As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. This Research in Service to Practice project will address the issues around Informal Education of rural middle school students who have high potential regarding academic success in efforts to promote computer and IT knowledge, advanced quantitative knowledge, and STEM skills. Ten school districts in rural Iowa will be chosen for this study. It is anticipated that new knowledge on rural informal education will be generated to benefit the Nation's workforce. The specific objectives are to understand how informal STEM learning shapes the academic and psychosocial outcomes of rural, high-potential students, and to identify key characteristics of successful informal STEM learning environments for rural, high-potential students and their teachers. The results of this project will provide new tools for educators to increase the flow of underserved students into STEM from economically-disadvantaged rural settings.
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology predicts a rapid rise in the number of STEM jobs available in the next decade, describing an urgent need for students' educational opportunities to prepare them for this workforce. In 2014, 62% of CEOs of major US corporations reported challenges filling positions requiring advanced computer and information technology knowledge. The project team will use a mixed methods approach, integrating comparative case study and mixed effects longitudinal methods, to study the Excellence program. Data sources include teacher interviews, classroom observations, and student assessments of academic aptitude and psychosocial outcomes. The analysis and evaluation of the program will be grounded in understanding the local efforts of school districts to build curriculum responsive to the demands of their high-potential student body. The project design, and subsequent analysis plan, utilizes a mixed methods approach, incorporating case study and longitudinal quantitative methods to analyze naturalistic data and build robust evidence for the implementation and impact of this program. This project will provide significant insights in how best to design, implement, and support informal out-of-school learning environments to broaden participation in the highest levels of STEM education and careers for under-resourced rural students.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Susan Assouline
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
As higher education institutions (HEIs) work to enhance Broader Impacts (BI) efforts, collaborations with informal science education institutions (ISEs) (e.g. science centers, aquaria, zoos) can help them strengthen their impact and reach broader audiences. This project builds on the successful Portal to the Public (PoP) framework, bringing together the expertise and resources of HEIs and ISEs around the shared mission of engaging public audiences in current STEM research. The project is designed to address several critical needs: (1) Public outreach BI activities are relatively uncommon compared to BI that is focused within the infrastructure of academia; (2) Because collaborations with ISEs are frequently tied to individual Principal Investigators (PIs), there is limited opportunity to build a body of knowledge around the practice of partnering for BI work; and (3) Collaborations are often transient, making it more difficult for universities to view BI on an institutional level in ways that leverage particular institutional assets or strategies and even link investigators from multiple projects. The specific areas of study are: a. Develop and test a structure for education/outreach BI experience design that addresses a public audience need and meets NSF's BI criterion: The project will create disseminatable tools around the activity design process (including evaluation of learning impacts). By convening cross-disciplinary teams, the project will ensure that experiences will reflect a wide range of expertise and will help meet the needs of multiple stakeholders. These established structures will lower the barrier to entry for PIs who want to do public outreach BI. b. Design, test, and study structures for long-term, mutually beneficial HEI-ISE partnerships: The project will build on the proven PoP model to create flexible, disseminatable tools around the development of institutional partnerships at three collaborating HEI-ISE site pairings that consider each institution's resources, constraints and strategic goals, including a cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary Broader Impacts Design (BID) Team structure. Sustained partnerships will support ongoing public engagement with current STEM research. c. Anchor the partnership at the HEI with a representative from an office of research support: Research support professionals will be a core part of the BID Team and will help support institutional strategies for aligning BI activities with broader goals around community engagement. d. Study the culture of HEI-ISE partnerships, building knowledge about how these institutions can form effective, sustained and mutually beneficial collaborations. Project partners include Pacific Science Center with the University of Washington, Bothell, WA; University of Wisconsin-Madison with the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery; and the Sciencenter with Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. In addition, the Center for Research in Lifelong Learning, Oregon State University will oversee the research aspects of the project. The project's primary benefit is the development of more effective mechanisms for HEIs and ISEs to collaborate, that will better enable them to engage their communities in experiences and conversations about current STEM research and innovation. This project is being 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.
This one-year Collaborative Planning project seeks to bring together an interdisciplinary planning team of informal and formal STEM educators, researchers, scientists, community, and policy experts to identify the elements, activities, and community relationships necessary to cultivate and sustain a thriving regional early childhood (ages 3-6) STEM ecosystem. Based in Southeast San Diego, planning and research will focus on understanding the needs and interests of young Latino dual language learners from low income homes, as well as identify regional assets (e.g., museums, afterschool programs, universities, schools) that could coalesce efforts to systematically increase access to developmentally appropriate informal STEM activities and resources, particularly those focused on engineering and computational thinking. This project has the potential to enhance the infrastructure of early STEM education by providing a model for the planning and development of early childhood focused coalitions around the topic of STEM learning and engagement. In addition, identifying how to bridge STEM learning experiences between home, pre-k learning environments, and formal school addresses a longstanding challenge of sustaining STEM skills as young children transition between environments. The planning process will use an iterative mixed-methods approach to develop both qualitative and quantitative and data. Specific planning strategies include the use of group facilitation techniques such as World Café, graphic recording, and live polling. Planning outcomes include: 1) a literature review on STEM ecosystems; 2) an Early Childhood STEM Community Asset Map of southeast San Diego; 3) a set of proposed design principles for identifying and creating early childhood STEM ecosystems in low income communities; and 4) a theory of action that could guide future design and research. This project is funded by the 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.
Considering whether to volunteer to be an NSF AISL reviewer? Here’s some information to help you decide if you are a good fit. Each year, the NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning program looks for peer reviewers. New reviewers often have questions about the commitment to review. This slide deck is to help you understand what reviewers do and the commitments they make considering issues about time commitment, activities, money, etc.
In this case study, we highlight the work of the Bay Area STEM Ecosystem, which aims to increase equity and access to STEM learning opportunities in underserved communities. First, we lay out the problems they are trying to solve and give a high level overview of the Bay Area STEM Ecosystem’s approach to addressing them. Then, based on field observations and interviews, we highlight both the successes and some missed opportunities from the first collaborative program of this Ecosystem. Both the successes of The Bay Area STEM Ecosystem--as well as the partners’ willingness to share and examine
This report presents findings from a formative evaluation of Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities-Informal Science Education (SENCER-ISE), a National Science Foundation and Noyce Foundation funded initiative to support partnerships between informal science and higher education institutions. This evaluation looked primarily at the collaborative infrastructure of SENCER-ISE, which included the web site, SENCER Summer Institute, and communications with project staff and/or the advisory board. This evaluation is the third evaluation that Randi Korn & Associates, Inc
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RK&A, Inc.
resourceevaluationProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement (NCSCE) contracted Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to conduct a summative evaluation of its SENCER-ISE project partnerships. SENCER-ISE is an initiative that brings partners from higher education (HE) together with partners from informal science education (ISE) to create projects that engage audiences in science using the lens of civic engagement. SENCER funded 10 partnerships over three years—six through the National Science Foundation (DRL #1001795) and four through the Noyce Foundation. Previously, RK&A conducted a formative
King et al. [2015] argue that ‘emphasis on impact is obfuscating the valuable role of evaluation’ in informal science learning and public engagement (p. 1). The article touches on a number of important issues pertaining to the role of evaluation, informal learning, science communication and public engagement practice. In this critical response essay, I highlight the article’s tendency to construct a straw man version of ‘impact evaluation’ that is impossible to achieve, while exaggerating the value of simple forms of feedback-based evaluation exemplified in the article. I also identify a
The cyberlearning community in the United States brings computer scientists and learning scientists together to design and study innovative learning technologies. The Cyberlearning Community Report: The State of Cyberlearning and the Future of Learning With Technology highlights examples of the exciting work our community is engaged in as we integrate the latest innovations in learning science and computer science into new research designs and methods. This work is also driving the need for new learning sciences in areas such as embodied cognition, identity, and affect, and requires advances
This longitudinal research study will contribute to a broader understanding of the pathways of STEM-interested high school students from underrepresented groups who plan to pursue or complete science studies in their post-high school endeavors. The project will investigate the ways that formative authentic science experiences may support youth's persistence in STEM. The study focuses on approximately 900 urban youth who are high interest, high potential STEM students who participate in, or are alumni of, the Science Research Mentoring Program. This program provides intensive mentoring for high school youth from groups underrepresented in STEM careers. It takes place at 17 sites around New York City, including American Museum of Natural History, which is the original program site. Identifying key supports and obstacles in the pathways of high-interest, under-represented youth towards STEM careers can help practitioners design more inclusive and equitable STEM learning experiences and supports. In this way, the project will capitalize on student interest so that students with potential continue to persist.
In order to understand better the factors that influence these students, this research combines longitudinal social network and survey data with interviews and case studies, as well as an analysis of matched student data from New York City Public Schools' records. The research questions in the study are a) how do youths' social networks develop through their participation in scientists' communities of practice? b) what is the relationship between features of the communities of practice and youths' social networks, measures of academic achievement, and youths' pursuit of a STEM major? and c) what are the variations in youth pathways in relationship to learner characteristics, composition of social networks, and features of the community of practice? The research design allows for a rich, layered perspective of student pathways. In particular, by employing social network analysis, this study will reveal relational features of persistence that may be particularly critical for underrepresented youth, for whom STEM role models and cultural brokers provide an otherwise unavailable sense of belonging and identity in STEM. The study will also access a New York City Public Schools data set comprised of student-level records containing biographical and demographic variables, secondary and postsecondary course enrollment and grades, exam scores, persistence/graduation indicators, linked responses to post-secondary surveys, and post-education employment records and wages. These data enable examination of inter-relationships between in-school achievement and out-of-school STEM experiences through comparison of program participants to similar non-participant peers. This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field.
Education stakeholders from advocates to developers are increasingly recognizing the potential of science games in advancing student academic motivation for and interest in science and science careers. To maximize this potential, the project will use science games (e.g. Land Science, River City, and EcoMUVE), shown to be enjoyable to students and proven to promote student learning in science at the middle school level. Through a two-phase process, games will be used as vehicles for learning about ways to change how students think about science and potentially STEM careers. The goal of the intervention is to explore which processes and design features of science games will actually help students move beyond a temporary identity of being a scientist or engineer (as portrayed while playing the game) to one where students began to see themselves in real STEM careers. Students' participation will be guided by teams of teachers, faculty members, and graduate students from Drexel University and a local school. All science students attending the local inner city middle school in Philadelphia, PA, will participate in the intervention.
Using an exploratory mixed-method design, the first two years of the project will focus on exploring, characterizing, coding, and analyzing data sets from three large games designed to help students think about possible careers in science. During year 3, the project will integrate lessons learned from the first two years into the existing middle school science curriculum to engage students in a one-year intervention using PCaRD (Play Curricular activity Reflection Discussion). During the intervention, the PI will work with experts from Drexel University and a local school to collect data on the design features of Land Science to capture identity change in the science identity of the participating students. Throughout the course of year 3, the PI will observe, video, interview, survey, and use written tasks to uncover if the Land Science game is influencing students' identity in any way (from a temporary to a long-term perspective about being a scientist or engineer). Data collected during three specified waves during the intervention will be compared to analyses of existing logged data through collaborations with researchers at Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These comparisons will focus on similar middle-aged science students who used the same gaming environments as the students involved in this study. However, the researcher will intentionally look for characteristics related to motivation, science knowledge, and science identity change.
This project will integrate research and education to investigate learning as a process of change in student science identity within situated environmental contexts of digital science gameplay around curricular and learning activities. This integrated approach will allow the researcher to explore how gaming is inextricably linked to the student as an individual while involved in the learning of domain specific content in science. The collaboration among major university and school partners; the expertise of the researcher in educational psychology, educational technology, and science games; and the project's advisory board makes this a real-life opportunity for the researcher to use information that naturally exists in games to advance knowledge in the field about the value of gaming to changing students' science identities. It also responds to reports by the National Research Council committee on science learning and computer games, which identifies games as having the potential to catalyze new approaches to science learning.
This poster was presented at the 2010 Association of Science-Technology Centers Annual Conference. The Saint Louis Science Center is a partner in Washington University's Cognitive, Computational, and Systems Neuroscience interdisciplinary graduate program funded by the NSF-IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) flagship training program for PhD scientists and engineers.