The summative evaluation of the Farming for Fuels classroom program and family event was conducted over two years. Two interim reports were delivered with preliminary results about specific areas of focus. This final report described the overall evaluation study methods and results, and made recommendations for potential revisions and improvements to the program. The evaluator worked with the program team at the Creative Discovery Museum to generate a list of questions to guide the evaluation study. The questions covered each of the major audiences for the program: museum educators, teachers
The article offers information on Quin Etnyre, a 13-year-old boy from Southern California who founded the electronics company Qtechknow. Topics discussed include Etnyre's invention of the ArduSensors plug-and-play electronic device components, Etnyre's used of the open-source electronics prototyping platform Arduino to began his company, and Entyre's hobbies such as sports including volleyball, track, and swimming.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Nelson SharleenQtechnow
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This handout is from a research and practice workshop at the NARST annual conference. The handout takes researchers through an exercise to craft a pitch to practitioners with whom they would like to partner for a research study.
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National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST)
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
In this presentation from a workshop on research and practice at the NARST annual conference, presenters presenters discuss: how to identify persistent problems of practice from practitioners' and stakeholders' perspectives; how to develop a collaborative design process that leverages the expertise of practitioners, researchers, subject matter experts in science, and other stakeholders; and how to formulate design goals that foreground supports for implementation, equity and diversity.
What Teachers and Districts Most Need from Research and Researchers: In this presentation from a workshop on research and practice at the NARST annual conference, Dan Gallagher of Seattle Public Schools and Tana Peterman of University of Washington discuss examples of what practitioners need from the education research community.
Since August of 2011, Project iLASER (Investigations with Light And Sustainable Energy Resources) has engaged children, youth and adults in public science education and hands-on activities across the entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border, from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The two main themes of Project iLASER activities focus on sustainable energy and materials science. More than 1,000 children have been engaged in the hands-on activities developed through Project iLASER at 20+ sites, primarily in after-school settings in Boys & Girls Clubs. Sites include Boys & Girls Clubs in California (Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, El Centro and Brawley); Arizona (Nogales); New Mexico (Las Cruces); and Texas (El Paso, Midland-Odessa, Edinburg and Corpus Christi). The project was co-funded between the NSF Division of Chemistry (CHE) and the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL).
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Southwestern CollegeDavid BrownDavid Hecht
This portfolio contains the following reports: "Community Science Workshops: A Powerful and Feasible Model for Serving Underserved Youth. An Evaluation Brief"; "Community Science Workshops: Building a Bridge to Science for Urban Youth. A Descriptive Look at CSWs."; "What Do Community Science Workshops Do For Kids? The Benefits to Urban Youth."; and "CSWs by the Numbers: A Statistical Portrait of Community Science Workshops." Community Science Workshops are community-based non-profit programs that offer underserved youth living in low-income, high-minority neighborhoods a fun and safe way to
This coding framework was developed to categorize the evaluation reports on informalscience.org. Coding categories and related codes were created to align with key features of evaluation reports and the potential coding needs of the five BISE (Building Informal Science Education) synthesis authors.
Goodman Research Group, Inc. conducted an external evaluation of WGBH's NOVA scienceNOW (NsN) multimedia project as part of the project’s award from the Advancing Informal STEM Learning division of the National Science Foundation. The evaluation assessed NsN’s effectiveness in meeting its broad goals for its public and professional audiences, including increasing public appreciation for, understanding of, and engagement in or pursuit of science, increasing science cafe organizers’ and speakers’ perceived expertise and skills, and fostering a community of practice among cafe organizers. The NsN
The C2C award addresses the lack of validated instruments to measure teamwork and collaboration in middle and high school students in out of school time (OST) settings by implementing a rigorous four-phase process to develop new assessments. Phase 1 focuses on defining the construct of teamwork and collaboration skills so it aligns with the research literature and is relevant to outcomes in a variety of STEM OST programs. Construct maps are developed during Phase 2 to guide item development. The instruments are piloted in Phase 3 through think-aloud interviews and survey administration with a diverse set of youth and programs. Through an iterative process, items are revised or removed based on their psychometric properties. The final phase is a national field test with a cross-section of STEM OST programs. C2C's intellectual merit is its potential to advance understanding of how to measure teamwork and collaboration skills in STEM OST programs. There is a national call for more measures to evaluate 21st century skills. C2C's creation of instruments to measure teamwork and collaboration skills in STEM OST programs helps to address this gap. The work of C2C addresses broader impacts and benefit society by creating tools to understand the role STEM OST programs play in readying our nation's youth for the STEM workforce. C2C will create instruments validated specifically for this diverse population, allowing programs to understand the role they play in important societal STEM workforce readiness outcomes. C2C also benefits the informal science education field by conceptualizing the construct of teamwork and collaboration within STEM OST programs and developing validated instruments to understand the impact of these programs on youth.
This is a collaborative research project between Montana State University (MSU), Bozeman, USA and Gorno-Altaisk State University (GASU), Altai Republic, Russian Federation. In this NSF International Research Experiences for Students project MSU students will travel to the Altai Republic and work with faculty and students at Gorno-Altaisk University to conduct research related to native language use in learning ecological sciences in informal settings. Student researchers will conduct individual studies related to the project theme of science learning in ecological contexts. This project will help students learn how to conduct educational research related to the ecological learning experiences of indigenous youth (ages12-16) and the use and influence of native language in learning about environment. This research directly addresses the results of our prior NSF supported work that identified shared issues of indigenous people, natural resources and the decline of native language use among underserved populations in the Altai and Yellowstone systems. This project contributes significantly to our emerging understanding of science learning in informal settings. It addresses a unique conception of ecological learning in three dimensions; personal, community and cultural perspectives. Research and education objectives align with modern conceptualizations of informal science learning as proposed by the National Academies of Science (2009). The MSU-GASU collaboration provides a holistic view of science learning and will unite diverse intellectual resources and research efforts in unique ecological and social systems. Both the Yellowstone and Altai mountain systems are of global concern as part of worldwide natural and cultural resources impacted by pervasive development, recreation and tourism activities and climate change. The underlying theoretical foundation for learning proposed in this research project is the basis for effective approaches to enable isolated rural populations to contribute traditional knowledge and wisdom to contemporary issues related to world-wide ecological and cultural issues including global climate change. Aspects of sustainability practices that are embedded in the knowledge and social processes of both marginalized and dominant societies will be better understood and taken into consideration for future research and education activities. Research outcomes will contribute to more effective informal, place-based and experiential science learning to help empower communities and decision makers in meeting challenges of sustainability. Inevitably, we expect this work to extend our understanding of science learning related to critical natural and cultural resources and their management. An understanding of how, why and where learning takes place will help extend the US and international research and education agendas related to informal science learning, natural and cultural resource management and sustainability.
Non-technical part.
This is a collaborative research project between Montana State University (MSU), Bozeman, USA and Gorno-Altaisk State University (GASU), Altai Republic, Russian Federation. In this NSF International Research Experiences for Students project MSU students will travel to the Altai Republic and work with faculty and students at Gorno-Altaisk University to conduct research related to native language use in learning ecological sciences in informal settings. Student researchers will conduct individual studies related to the project theme of science learning in ecological contexts. This project we will help students learn how to conduct educational research related to the ecological learning experiences of indigenous youth (ages12-16) and the use and influence of native language in learning about environment. Three cohorts of five MSU students will travel to the Altai Republic for eight weeks in the summers of 2013, 2014 & 2015. MSU students will comprise a research team with GASU science, education and language faculty to conduct research in the city of Gorno-Altaisk, two medium size villages such as Onguday and two small villages such as Karakol. We expect to work with youth in each setting and interview a representative sample at each site. As a research team we expect to gain a better understanding of how indigenous youth use native Altai language in informal settings to learn about environment. We expect to compare sights within the study. As part of our larger research interests in ecological learning and native people, we will conduct a similar comparative study in the Yellowstone Ecosystem with Native American youth. The studies associated with this project will add to our understanding about the extent and nature of native language use to learn science in underserved populations in very sensitive and unique ecological and cultural settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Michael BrodyClifford MontagneArthur BangertChristine StantonShane Doyle
Across the globe, citizen science projects are becoming increasingly poised to address social and environmental challenges and answer broad scientific questions. Although rapidly increasing in number, these projects need easy-to-use software tools for data management, analysis, and visualization to be successful. This project transforms how citizen science projects unfold locally, regionally, and globally by creating software that supports the full spectrum of project activities. It empowers projects to ask and answer their own local questions while contributing data critical to larger-scale issues. These tools will allow projects to announce training events; track volunteers; create datasheets; enter, review, analyze, and visualize data; publish reports; discover resources; integrate data; and ensure that data are contributed to repositories (e.g., DataONE, NEON, GBIF, HydroShare, and EOL). Tools will be made available to citizen science projects and will be delivered as reusable software elements for use in existing websites; as website features on CitSci.org; and as Application Programming Interface (API) services and mobile applications. The tools will expand the national reach, local appeal, computational abilities, visualization techniques, statistical analysis capabilities, and interoperability of the nations' cyber-infrastructure. Using participatory design and agile methods, the project will: (1) develop reusable software elements that citizen science organizations can embed into their own websites, (2) harden and expand the functionality and capabilities of CitSci.org through new website features, and (3) extend the APIs of CitSci.org and develop associated mobile applications to increase system and tool interoperability. The target user communities will include citizen science project coordinators. It will deliver customizable tools and services related to all project activities and engage projects across a wide array of disciplines. Project coordinators will be able to customize all tools developed to suit their specific project needs. Adoption and use of the tools developed will create a cyber-ready workforce capable of collecting, contributing, and applying high quality ecological, geophysical, social, and human health related observations to solve real-world problems. These broader impacts will help the citizen science community better understand effective models of public engagement to ensure more impactful application of citizen science to societal challenges.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Gregory NewmanStacy LynnMelinda Laituri