This article develops an argument that the type of intervention research most useful for improving science teaching and learning and leading to scalable interventions includes both research to develop and gather evidence of the efficacy of innovations and a different kind of research, design-based implementation research (DBIR). DBIR in education focuses on what is required to bring interventions and knowledge about learning to all students, wherever they might engage in science learning. This research focuses on implementation, both in the development and initial testing of interventions and
This funding solicitation for FY2014 in the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program at the National Science Foundation seeks to advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments; provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and develop understandings of deeper learning by participants. The AISL program supports five kinds of projects: 1) Pathways, 2) Research in
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This document, released in September 2013, grew out of a Joint Committee of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) that was convened to establish cross-agency guidelines for improving the quality, coherence, and pace of knowledge development in STEM education. In this report, the Joint Committee 1) defines the types of ED- and NSF-funded research that relates to the development and testing of interventions and strategies designed to increase learning, and 2) specifies how the types of research relate to one another, and describe the theoretical and
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Geosciences Careers for Kids and Parents is a Track 1 program by Jim Metzner Productions (JMP) that uses its current communication platforms - the Pulse of the Planet (PoP) radio programs and website and the Kids Science Challenge website - to involve upper elementary children and their parents/caregivers and other adults in learning about geosciences research and careers. JMP's award-winning PoP radio program, which reaches 1,000,000+ listeners weekly, profiles geoscientists and encourages parents to involve their children in the geosciences. The PoP companion pulseplanet.com website provides podcasts of past radio programs and additional resources for engaging learners in the geosciences. On JMP's Kidsciencechallenge.com website, children (8-13 years of age) will find "kid friendly" profiles and videos of geoscientists and their careers, rich resources and interactivity on the sciences and further career activities, presented as part of a project that has already actively engaged thousands of children in learning about and "doing" science. The Pulse of the Planet and Kids' Science Challenge websites receive an average of 9,600 page views daily. PBS television's The News Hour and the PBS education site will feature our video segments on geoscientists featured in PoP programs.
This CRPA project produced a human-like avatar exhibit for the Orlando Science Center that verbally communicates with middle and high school grade visitors, engaging them in the subjects of computer science, artificial intelligence, and engineering. Human-like characteristics include features to match the demographics of the Center's clientele and verbal communication in the English language. In addition to discussing how avatars are developed and how artificial intelligence works, the avatar image will answer questions from the visitors on selected topics, including subjects from the media models of Avatar and IBM's Watson event on Jeopardy. Considerable planning and research has gone into this project to make sure that the avatar is life-like and can engage in realistic dialog. The avatar images will resemble real individuals who have diverse demographic characteristics in order to enhance the human-computer interface. The system is designed to deal with background noise and antagonistic visitors. Evaluation at all levels (front-end, formative, and summative) will make the exhibit most effective and facilitate the goals of the project which are to inform the target audience on STEM subjects. The desire to have electronic analogs of humans has been a goal for half of a century. This project builds on prior research in this area and is one of the most sophisticated contemporary models in the field. It is anticipated that this work may contribute to future applications in education and assistance for individuals with disabilities. Moreover, engagement with the avatar may ignite curiosity among young visitors and stimulate interest in science careers.
The Principal Investigator's Guide: Managing Evaluation in Informal STEM Education Projects (PI Guide) is designed to help principal investigators and other leaders of informal STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education projects integrate evaluation into all phases of project design, development, and implementation. Such projects include exhibits, media projects, websites, community science projects, afterschool programs, festivals, family activities, online games, citizen science projects, and other efforts to help people learn about science in the course of their everyday
The Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) provides a decision chart as a guide for institutional review boards (IRBs), investigators, and others who decide if an activity is research involving human subjects that must be reviewed by an IRB under the requirements of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations at 45 CFR part 46. OHRP welcomes comment on these decision charts. The charts address decisions on the following: whether an activity is research that must be reviewed by an IRB, whether the review may be performed by expedited procedures, and whether informed
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U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
In this paper, we present the DeepTree exhibit, a multi-user, multi-touch interactive visualization of the Tree of Life. We developed DeepTree to facilitate collaborative learning of evolutionary concepts. We will describe an iterative process in which a team of computer scientists, learning scientists, biologists, and museum curators worked together throughout design, development, and evaluation. We present the importance of designing the interactions and the visualization hand-in-hand in order to facilitate active learning. The outcome of this process is a fractal-based tree layout that
The overarching purpose of the Climate Literacy Zoo Education Network is to develop and evaluate a new approach to climate change education that connects zoo visitors to polar animals currently endangered by climate change, leveraging the associative and affective pathways known to dominate decision-making. Utilizing a polar theme, the partnership brings together a strong multidisciplinary team that includes the Chicago Zoological Society of Brookfield, IL, leading a geographically distributed consortium of nine partners: Columbus Zoo & Aquarium, OH; Como Zoo & Conservatory, St. Paul, MN; Indianapolis Zoo, IN; Louisville Zoological Garden, KY; Oregon Zoo, Portland, OR; Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, PA; Roger Williams Park Zoo, Providence, RI; Toledo Zoological Gardens, OH, and the organization Polar Bears International. The partnership leadership includes the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. The partnership is joined by experts in conservation psychology and an external advisory board. The primary stakeholders are the diverse 13 million annual visitors to the nine partner zoos. Additional stakeholders include zoo docents, interpreters and educators, as well as the partnership technical team in the fields of learning innovations, technological tools, research review and education practice. The core goals of the planning phase are to a) develop and extend the strong multidisciplinary partnership, b) conduct research needed to understand the preconceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and learning modes of zoo visitors regarding climate change; and c) identify and prototype innovative learning environments and tools. Internal and external evaluations will be conducted by Facet Innovations of Seattle, WA. Activities to achieve these goals include assessments and stakeholder workshops to inventory potential resources at zoos; surveys of zoo visitors to examine demographic, socioeconomic, and technology access parameters of zoo visitors and their existing opinions; and initial development and testing of participatory, experiential activities and technological tools to facilitate learning about the complex system principles underlying the climate system. The long-term vision centers on the development of a network of U.S. zoos, in partnership with climate change domain scientists, learning scientists, conservation psychologists, and other stakeholders, serving as a sustainable infrastructure to investigate strategies designed to foster changes in public attitudes, understandings, and behavior surrounding climate change.
The authors provide an analysis of pairs of children interacting with a multi-touch tabletop exhibit designed to help museum visitors learn about evolution and the tree of life. The exhibit’s aim is to inspire visitors with a sense of wonder at life’s diversity while providing insight into key evolutionary concepts such as common descent. The authors find that children negotiate their interaction with the exhibit in a variety of ways including reactive, articulated, and contemplated exploration. These strategies in turn influence the ways in which children make meaning through their
Realizing the power of CyberLearning to transform education will require vision, strategy, and an engaged, talented community. Activities are needed to energize the community, refine and sharpen the path forward, and provide a more active and ongoing forum for clarifying the big ideas and challenging questions. In response to this need, SRI International, together with the Lawrence Hall of Science and with key support from the National Geographic Society, will organize a set of activities to advance a shared vision of the future of learning, encompassing the systems, people, and technology dimensions mutually necessary for any scalable and lasting advances in education. The innovative format for these activities is inspired by the TED talks, Wikipedia, and social networking. As in TED, a small set of leading researchers will be selected to give very short, very high quality, stimulating talks. These CyberLearning Talks will be featured at a 1-day summit meeting in Washington, DC, streamed so that local cyberlearning research communities may participate at a distance, and posted on a website. As in Wikipedia, CyberLearning Pages will be created, each page featuring a synopsis of a big idea in CyberLearning and the relevant research challenges. The 1-day conference will be followed by a small 1-day workshop focusing on how to evaluate cyberlearning efforts, identify progress, and identify important new directions. Finally, to disseminate and stimulate conversation about both the video talks and Wikipedia entries, a presence for the community will be created on social networking sites. The target outcomes of the effort will be (i) a cyberlearning research community with participants from across the many current constituent communities, and fostered awareness and appreciation of the broad range of expertise and interests across that wider community; (ii) foundations for sustained discussion of big ideas, insights, and challenges to help this new community define a more engaged, crisper vision of its own future, (iii) a community resource that can become a site for interconnecting stakeholders in the CyberLearning community and supporting investigators in improving field-generated proposals, and (iv) an emerging sense of direction for CyberLearning among a wider audience of leaders. Such community building and awareness is expected to foster collaborations that will lead to innovative and research-grounded ways of using technology to transform education -- formal and informal and across a lifetime.
The Internet is a growing source of open educational resources (OERs) focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). These STEM OERs are not only shared openly and free for all to use, but often provide licenses that permit modification and reuse. Educators must have access to tools that pinpoint valuable resources while avoiding substandard ones. The authors discuss how multiple information sources, user communities, and online platforms might be coordinated to craft effective experiences in digital-rich learning environments.