This document is the final evaluation report for the project, which focuses both on formative evaluation of the collaborative+interdisciplinary presentation creation process and summative evaluation of audience learning outcomes.
Informal STEM learning experiences (ISLEs), such as participating in science, computing, and engineering clubs and camps, have been associated with the development of youth’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics interests and career aspirations. However, research on ISLEs predominantly focuses on institutional settings such as museums and science centers, which are often discursively inaccessible to youth who identify with minoritized demographic groups. Using latent class analysis, we identify five general profiles (i.e., classes) of childhood participation in ISLEs from data
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Remy DouHeidi CianZahra HazariPhilip SadlerGerhard Sonnert
The project team published a research synopsis article with Futurum Science Careers in Feb 2023 called “How Can Place Attachment Improve Scientific Literacy?”
The Museum of Science, Boston and Boston University received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement a pilot program mentoring high school students in science research, communication, and education practices, through the lens of experimental psychology research.
The Joseph Moore Museum at Earlham College will revise its interpreter training and educational programs to reflect current best practices in participatory STEM education. This project will include strengthening their programs to better prepare undergraduate educators, as well as updating the delivery of their top three requested programs to ensure learner-centered experiences. The project will include the development of a training program modeled on a combination of principles set out by the National Association of Interpretation and the Reflections on Practice program. Undergraduate educators will undergo systematic training in the fundamentals of educational theory and practice and benefit from a program of sustained evaluation and mentorship.
From 2019 to 2021, Knology undertook a project called Addressing Societal Challenges through STEM, which investigated how informal learning institutions are advancing the use of STEM knowledge and scientific reasoning to enable individuals, families, and communities to understand what they can do, and apply their learning to solving critical societal challenges.
The literature reviewed (237 studies and articles) documented an emerging infrastructure to support the capacity of ISL institutions to address social issues. This infrastructure includes a body of empirical and peer-reviewed
Poster presentation from the 2020 Association of Science and Technology Centers Annual Conference.
This poster presented preliminary findings from a configurative literature synthesis on how the literature posted on the InformalScience.org website, in peer-reviewed journals, and in the ProQuest archive of Theses and Dissertations report about how informal learning institutions are advancing the use of STEM knowledge and scientific reasoning in the ways that can help individuals and communities address the societal challenges of our time?
This poster describes the Addressing Societal Challenges through STEM (ASCS) project. The project's research goal is to identify and describe the range of ways that informal STEM learning (ISL) institutions are addressing societal challenges and how STEM knowledge and scientific reasoning are situated in that engagement.
The poster was presented at the American Association of Museums (AAM) 2020 Virtual Conference.
The employment demands in STEM fields grew twice as fast as employment in non-STEM fields in the last decade, making it a matter of national importance to educate the next generation about science, engineering and the scientific process. The need to educate students about STEM is particularly pronounced in low-income, rural communities where: i) students may perceive that STEM learning has little relevance to their lives; ii) there are little, if any, STEM-related resources and infrastructure available at their schools or in their immediate areas; and iii) STEM teachers, usually one per school, often teach out of their area expertise, and lack a network from which they can learn and with which they can share experiences. Through the proposed project, middle school teachers in low-income, rural communities will partner with Dartmouth faculty and graduate students and professional science educators at the Montshire Museum of Science to develop sustainable STEM curricular units for their schools. These crosscutting units will include a series of hands-on, investigative, active learning, and standards-aligned lessons based in part on engineering design principles that may be used annually for the betterment of student learning. Once developed and tested in a classroom setting in our four pilot schools, the units will be made available to other partner schools in NH and VT and finally to any school wishing to adopt them. In addition, A STEM rural educator network, through which crosscutting units may be disseminated and teachers may share and support each other, will be created to enhance the teachers’ ability to network, seek advice, share information, etc.
Addressing Societal Challenges through STEM (ASCs) received NSF AISL funding to conduct a Literature Review and Synthesis to answer the question: How are informal learning institutions advancing the use of STEM knowledge and scientific reasoning in the ways that individuals, families, and communities understand what they can do, and apply their learning to solving the societal challenges of our time? Using a definition of societal challenges based on research around the public understanding of social problems, this systematic literature review will identify, analyze, and synthesize three bodies of peer and field-reviewed literature (peer-reviewed journals, graduate theses, and evaluation reports of nationally-funded project).
Over the past decade, Informal STEM learning organizations have increasingly engaged in innovative ways to present STEM knowledge within the context of societal challenges such as climate change, energy sources, cyber-security, Nanotechnologies, coastal resilience, and other topics. These efforts significantly expand the traditional work of Informal STEM Learning (ISL) organizations, often leading to new types of interventions, partnerships, impacts, and assessment tools. Analyzing and interpreting the aggregate of this work will advance theoretical and practical knowledge about the potential of ISL’s in advancing the place of STEM in addressing societal challenges.
Demonstrating and articulating the characteristics of how ISL organizations are addressing societal challenges, encourages and informs the ways institutions can address the NSF strategic goal to “Advance the capability of the Nation to meet current and future challenges.” The project outputs aim to Enhance Knowledge-building, Build Capacity of the Field, and Maximize Strategic Impact by informing the strategies used by organizations and individuals. The results also aim to Broaden Participation by articulating the ways STEM knowledge is embedded and linked to personal experiences and choices.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
An in-depth case study of one of America’s first STEM Learning Ecosystems in Tulsa, Oklahoma, conducted by researchers at The PEAR Institute: Partnerships in Education and Resilience, finds that strong leadership, deep partnerships, and data-informed methods have led to the creation of diverse, high-quality, STEM-rich learning opportunities for Tulsa’s youth. Additionally, these efforts improved the capacity of STEM educators through high-quality professional development and supported youth pathways to STEM careers by increasing mentoring opportunities for STEM professionals.
These findings
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Kristin Lewis-WarnerPatricia AllenGil Noam
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. The Museum of Science, Boston (MOS) and Boston University (BU) will conduct a Pilot and Feasibility Study project that leverages the current Living Laboratory (LL) model and expand it to engage high school students (teens) in experimental psychology research, science communication and science education activities. In LL, which is now an extensive network of museums and university researchers across the country, scientists and museum staff collaborate to engage children in studies on the museum floor and educate caregivers about the research. Multi-site implementation and evaluation of LL has also documented positive impacts for undergraduate researchers. Many sites are eager to extend these benefits to high school students by engaging them as practitioners within the model and by providing them with opportunities to engage in current research, education and communication, thereby helping to foster stronger youth identities with science and its applications in society. This project expands a ten-year LL partnership between MOS and BU to: 1) pilot a program in which high school students both conduct scientific research and engage the public in learning about science; 2) explore strategies for museums and universities to collaboratively engage, support and mentor high school students in science research, communication and education activities; 3) document curricular, other programmatic, and evaluation materials; and 4) convene professional participants to provide feedback on pilot materials, and assess the viability of implementing similar programs at additional sites. Guided by developmental evaluation, these activities will generate knowledge for the field, and act to increase professional capacity to integrate experiences for teens at multiple LL sites in future projects. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.