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resource research Informal/Formal Connections
This is a brief literature review examining the theory and practice of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). It highlights CBPR's liberatory intent, and focuses on CBPR practice in indigenous communities and among youth. 
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TEAM MEMBERS: Adhann Iwashita
resource research Media and Technology
This "mini-poster," a two-page slideshow presenting an overview of the project, was presented at the 2023 AISL Awardee Meeting.
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TEAM MEMBERS: John Voiklis Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein
resource research Museum and Science Center Exhibits
An adapted three-dimensional model of place attachment is proposed as a theoretical framework from which place-based citizen science experiences and outcomes might be empirically examined in depth.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Julia Parrish Yurong He Benjamin Haywood
resource research Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. This project conducted a Delphi Study to investigate the question "What do experts think drive better outcomes in climate adaptation workshops?".
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TEAM MEMBERS: Lara Hansen Marc Stern Jennifer Brousseau Caleb O'Brien
resource research Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Inclusive science communication, or ISC, upends the traditional approaches of science communication by centering the values of inclusion, equity, and intersectionality. To help more science communication and informal learning practitioners and researchers apply the key traits of ISC in their work, collaborators at the University of Rhode Island, the University of Oregon, and Florida International University created a new “Inclusive Science Communication Starter Kit.” The Starter Kit was developed as part of a conference grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that supported the
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TEAM MEMBERS: Christina DiCenzo Sunshine Menezes Hollie Smith Kayon Murray-Johnson Mehri Azizi Katharine McDuffie
resource research Public Programs
As several recent National Academies of Sciences reports have highlighted, greater science communication research is needed on 1) communicating chemistry, and 2) building research-practice partnerships to advance communication across science issues. Here we report our insights in both areas, gathered from a multi-year collaboration to advance our understanding of how to communicate about chemistry with the public. Researchers and practitioners from science museums across the U.S. partnered with academic social scientists in science communication to develop and conduct multi-strand data
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resource project Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Informal learning institutions--museums, libraries, news organizations, and others--work to inform their audiences about the rapidly emerging scientific consensus on various topics. Often this information invites action such as social distancing during a pandemic. What motivates people to act upon that information (or not)? When recommended actions can yield good or bad outcomes for oneself, the information needs to fit with motivational tendencies towards preventing bad outcomes and/or promoting good outcomes. Recent theories indicate similar motives for recommended actions that affect others: family, friends, neighbors, and up the scale to the societal and the biological world. This small virtual conference will bring together STEM researchers and practitioners to offer a transdisciplinary and practically minded critique of the model of moral motives and discuss its implications for actions related to STEM topics. Specifically, the conference will use data collected by NSF RAPID grant (#2027939) that connects people’s news consumption, their compliance with COVID-19 prevention recommendations, and their judgments of whose wellbeing (from self to society) recommended behaviors protect or promote.

This small virtual conference will recruit approximately 16 attendees including transdisciplinary scholars whose work addresses social responsibility in the context of STEM informal learning and practitioners from a broad range of sectors including science centers, libraries, zoos, and the media. Individual disciplines will include anthropology, psychology, the interdisciplinary fields of the learning sciences and judgement and decision-making. The conference strategy will include synchronous, asynchronous, and small group collaborations in addition to full-group discussion. Conference activities will spread over 8 weeks. The structure of the conference is loosely based on the Open Space Technology approach (i.e.: General & Lantelme, 2014, Owen 1997). To build capacity in these various informal learning sectors participants will distill implications about moral motives into practical advice to publish in the conference proceedings that will include a report on the initial and collaboratively revised models. An editable version of the proceedings will allow registered practitioners to further critique and develop that advice. The conference proceedings will be distributed as a short Creative Commons e-book with copies and links distributed on the website of the Center for Advancing Informal STEM Education , and through all the participant’s professional research and practitioner societies.
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TEAM MEMBERS: John Voiklis Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein
resource evaluation Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The attached evaluation is of the A2A (Awareness to Action) Planning Workshop held February 21-23 in two locations simultaneously connected by internet: the University of Colorado, Boulder and Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. It was made possible thanks to a collaboration of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and EcoArts Connections, with additional assistance from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. A2A brought together 39 natural and social scientists, artists, urban planners, “sustainablists” (e.g. sustainability professionals working in a variety
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TEAM MEMBERS: Marda Kirn Elizabeth Bachrach Simon
resource research Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The attached Briefing Booklet was created collaboratively by A2A (Awareness to Action) Planning Workshop facilitators and organizers in advance of the February 2018 convening and was available to participants. The workshop's primary goal was to establish an operational strategy for knowledge sharing across entities, networks, and associations designed to strengthen communities of practice nationally to better conceive, conduct, and evaluate projects for the public, working at the intersection of science, arts, and sustainability. The booklet contains an overview of the workshop purpose
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TEAM MEMBERS: Marda Kirn
resource project Professional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The impacts of changes in the climate at local and global levels threaten how people live. Some frontline communities, especially in historically disenfranchised and under-resourced areas, are particularly vulnerable to the devastating effects of climatological events such as wildfires, flooding, and urban heat islands. As such, there is an urgent need for collective, evidence-based understanding and engagement to prevent and prepare for these potentially fatal events. Led by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland, Oregon, in collaboration with local and national partners, Youth Lead the Way is an early-stage Innovations in Development project that offers a theory-based approach for youth in climatologically vulnerable communities to work in climate science research alongside field researchers, develop leadership skills, and engage in timely conversations that impact their own communities. The project will develop and evaluate a Youth Advisory Research Board model to equip and support youth and informal STEM education institutions to conduct evidence-based research on local climate impacts and communicate the findings of their research to their communities. Youth Lead the Way advances the work of several previous NSF-funded projects on climate education, youth advisory boards, and collaborative networks to engage the public in informal STEM learning. Findings from this project will support ongoing efforts in the informal STEM education field to meaningfully engage youth and to more effectively communicate science related to climate and its impacts to the public.

During this initial two-year early-stage project, youth predominantly from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in STEM will engage in a year-long extended STEM experience. These youth will work collaboratively with scientists and museum professionals to enhance their skills as climate researchers, science communicators, and educational leaders, while reaching an estimated 4,000 or more public audience members through research and events at OMSI, in their schools, and in their communities. Using a cohort model, the youth will conduct scientifically based research studies on various local climate impact topics while concurrently serving in an advisory role at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, where they will participate in shaping relevant museum programs and practices. The youth will also develop and present climate stories, a communication approach based on storytelling, to raise public understanding and awareness about local climatological changes and impacts. In addition to the youth component, a companion workshop will be held at the Sciencenter in Ithaca, New York, a partner organization, to train staff and formatively assess the feasibility of scaling the model in other museums. At the program level, an exploratory qualitative research study will be conducted to identify the factors of the overall model that contribute to desired outcomes of youth engagement, climate impact education, and informal science education professional development. Interviews, surveys, focus groups, group chats among youth cohort members, and reviews of artifacts generated by the youth will inform this exploratory study. A theory-based guide outlining key findings, considerations, and recommendations will also be produced. The dissemination of this work will be multi-tiered, reaching thousands within the target communities through public programs, professional networks, at conferences, and a live virtual professional development event hosted by the Association for Science-Technology Centers. If successful, Youth Lead the Way will lay the groundwork for a model that promotes youth and public engagement in STEM through climate science research and identifies promising pathways for future research and similar efforts well beyond this project.

This early-stage Innovations in Development project is funded by the NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of 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.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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TEAM MEMBERS: Scott Randol Christopher Cardiel Rebecca Reilly Jennifer Schwade Imme Huttmann Carla Herran Marcie Benne Todd Shagott Maria Zybina
resource research Media and Technology
Web-based information and communication systems extend access for scientific communities to information such as publications or research data and provide the opportunity to collaborate with other scientists. Our comment gives a short sketch of the Information Service Sociology (short: FID Sociology), in which we aim at designing and developing such an information and communication infrastructure within the field of Sociology. To this end, it comprises (i) an approach for simplified publishing of open access publications, (ii) an integrated search across multiple sociological databases, and
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TEAM MEMBERS: Johanne Schaible Sonja Strunk David Brodesser
resource research Public Programs
This poster was presented at the 2019 AISL PI Meeting, and describes the the ongoing research questions and goals of the Ute STEM Project, which explores the integration of the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of the Ute Indians of Colorado and Utah and Western science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
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TEAM MEMBERS: Liz Cook Shannon Voirol Sheila Goff Cassandra Atencio Garrett Briggs Alden Naranjo Betsy Chapoose Terry Knight, Sr. Nicole Shurack Richard Ott Carl Conner Kelly Kindscher Kate Livingston