On March 14-15, 2013, representatives of eight members of Coastal America’s Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center (CELC) network met at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. The primary goal of the workshop was to explore ways of energizing all, or portions, of the network to engage, educate, and empower the public on major coastal, ocean and environmental issues. The particular issue that was used as the point of departure was “Increasing Community Resilience to Extreme Weather-Related Events.” Support for the workshop was provided by the NOAA Office of Education.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jerry SchubelJerry EnzlerAllen MunroeThomas Schmid
The Extreme Plants Traveling Sideshow is a theatre piece performed at the Natural History Museum of Utah in relation to the special exhibition, The Power of Poison. While NHMU has a history of Museum Theatre performances, this was the first to be performed since its move to the Rio Tinto Center.
The goal of this evaluation was to understand the visitor experience with museum theater and museum theatre’s value in communicating science content, as well as to inform future productions at NHMU. With this in mind, we sought answer the following questions:
1. Did guests feel the performance
Supported by the National Science Foundation, the Global Soundscapes! Big Data, Big Screens, Open Ears project employs a variety of informal learning experiences to present the physics of sound and the new science of soundscape ecology. The interdisciplinary science analyzes sounds over time in different ecosystems around the world. The major components of the Global Soundscapes project are an educator-led interactive giant-screen theater program and hands-on group activities. Multimedia Research, an independent evaluation firm, implemented a summative evaluation with low income, inner-city
With the rapid development of technologies for exposure monitoring and data analysis, opportunities for utilizing citizen science and community-engaged research approaches in advancing environmental health research are ever increasing. On December 8-9, 2016, the Research Triangle Environmental Health Collaborative (Collaborative) held its 9th Summit, Community Engaged Research and Citizen Science Summit: Advancing Environmental Public Health to Meet the Needs of Our Communities in Research Triangle Park, NC. The timing of this particular Summit was fortuitous as it dovetailed with the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Research Triangle Environmental Health CollaborativeMadelyn HuangKimberly Thigpen Tart
Environmental education is about creating healthier communities for all—with ecological integrity, shared prosperity, and social equity as our long-term goals. Environmental educators have been working in, with, and for communities for decades. As communities have evolved, so has the field of environmental education. In creating the Community Engagement: Guidelines for Excellence, NAAEE brings the field’s professional standards to environmental educators’ dynamic work in today’s communities.
Why are these guidelines important? Environmental educators everywhere work in a constantly shifting
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TEAM MEMBERS:
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)Michele ArchieSusan ClarkJudy Braus
Social studies in citizen science typically focus on existing project participants. We present results from an online survey of 1145 marine users to identify broader public interest in marine citizen science. Although we found considerable community interest, the most enthusiastic tended to have a higher education in science, were under 45 years old, primarily enjoyed SCUBA diving, and had contributed to scientific research in the past. The type of research organization involved in a project played a role in people's willingness to share information. The discourse of public participation in
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Victoria MartinLeslie ChristidisGretta Pecl
Learn how to create opportunities for young people from low-income, ethnically diverse communities to learn about growing food, doing science, and how science can help them contribute to their community in positive ways. The authors developed a program that integrates hydroponics (a method of growing plants indoors without soil) into both in-school and out-of-school educational settings.
A collaboration between two North Carolina state agencies allows in-school and out-of-school educators to share knowledge, engage students in in-school and out-of-school opportunities, and develop learning communities to advance science education in the state.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Debra HallBenita TiptonLisa TolleyMarty Wiggins
Today’s science centers are becoming more aware of changes in their local contexts and are concerned about playing a role in building and contributing to society. The Mechelen Declaration, resulting from the Science Centre World Summit 2014 held in Mechelen, Belgium, clearly expresses this commitment with two of its goals (SCWS, 2014):
1. “We will investigate how to engage even more effectively with local communities and increasingly diverse audiences.”
2. “We will take the lead in developing the best methods for engaging learners and optimizing their education in both formal and
This is a supplement to an article on place-based learning that appeared in the May/June 2016 issue of Dimensions magazine.
In a green park just beyond historic Old Town Fort Collins and bordered by the local public library, Fort Collins Museum of Discovery’s Heritage Courtyard welcomes visitors back to the early years of this Northern Colorado city. Founded as a military outpost in 1864, Fort Collins evolved into a desirable place for pioneers to settle with access to agriculture (fertile soil for sugar beets), goods (along a major train route), and education (home to Colorado’s land-grant
On a May morning in 2007, fourth grader Joshua White hopped on a city bus with his grandmother and rode across Washington, D.C., for his first visit to the nature center at Rock Creek Park. He came to participate in the first annual national park BioBlitz organized by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and National Geographic.
In 2016, more than 120 National Park Service (NPS) units conducted BioBlitzes, supported by a collaboration between The National Geographic Society and the National Park Service. The Lawrence Hall of Science conducted an evaluation of participant and park outcomes at the cornerstone BioBlitz throughout the National Capital region, at the large (regional) Showcase BioBlitzes, and at additional events at National Parks across the US. The report includes a description of the evaluation project, case studies from 3 BioBlitzes, findings, recommendations, and the instruments used to measure