This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC. It describes the BISE project and resulting project resources that are freely available to the ISE community.
This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC. It describes a project designed to increase informal learning opportunities for blind youth in STEM.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
National Federation of the BlindMark Riccobono
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This poster shows the development of the project Scientists for Tomorrow during the three years of its implementation: two first years under the full funding of the NSF and the third year as a no-cost extension. Also the poster describes how the project was incorporating more community centers and with it more participants through the development of the "self-sustained" mode of implementation. The poster introduces also the next step of the project - the Scientists for Tomorrow - National Alliance.
Given the role played by the informal sector in training and supporting educators and science learners within the formal sector, how might the informal sector respond to the NGSS? We answer this question by considering two further questions: (1) In what ways is the informal science education sector positioned to engage with and support NGSS? and (2) Where are points of mismatch between NGSS and ISE?
"Hybrid spaces for science learning" refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. Learning science within hybrid spaces can be a fun, engaging, and reflective experience. Further, hybrid spaces are inherently social, facilitating dialogue and social exchange, as well as the construction of knowledge, paralleling the nature of contemporary science. This symposium brings together several research programs that address learning "across contexts" that span classroom activities
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ole SmordalJim SlottaTom MoherMichelle LuiAlfredo Jornet
Informal environments—or out-of-school-time (OST) settings—play an important role in promoting science learning for preK–12 students and beyond. The learning experiences delivered by parents, friends, and educators in informal environments can spark student interest in science and provide opportunities to broaden and deepen students’ engagement; reinforce scientific concepts and practices introduced during the school day; and promote an appreciation for and interest in the pursuit of science in school and in daily life. NSTA recommends strengthening informal learning opportunities for all preK
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TEAM MEMBERS:
National Science Teachers Association
The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and their research/evaluation partner, David Heil and Associates (DHA), will conduct front-end research to develop, pilot, and evaluate (formatively and summatively) a peer-reviewed journal and associated multi-media resources designed to catalyze innovative advances and learning across formal and informal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education communities. The goal is to identify content that is useful and appeals to the intersection of three target audiences: informal educators, formal educators and researchers conducting research at the intersection of in-school and out-of-school learning. This informal science education (ISE) "journal" would be a multi-media resource, available in both print and electronic forms, that could include videos or digital interactives and provide the potential for audience/reader feedback mechanisms, including input via social media. The publication proposed in this project has the potential to satisfy in part a key need identified in a Wellcome Trust study, Analysing the UK Science Education Community: The contribution of informal providers. The study report identifies the need to build an international depository of what has been and is being learned in ISE experiences at the boundary of in-school and out-of-school STEM learning - including syntheses of research, program evaluations, policy reports and illustrative cases studies. The proposed journal will also provide a vehicle to encourage and develop incentives for practitioners to publish results of their work. The project will use surveys, phone interviews and focus groups to conduct: 1) a landscape assessment, identifying what resources are already available to target audiences, how they are used, and what is missing; 2) front-end research with target audiences prior to publication of pilot issues, assessing interests, needs, and expectations and testing early topics, delivery formats, and discussion vehicles; and (3) formative and summative evaluation, assessing how well the (two-issue) pilot and associated social media vehicles foster synergy and satisfy the needs of the identified target audiences.
This study investigated the professional identity development of teacher candidates participating in an informal afterschool science internship in a formal science teacher preparation programme. We used a qualitative research methodology. Data were collected from the teacher candidates, their informal internship mentors, and the researchers. The data were analysed through an identity development theoretical framework, informed by participants’ mental models of science teaching and learning. We learned that the experience in an afterschool informal internship encouraged the teacher candidates
We investigated curricular and pedagogical innovations in an undergraduate science methods course for elementary education majors at the University of Maryland. The goals of the innovative elementary science methods course included: improving students’ attitudes toward and views of science and science teaching, to model innovative science teaching methods and to encourage students to continue in teacher education. We redesigned the elementary science methods course to include aspects of informal science education. The informal science education course features included informal science
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University of Maryland College ParkKelly RiedingerGili Marbach-AdJ. Randy McGinnisEmily HestnessRebecca Pease