In 2018, the Croucher Foundation conducted its third annual mapping exercise for the out-of-school STEM learning ecosystem in Hong Kong.
The study reveals a rich and vibrant ecosystem for out-of-school STEM in Hong Kong with over 3,000 discrete activities covering a very wide range of science disciplines. This third report indicates extremely rapid growth in available out-of-school STEM activities compared to 2016 and an even larger increase in the number of organisations offering out-of-school STEM activities in Hong Kong.
STEM educators are eager to foster long term collaboration with each other, and with schools. At the same time, good working practice by schools, teachers, STEM educators and institutions that involves and engages local communities was discovered, showing the diversified modes of connection which could enhance the sustainability of STEM ecosystem.
We trust that this three-year study with its associated digital maps, provides a useful resource for schools, teachers, students, parents, STEM educators and education policy makers in Hong Kong.
In 2018, the Croucher Foundation conducted its third annual mapping exercise for the out-of-school STEM learning ecosystem in Hong Kong.
The study reveals a rich and vibrant ecosystem for out-of-school STEM in Hong Kong with over 3,000 discrete activities covering a very wide range of science disciplines. This third report indicates extremely rapid growth in available out-of-school STEM activities compared to 2016 and an even larger increase in the number of organisations offering out-of-school STEM activities in Hong Kong.
STEM educators are eager to foster long term collaboration with
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Siu Po LeeDavid FosterThe Croucher Foundation
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This project will advance evidence-based efforts to broaden informal STEM engagement via the 2019 Inclusive Science Communication (Inclusive SciComm) Symposium, to be held September 27-29, 2019, at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island. Science communication, defined as any information exchange designed to engage targeted audiences in conversations or activities related to STEM topics, is a rapidly expanding area of research and practice with the potential to significantly increase public participation and sense of belonging in STEM fields. That said, there are few opportunities for its practitioners and scholars to convene around how to make their work both inclusive and equitable, which collectively acknowledge identity, cultural differences, and epistemologies as part of broadening participation. The 2019 symposium will address this gap through panels, workshops, and posters focused on three themes that represent critical and difficult aspects of inclusive science communication: (1) New Languages, Practices, Knowledge, and Research; (2) Changing Systems and Structures through Science Communication; and (3) Social Responsibility and Ethics. Within these themes, sessions will be organized to address major barriers of absence identified by participants in the 2018 Inclusive SciComm Symposium: skills, lessons learned, and knowledge gaps, especially with regard to facilitating difficult conversations across difference (critical dialogue). The symposium also will emphasize the need to integrate research and practice to advance inclusive, equitable, and intersectional approaches to science communication.
There is an urgent need to question assumptions and examine evidence regarding how science communicators and scholars approach efforts to broaden participation, but insufficient data exist on the inputs and outputs of inclusive and equitable practice. Critical dialogue about potentially uncomfortable topics such as privilege, power, or marginalization is an essential tool for inclusive practice and pedagogy. Finding from the 2018 Inclusive SciComm Symposium indicated that many educators and practitioners lack the language, skills, or confidence to initiate this type of dialogue. This project supports the knowledge-building component of the 2019 Inclusive SciComm Symposium to inform future science communication training, practice, and scholarship, by building on preliminary data collected during the 2018 symposium and responding to the need for more robust evaluation of science communication activities. Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior, the project will employ pre/post symposium surveys to investigate how 2019 symposium activities affected knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, and efficacy (the variables of the Theory of Planned Behavior) of attendees with regard to critical dialogue. Focus groups at the symposium will be used to identify priority research areas related to inclusion, generally, and critical dialogue, specifically, that could advance inclusive science communication practice and beneficial outcomes. The project also will evaluate symposium impacts with regard to 1) attendees' opinions on utility of symposium components for advancing inclusive science communication and 2) how attendees' experience and response orientations inform their approaches to difficult science communication conversations. Qualitative data from the surveys and focus groups will be thematically coded using constant comparison.
This project will have strategic impact for inclusive science communication practice and, therefore, for informal learning and public engagement with STEM topics. Increasing awareness and effective implementation of critical dialogue by science communicators and trainers should enhance both for ethical engagement of traditionally under-represented and marginalized groups and should foster diverse types of public participation in societal debates about scientific issues. The outcomes of this research will benefit and link the complementary, but often siloed, fields of informal science learning and science communication. A final report will summarize research findings and offer specific next steps to advance inclusive science communication practice and research, especially with regard to fostering critical dialogue. The report will be posted on inclusivescicomm.org and distributed via a national network of partners working in informal science education, science communication, and public engagement.
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.
STEAM, the use of art as a context and tool for science education, is currently a hot topic in the science education field. In almost all instances of study and practice, it involves the use of science-themed or science-informed art in science education. As such, it does not take advantage of the majority of artistic output that does not have an obvious connection to science. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently called for more research to expand the "limited but promising" evidence that integrating arts and humanities with science education leads to better learning. The goal of this 2.5-day conference is to bring together representatives of both art and science groups to have a shared discussion around how non-scientific art can influence science education in theory, and how we can apply empirical results to the theory. For purposes of this conference, "non-science art" is defined as art that was not inspired by science. Conference attendees will include researchers (art and science education researchers) and practitioners (artists, art museum interpreters, and science educators). The conference will take place during the 2020 Black Creativity exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. It is anticipated that by holding the conference at that time the audience for the conference and its impact will be informed by more diverse attendance.
The conference will be implemented starting with a pre-conference reading. Attendees will be sent a copy of the white paper from the Art as a Way of Knowing report for background reading and also asked to contribute to a Google Document that describes their various contexts. Each day of the conference will focus on a theme -- state of the field and possibilities and research -- and be comprised of large and small group interactions. Attendees will be invited from the ranks of practitioners, researchers and educators in the art and science education fields; several slots will be available for open (non-invited) participants. Key outcomes include: (a) a summary of all the research that has been conducted on using non-science art in science education, (b) starting points for building a theory on why non-science art can be used in science education; and (c) a list of specific research topics that would help inform, advance, and test the theory. In addition to assessing satisfaction with the conference, evaluation will also include a one-year post conference survey to investigate impact of participation in the conference.
This conference will generate products that will give guidance to both researchers and practitioners who want to use art in science education. These products include a white paper synthesizing the discussion and appendices that include raw transcripts and a bibliography of resources. Another product is a roadmap to create interventions that can be studied, which should lead to a stronger, more rigorous theory of practice about how art can be integrated into science education.
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.
Fostering greater inclusion in science creates benefits for both science and society. In this Innovations and Development project, the University of Utah will investigate how to sustain and scale the STEM Ambassador Program (STEMAP), begun in 2016 with AISL funding. STEMAP developed an innovative process to train scientists to engage members of the public, who cannot or do not gain access to science via conventional science education venues (such as museums, schools, zoos), by implementing activities in non-traditional settings. The 65 scientists trained by the initial STEMAP effort effectively engaged in over 45 settings including an affordable housing development, a youth residential treatment center, a state prison, a cooking class, a daycare facility, and several senior centers. The number of scientists applying to the program quickly exceeded STEMAP's capacity. Other institutions expressed interest in replicating the training. This project will explore strategies for scaling and sustaining public engagement training to support more scientists who can engage more people in more venues. Outcomes will serve to inform the broader implementation of STEMAP and the efforts of other public engagement programs, many of which face similar scaling and sustainability challenges.
Scaling and sustaining public engagement of science (PES) programs is a central challenge for many in the informal science learning community. This project will explore strategies to scale and sustain the STEM Ambassador Program. Research questions include: (1) How do different program formats increase or restrict program capacity and engagement outcomes? (2) What benefits accrue to scientists and their institutions by participating in public engagement in science activities that might serve as motivators to continue these activities? (3) Are funding and organizational models developed in business and other professional settings applicable to sustaining these programs? To address scalability, this project will explore the effectiveness of three dissemination formats: (1) the creation of a mentorship program for in-person trainees, (2) a train-the-trainer approach, and (3) online training with in-person mentorship. The project team will create an evaluation toolkit with participant surveys, rubrics for observers, and "on-the-spot" assessment tools developed under AISL Award 1811022 to assess the effectiveness of engagement activities delivered by trainees in each of the three formats. To address sustainability, the project team will document the values of public engagement training to both the participating scientists and their institutions via surveys and interviews. Consultants from the business sectors will create a PES Campus Council to explore possible financial, organizational, and leadership plans that will help sustain engagement efforts. Outcomes will be published in peer-reviewed journals and compiled into a dissemination framework to inform actions to scale and sustain STEMAP and other public engagement of science programs to engage more hard-to-reach audiences. Inverness Research will serve as the project's external evaluator.
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.
A large body of research highlights the benefits of storybooks for children's learning. In the context of preschool classrooms, the use of storybooks to engage young children in STEM is a frequent topic of practitioner-oriented articles. There is also an increasing number of informal STEM education (ISE) projects exploring how to leverage storybooks to engage young children and their families in different STEM content domains. While there is universal excitement for the potential of storybooks in ISE, there is an acknowledgment of a critical need for more cross-project sharing, more research, and more efforts to synthesize and share findings. This award will catalyze new research studies and partnerships to advance efforts in ISE contexts, including the role of books in the overall learning experience or program, how books are selected or designed, and how the reading is facilitated by teachers and families. Participants will be educators and researchers working with or studying family learning for preschool-age children (three to five years) using early childhood fiction books as a tool for engaging families in STEM topics and skills.
Storybook STEM will be implemented in four phases: (1) pre-convening activities to plan, synthesize existing resources, engage a broader group of educators and researchers beyond convening attendees, and prepare convening participants to maximize the value of the in-person discussions; (2) in-person convening to catalyze cross-project discussions, outline promising practices, and identify questions and ideas for the future; (3) evaluation of the impact and value of the convening, from the perspective of participants and a project steering committee; and (4) dissemination of findings and recommendations to educators and researchers within and beyond the ISE field. Outcomes include: (1) documenting current and past work in ISE and other fields; (2) summarizing key recommendations and resources from the reading, literacy, and early childhood development fields; and (3) outlining promising directions for future work.
The findings from this project will provide a critical resource to help broadening participation efforts be more effective and inclusive for audiences across the country. Research studies motivated by the convening will address the lack of empirical work on storybooks as a tool for ISE programs and advance the ISE field's knowledge of how to integrate these books effectively. Because storybooks are a highly accessible and almost universally used family learning resource, the topic of the convening will be relevant to a wide range of audiences and will help educators broaden access to ISE for traditionally underserved and under-resourced communities.
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.
Research on how museum staff are trained continues to emerge. Training varies considerably across institutions and typically includes observations, shadowing, and trial and error. While museum educators put high value on increasing visitor-centered participatory experiences, engagement based on acquisition-based theories of learning is still common among floor staff, even after training. Facilitating learning about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics in ways that support visitors in constructing their own understanding is difficult, especially since floor staff/facilitators may be working simultaneously with children and adults of a range of ages, backgrounds, and goals. This project will advance understanding of how to facilitate open-ended learning experiences in ways that engage visitors in practices that align with the STEM disciplines. The project will result in an evidence-based facilitation framework and training modules for training informal science educators. The work is grounded in constructivist theories of learning and identity work and focuses on visitors constructing understanding of STEM topics through active engagement in the practices of STEM. This model also results in learning experiences in informal settings that are mutually reinforcing with the goals of schools. This research is being conducted through an established researcher-practitioner partnership between MOXI, the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation and the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB).
The two primary goals of the work are to (1) enable visitors to better engage in STEM practices (practice-based learning) and (2) investigate the role of training in helping facilitators develop the practice-based facilitation strategies needed to support visitors' learning. STEM content in this study is physical science. Prior work resulted in two tools that constitute part of a facilitation framework (a practices-by-engagement matrix and three facilitation pathways) which help educators identify appropriate goals based on how the visitor is engaging with exhibits. The development of the final tool in the framework, facilitation strategies, and the refinement of the first two tools will be done using a design-based implementation research (DBIR) approach. Data collection and analysis will be directed and completed by research-practitioner teams of UCSB graduate students (researchers) and MOXI educators (practitioners); MOXI educators will be both participants and researchers. Data collection activities include: video data using point-of-view cameras worn by visitors and educators; interviews of educators and visitors; observations of the training program; and educator reflections. In the final year, a small field test will be done at six sites, representing different types of museums. Interviews and reflections comprise the data collection at the field sites.
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.
Research Coordination Networks (RCNs) are a type of National Science Foundation (NSF) project that advance a field or create new directions in research or education by supporting groups of investigators to communicate and coordinate their research, training and educational activities across disciplinary, organizational, geographic and international boundaries.
NSF's Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program welcomes submissions of RCN proposals that advance AISL goals through the sharing of ideas, knowledge, and practices. RCNs are an additional avenue for considering strategic
This project will consider how research on imaginative thinking, and perspectives on the role of imagination in STEM practice and STEM education, can be systematically applied to support STEM learning in museum contexts. Common conceptions of science as non-imaginative are persistent, but scholarship across disciplines suggests critical roles for imagination, both in the practice of STEM and in shaping learners' perceptions of themselves as part of STEM. Further, evidence from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, child development and education suggests ways that imagination can be fostered and improved, and that these understandings could be applied to the design of museum experiences in order to improve STEM outcomes.
The activities of this project, led by the Museum of Science, Boston, both synthesize and generate knowledge at the intersections of imagination, STEM, and education practice in ways that are actionable for museum professionals. Activities include: a literature review, a document review, and a survey of ISE professionals; an in-person convening of STEM professionals (researchers, practitioners, educators and others); and the development and dissemination of products designed to inform future project development. The goals of the project are to: 1) prompt conversations about imaginative thinking across the Informal Science Education (ISE) field, and between ISE and other fields; 2) identify priority areas for research and development that can advance the field's understandings at the intersections of imagination, STEM, and learning; and 3) catalyze future research and development efforts that can advance the field. The intent is for the integration scholarship on imagination, STEM, and learning within museums' research and development efforts to lead to projects that describe, test, and refine theoretical frameworks and concrete strategies for supporting imaginative thinking among public audiences through exhibitions, programs, and other designed experiences.
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.
Vassar College is conducting a 2.5-day conference, as well as pre- and post-conference activities, that convenes a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional (USA and international) team to conceptualize and plan various research, education and outreach activities in informal learning, focusing on the seminal concept of tensegrity and its applications in many fields of science and mathematics. Tensegrity is the characteristic property of a stable three-dimensional structure consisting of members under tension that are contiguous and members under compression that are not.
The conference will bring together researchers and practitioners in informal learning and researchers in the various disciplines that embrace tensegrity (mathematics, engineering, biology, architecture, and art) to explore the potential that tensegrity has to engage the public in informal settings, especially through direct engagement in creating such structures. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which 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.
To date there have been no sustained informal educational projects and research around the topic of tensegrity. However, there is considerable related work on learning through "making and tinkering" upon which the participants will adapt and expand. The intended conference outcomes are to produce prototypes of activities, a research agenda, and lines of development with the potential to engage the wider public. A key priority of the gathering is the development of new partnerships between researchers and creators of tensegrity systems and the informal learning professionals. The long-term project hypothesis is that children and adults can engage with tensegrity through tinkering with materials and becoming familiar with a growing set of basic structures and their applications. The activities will include evaluation of the conference and a social network analysis of the collaborations that result.
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.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
John McCleary
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
BioEYES is a K-12 science outreach program that develops self-sustaining teachers as a replication strategy to address high demand for the program while promoting long-term school partnerships. This paper explores the practices of “model teachers” from multiple grades, who are empowered over a three-year period to deliver BioEYES’ hands-on science content autonomously, as compared to the program’s standard co-teaching model (BioEYES educator + classroom teacher). The authors found that BioEYES’ professional development (PD) workshop, classroom co-teaching experience, and refresher trainings
The Rural Informal STEM Conference (RISC), sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and held at its headquarters on September 13–14, 2018, was the first of its kind to bring together key innovators and experts in rural STEM learning outside of school. People who live in rural settings are a frequently overlooked and significantly under-represented STEM audience, who number roughly 60 million Americans.
The conference addressed questions about the overall status of informal (out of school) STEM learning in rural places, including the following: How do we define rural places? What