create compelling learning experiences that will be widely use to share the story, science, and adventure of NASA’s scientific explorations of planet Earth, our solar system, and the universe beyond. Collaborative goals include enabling STEM education, improving U.S. scientific literacy, advancing national educational goals, and leveraging science activities through partnerships. Efforts will focus on providing opportunities for learners explore and build skills in the core science and engineering content, skills, and processes related to Earth and space sciences. SEISE is creating hands-on activity toolkits (250-350 toolkits per year over four years), small footprint exhibitions (50 identical copies), and professional development opportunities (including online workshops).
Evaluation for the project will include front-end and formative data to inform the development of products and help with project decision gates, as well as summative data that will allow stakeholders to understand the project’s reach and outcomes.
The project will advance efforts by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute for Learning Innovation to bring together young adults from communities historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to collaboratively conduct scientifically driven challenges embedded in a mobile learning tool based upon the AAAS Active Explorer platform. The project will be conducted at the Washington National Mall, San Francisco National Golden Gate Park, and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, and will study how a mobile technology used in these settings can facilitate learner engagement in science content; how it can affect young adults' engagement in science-learning processes; and whether interest in learning science and technology has been furthered. The project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments, including pathways for broadening access to STEM learning experiences and advancing research STEM learning. Research questions will investigate science learning inequalities by addressing how place-based augmented reality games can connect young adults to scientific practices, including observing science phenomena, analyzing data, and communicating findings; how young adults develop science skills related to their science self-efficacy through participation in augmented reality science exploration; and how mobile technologies and gaming can serve as mediators that enable young adults to improve their science identity. In addition to engaging young adults in science activities at the National Parks and increasing their science skills, the project will provide valuable information to National Park staff and scientists to assist them in designing effective tools, resources and experiences to better engage young adults. Research teams will collect data in the form of digital ethnography, focus groups, activity reports, artifacts, and surveys. The project will document learning and engagement through mobile technology in three urban national parks that will involve 60 young adults at each location, and will create innovative measurement tools to monitor how informal settings can leverage the intersections of the arts and sciences to support student engagement and learning.
The widespread accessibility of live streaming video now makes it possible for viewers around the world to watch live events together, including unprecedented, 24/7 views of wildlife. In addition, online technologies such as live chatting and forums have opened new possibilities for people to collaborate from locations around the world. The innovation that the projects provide is bringing these opportunities together, enabling real-time research and discussion as participants observe and annotate live streaming footage; sharing questions and insights through live Q&A sessions; and explore data with interactive visualization tools. Scientists will support the community's research interests, in contrast with traditional models of citizen science in which communities support the work of scientists. This project will enable people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives to co-create scientific investigations, including participants who might not otherwise have access to nature. The evaluation research for this project will advance the understanding of practices that enable interconnected communities of people to participate in more phases of scientific discovery, and how participation affects their learning outcomes. It is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. As such, this project will advance a new genre of Public Participation in STEM Research (PPSR). It will also advance scientific exploration using live wildlife cams and establish a database for long-term research to understand how bird behavior and reproductive success are affected by environmental change. This project aims to deepen public involvement in science, building on knowledge and relevance for STEM learning by creating an online learning environment that expands on traditional crowdsourcing models of PPSR in which participants collect data to answer questions driven by scientists. In this project, participants are involved in co-created research investigations, including asking questions, deciding what data are needed, generating data, looking for patterns, making interpretations, reviewing results, and sharing findings. The goals are to 1) create a system that involves the public more deeply in scientific research; 2) develop participants' science skills and interests; 3) increase participants' understanding of birds and the environment; 4) generate new scientific knowledge about wildlife; and 5) advance the understanding of effective project design for co-created PPSR projects at a national scale. Through iterative design and evaluation, the project will advance the understanding of the conditions that foster online collaboration and establish design principles for supporting science and discovery in online learning environments. Through scaling and quasi-experimental studies, the evaluation research will advance the understanding of how learning outcomes may be similar or different for participants engaging in different ways, whether they observe the cams and read about the investigation, process data as contributors, provide some input as collaborators, or join in most or all of the scientific process as co-creators. Despite the popularity of live wildlife cams, with millions of people watching hundreds of cams around the world, little research has been conducted on the use of live cams for collaborative work in formal or informal science education. The infrastructure and open-source framework created for this project will expand the capacity for online communities of people from diverse career backgrounds and perspectives to collaborative on solving personally meaningful questions and contribute to new knowledge. Using this project as a prototype, cam operators from around the world could build networks of cams, enabling future studies with broader scope for comparative biological studies and discoveries. Additionally, it will serve as a model for use in classrooms or for online communities exploring other scientific fields using live-streaming content in collaborative research. By involving scientists and participants from across society as collaborators and co-creators, this project can help increase public engagement with science, technology, and environmental stewardship while advancing the understanding of the natural world and informing public decision-making.
In an information free-for-all why should scientists bother to add their voice? In this commentary piece I argue there is an increasingly important role for scientists amongst the growing ranks of public intellectuals and the many who style themselves as such. First, we must become the sifters and sorters. We need to be willing to use our research and analytical skills to identify what is valuable amongst all the noise, and, if necessary, to volubly reject what is not. And, second, we need to create and defend the space everyone needs for deep thought and consideration. We need to influence
This paper provides an analysis of the implementation and the outcomes of Scienza Attiva, an Italian national project for secondary school students, that makes use of deliberative democracy tools to address socio-scientific issues of great impact. The analysis has required a mixed method including surveys of students' pre- and post-project opinions, focus groups and interviews with students and teachers. The results from this evaluation study provide evidence that the project improves students' understanding of socio-scientific issues, strengthens their awareness of the importance of
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Federica CornaliGianfranco PomattoSelena Agnella
In this article, we present three challenges to the emerging Open Science (OS) movement: the challenge of communication, collaboration and cultivation of scientific research. We argue that to address these challenges OS needs to include other forms of data than what can be captured in a text and extend into a fully-fledged Open Media movement engaging with new media and non-traditional formats of science communication. We discuss two cases where experiments with open media have driven new collaborations between scientists and documentarists. We use the cases to illustrate different advantages
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Kristian Moltke MartinyDavid Budtz PedersenAlfred Birkegaard
One common barrier to STEM engagement by underserved and underrepresented communities is a feeling of disconnection from mainstream science. This project will involve citizen scientists in the collection, mapping, and interpretation of data from their local area with an eye to increasing STEM engagement in underrepresented communities. The idea behind this is that science needs to start at home, and be both accessible and inclusive. To facilitate this increased participation, the project will develop a network of stakeholders with interests in the science of coastal environments. Stakeholders will include members of coastal communities, academic and agency scientists, and citizen science groups, who will collectively and collaboratively create a web-based system to collect and view the collected and analyzed environmental information. Broader impacts include addressing the STEM barriers to those who reside in the coastal environment but who are underrepresented in STEM education, vocations and policy-making. These include tribal communities (racial and ethnic inclusion), fishery communities (inclusion of communities of practice), and rural communities without direct access to colleges or universities. This project will create a physical, a social, and a virtual, environment where all participants have an equal footing in the processes of "doing science" - the Coastal Almanac. The Almanac is simultaneously a network of individuals and organizations, and a web-based repository of coastal data collected through the auspices of the network. During the testing phase, the researchers will implement the "rules of engagement" through multiple interaction pathways in the growing Coastal Almanac network: increases in rigorous citizen science, development of specific community-scientist partnerships to collect and/or use Almanac data, development of K-12 programs to collect and/or use Almanac data. The proposed work will significantly scale up citizen science and community-based science programs on the West Coast, broadening participation by targeting members of coastal communities with limited access to mainstream science, including participants from non-STEM vocations, and Native Americans. The innovation of the Coastal Almanac is in allowing the process of deepening involvement in science, and through that process increasing agency of community members to be bona fide members of the science team, to evolve organically, in the manner dictated by community members and the situation, rather than a priori by the project team and mainstream science. The project has the potential in the long-term to increase participation in marine science education, workforce, and policy-making by underrepresented groups resident in the coastal environment. Contributions by project citizen scientists will also provide valuable data to mainstream science and to resource management efforts.
DATE:
-
TEAM MEMBERS:
Julia ParrishMarco HatchSelina Heppell
The mixed methods randomized experimental study assessed a model of engagement and education that examined the contribution of SciGirls multimedia to fifth grade girls’ experience of citizen science. The treatment group (n = 49) experienced 2 hours of SciGirls videos and games at home followed by a 2.5 hour FrogWatch USA citizen science session. The control group (n = 49) experienced the citizen science session without prior exposure to SciGirls. Data from post surveys and interviews revealed that treatment girls, compared to control girls, demonstrated significantly greater interest in their
Through the NSF Innovation Corps for Learning Program, (I-Corps L), this project will develop ways to enable the SciStarter program to extend the promise of citizen science by connecting millions of citizen scientists with scientists in need of their help through formal and informal research projects. Citizen science is a fast growing field that engages the public in scientific inquiry through data collection projects and environmental monitoring using sensors, mini spectrometers, water testing kits and other tools. A challenge for the citizen science community has been access to the tools required to collect the types of data needed in citizen science projects. SciStarter facilitates broader participation in citizen science by reducing the barrier for volunteers to identify, acquire, and use the right scientific tools and instruments for each project. This I-Corps for Learning project will develop approaches to enable SciStarter to provide a larger number of citizen scientists with easier access to required and recommended instruments needed for meaningful participation in citizen science projects.
SciStarter aims to provide a holistic solution to the needs of citizen scientists that includes projects, support, and products such as training materials and consulting. SciStarter can be a catalyst in citizen science by connecting people to opportunities to engage and in lowering barriers to public participation in scientific research while creating a hybrid academic-consumer sustainability model. A central focus of this current effort will be establishing a sustainable and scalable means of enabling citizen scientists to obtain equipment and instruments in an efficient and cost-effective manner. The project will make use of elements already in place to expand the engagement of citizen scientists in new or multiple projects, to empower citizens in the process of citizen science, and to provide a useful, scalable and sustainable solution for scientists leading citizen science research projects. The extension of SciStarter will set the stage for greater inclusion of previously marginalized groups in citizen science activities and will extend to all forms of public engagement in science.