This infographic reports findings from the Youth Access & Equity in Informal Science Learning (ISL) project, a UK-US researcher-practitioner partnership funded by the Science Learning+ Phase 1 scheme. Our project focuses on young people aged 11-14 primarily from under-served and non-dominant communities and includes researchers and practitioners from a range of ISL settings: designed spaces (e.g. museums, zoos), community-based (e.g. afterschool clubs) and everyday science spaces (e.g. science media).
This briefing paper reports findings from the Youth Access & Equity in Informal Science Learning (ISL) project, a UK-US researcher-practitioner partnership funded by the Science Learning+ Phase 1 scheme. Our project focuses on young people aged 11-14 primarily from under-served and non-dominant communities and includes researchers and practitioners from a range of ISL settings, including designed spaces (eg museums, zoos), community-based (e.g. afterschool clubs) and everyday science spaces (e.g. science media).
This briefing paper reports findings from the Youth Access & Equity in Informal Science Learning (ISL) project,
a UK-US researcher-practitioner partnership funded by the Science Learning+ scheme. Our project focuses on young people aged 11-14 primarily from under-served and non-dominant communities and includes researchers and practitioners from a range of ISL settings: designed spaces (e.g. museums, zoos), community-based (e.g. after school clubs) and everyday science spaces (e.g. science media).
The Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens will link and integrate its digital geographic information system (GIS) to its plant collections database, making possible the creation of GIS-derived applications that will ultimately impact all areas of the museum's operations. Following the system integration, the institution will develop applications and train staff members on how to develop GIS-derived applications tailored to enhance the learning experiences of visitors and program participants. The integrated database will serve as a resource that will positively impact learning experiences for the gardeners who maintain the plant collections, visitors to the garden, participants in education programs, and people accessing information online. The project will also help demonstrate the potential of spatial data to benefit collections-management activities and public programming.
The New York City Department of Education will build a digital gateway for students and teachers called “Project ECS@ESC: Encouraging Connections through STEM” at the Environmental Study Center. This will offer rich and engaging experiential environmental science programs for students and teachers at all grade levels. The project will develop a digital depository of educational materials and digital resources that connect instructional content and programs. Educators and students will access the instructional resources beyond the walls of ESC, facilitating STEM-focused inquiry experiences in the classroom and utilizing instructional materials, e-content, and digital resources. It will also create a digital depository using Springshare’s Libguides, an online content management system, to provide e-content focused on STEM topics and themes.
This report describes an evaluation of two educational programs that Iridescent offered with a grant from the National Science Foundation. These two programs were developed for youth and their families and were organized around open-ended Engineering Design Challenges. These are hands-on problem-solving activities supported by a web-based platform known as the Curiosity Machine. The Curiosity Machine and the Design Challenges were designed to work together to engage learners in fundamental physics and engineering concepts in fun and open-ended ways, while enhancing their curiosity, creativity
The overall purpose of the Kinetic City (KC) Empower project was to examine how informal science activities can be made accessible for students with disabilities. The premise of this project was that all students, including those with disabilities, are interested in and capable of engaging in science learning experiences, if these experiences are accessible to them. Drawing on resources from Kinetic City, a large collection of science experiments, games, and projects developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the project researched and adapted five after
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Bob HirshonLaureen SummersBabette MoellerWendy Martin
Hidden Universe is a multi-faceted project built around production of a 2D/3D giant screen film. The goal is to inspire, engage, and excite viewers about the mysterious worlds hidden around us and the science and technology that reveal them. The film will illuminate natural wonders that are invisible to the naked eye, such as objects and processes that are too slow, too fast, and too small to be seen without advanced technologies. It will include nanoscience and microbiology research and developing wavelength technologies such as ultrafast lasers. The project will employ cutting-edge
In support of a summative evaluation of SciGirls Season Three, Multimedia Research developed a scale to assess preteen girls’ interest in nature and science. The work was sponsored by Twin Cities PBS under NSF Grant No. 1323713. Multimedia Research developed, piloted, validated and implemented the GINSS: A nine statement Likert scale constructed to reveal girls’ strength of interest in nature and science activities. Researchers and evaluators are encouraged to use this scale to extend its application. Please email if you eventually use the scale in your research or evaluation: Flagg
Creating Museum Media for Everyone is an NSF-funded collaborative project of the Museum of Science, the WGBH National Center for Accessible Media, Ideum, and Audience Viewpoints, to further the science museum field's understanding of ways to research, develop, and evaluate digital interactives that are inclusive of all people. As a part of this effort to enable museums to integrate more accessible media into their exhibits to make them more welcoming and educational for visitors with disabilities as well as general audiences, this paper provides an overview of approaches to media accessibility
This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency and are having an increasing effect on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mike SharplesAnne AdamsNonye AlozieRebecca FergusonElizabeth FitzGeraldMark GavedPatrick McAndrewBarbara MeansJulie RemoldBart RientiesJeremy RoschelleKea VogtDenise WhitelockLouise Yarnall
Over recent years, there has been much discussion of the status of science communication as a discipline, as a field of empirical research and theoretical reflection. In our own contributions to that discussion, we have tended to raise questions about the possibilities of this ‘emerging discipline’ (Trench & Bucchi 2010). We have some-times drawn attention to the marks of immaturity—notably, the relatively underdeveloped state of theory in the field.
But when a major international academic publisher commissions an anthology of ‘major works’ in our field, we can surely say that science