This is a handout from the session "What If There Wasn't a Building? Pecha Kucha" at the 2014 ASTC Conference held in Raleigh, NC. The handout links to a recording of the session.
This presentation was part of the session "A Scientist Walks into a Bar: Humor in STEM Education" at the 2014 ASTC Conference in Raleigh, NC. The session explored strategies to leverage laughter for learning based on the latest brain research coupled with with personal experiences.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jen Lokey
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This presentation was part of the "Twist and Shout: Using physical movement in STEM education" session at the 2014 ASTC Conference in Raleigh, NC. The session shared, showcased, and compiled creative new ways to incorporate physicality into the learning process.
This is a handout from a session presented at the 2008 ASTC Conference. Advances in neuroscience are revealing biological pathways underlying emotion, attention, and memory. How can this research be integrated with educational pedagogy to enhance free-choice learning? Join experts from neuroscience, education, and museums to explore practical ways in which new insights about the brain can be applied to creating museum experiences.
This White Paper summarizes the work of C-COVES, a two-year IMLS-funded project designed to Create a Collaboration for Ongoing Visitor Experience Studies. Specifically, C-COVES was intended to research the feasibility of creating a multi-institutional network of science centers across the country united in studying the visitor experience within and across organizations nationwide. In August of 2013, 27 museum professionals from 11 science centers ranging in size, community context, and evaluation capacity, as well as 3 consulting or industry organizations, came together to elaborate the
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Museum of Science, BostonRyan Auster
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This article from the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) offers an introduction to the field of informal STEM education (ISE). It provides a brief survey of informal STEM education projects related to biology and discusses opportunities for scientists to become involved.
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. The project will further develop, roll out, and conduct research on a set of materials that will introduce middle school age youth to innovative and engaging engineering challenges in the Boys and Girls Club (B&GCs) context. Building on substantial prior work and evaluation-based learning, WISE Guys and Gals - Boys & Girls as WISEngineering STEM Learners (WGG) will: (1) combine engineering design activities with the (open source, online) WISEngineering infrastructure; (2) scale-up the infrastructure; (3) engage youth in informal afterschool experiences; and (4) collect a wealth of rich data to further our understanding of how youth learn through these experiences. This work will be conducted by Hofstra University's Center for STEM Research in conjunction with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), The CUNY Graduate Center's Center for Advanced Study in Education (CASE), the Boys & Girls Club of America, and 25 B&GCs in New York and New Jersey. The underlying theoretical framework builds on proof-of-concept work supported by NSF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. An open source, on-line interface (WISEngineering) provides numerous virtual tools (e.g., social networking, Design Journal, embedded assessments) that promote learning and collaboration through challenging, thoughtful, and creative work. WGG will explore how to incorporate creativity, social networking, connections to real-world STEM needs/careers, and teamwork into challenges that can be completed in a one-hour period, an activity time constraint in many B&GC settings. Staff from the clubs will participate in face-to-face and virtual professional development in an effort to build their capacity as facilitators of STEM learning. Research will focus on: (1) how activities developed for 60-minute implementation and guided by informed engineering design and interconnected learning frameworks support youth learning and engagement; and (2) characteristics of the professional development approach that support B&GC facilitators' capacity development. By the end of the project, over 6,000 middle school aged youth, the majority from groups underrepresented in STEM areas, will gain experience with engineering design as they develop engineering thinking, new STEM competencies, STEM career awareness, and an appreciation for the civic value of STEM knowledge.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David BurghardtXiang FuKenneth WhiteMelissa Rhodes
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative resources for use in a variety of settings. This project, "STEM Learning in Libraries: A National Conference on Needs, Opportunities, and Future Directions," brings together libraries, informal educators and STEM education and research organizations to discuss the role of libraries in STEM out-of-school time (OST) education, share existing programs, define library needs, and develop a research and evaluation agenda. To date, there has not been systematic exploration of the ways that STEM programming occurs in libraries nor of their effectiveness when they do happen. This will be the first conference of its kind and stands to have a high degree of visibility and the potential for broad impact. Principal Investigator Paul Dusenbery, Director of the National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) and Executive Director of Space Science Institute, will lead an experienced project team that includes Co-PI Keliann LaConte, Lunar Planetary Institute; Susan Brandehoff, Public Programs Office, American Library Association; and Anne Holland, NCIL. The conference sessions will be organized around four strands: (1) showcasing successful STEM programs and reviewing research and evaluation results on informal STEM learning in public libraries; (2) examining the current needs, barriers, and opportunities of public libraries; (3) elucidating the possible future roles of public libraries in the 21st Century; and (4) identifying promising practices and strategies. Beginning with core members comprised of the project team and organizing committees, the project will create a Leadership Forum for library directors, library science educators, and policy makers, as well as STEM professionals and educators. Conference results will be disseminated through a wide variety of organizational websites: NCIL, ALA, LPI, the conference website, the STAR_Net online community, and CAISE. In 2010, there were nearly 1.6 billion visits to 17,000 public libraries. Library audiences are true reflections of the nation's population - they serve all races, ages, economic backgrounds, and regions of the country. The STEM Learning in Libraries conference will give public libraries, STEM organizations, informal educators, and funders an opportunity to begin a dialogue with implications for profoundly impacting the attitudes of millions of Americans toward STEM topics.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), in collaboration with the National Park Service and other organizations, will organize a climate adaptation science and education workshop that will focus on engaging diverse public audiences in learning about climate adaptation. The outcomes of the workshop will include: a strong regional network to continue and sustain the initiative; a strategic plan for Sandy Hook that will result in model for using parks as laboratories for climate adaptation education; and the identification of existing climate adaptation education projects that can inform the strategic plan and the model. These outcomes will have broad relevance for the many environmental science and education projects funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning Program. The workshop, centered on Gateway National Recreation Area and surrounding New York/New Jersey communities, will engage diverse stakeholders including community members, research scientists, park staff, and others. Participants will assess and further develop research findings that reveal the potential of place-based contexts, such as parks and recreation areas, as settings for learning about global adaptation issues such as sea level rise, impacts on fish habitat due to inundation and changes in water quality, impacts on recreational fishery, and coastal resilience. Workshop findings will be disseminated broadly through the NPCA national network, national parks, and other organizations concerned with climate adaptation education.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Karen Hevel-MingoJodie RiesenbergerGerald GlaserMarc Stern
Earth Partnership: Indigenous Arts and Sciences (EP) will develop and refine a model for integrating Indigenous and informal and formal K-20 educators in ecological restoration, project-based learning and professional development. EP will involve participants in Native habitat restoration on community spaces, school grounds and nearby natural areas as a context for intergenerational STEM learning across age, ecosystem, discipline, learning style, culture and place. EP integrates Native knowledge and core values including relationship, reciprocity, respect and responsibility with Western STEM concepts and processes. The project will integrate the expertise of university social, physical, life and learning scientists and community and tribal practitioners to design, develop and test informal STEM learning incorporating ecological restoration, citizen science and cultural diversity. EP grows out of a teacher professional development model funded by NSF and is a network that now includes participating individuals and organizations from many states. This network will enhance dissemination and provide a foundation for a larger project growing out of the results of this project. EP will build capacity of Native and non-Native informal educators and citizens to work together to generate engagement among young people and adults with ecological STEM learning and stewardship. The approach will integrate culturally authentic resources, inquiry and citizen science process skills (e.g., data collection, analysis, ecological restoration, water stewardship) in multiple learning settings. Stronger multicultural, intergenerational and community partnerships will be supported to restore aquatic and terrestrial habitats through community-based stewardship projects and Service Learning. Through EP, Native youth will be encouraged to explore STEM careers that will meet future workforce needs for managing tribal resources and become knowledgeable citizens able to use critical thinking and analysis of STEM-related issues in their communities. The project will use a developmental evaluation approach to assess project planning processes and outcomes of educational programs.
The Cyberlearning Resource Center (CRC) has responsibility for promoting integrative collaboration among cyberlearning grantees (across NSF programs); synthesis and national dissemination of cyberlearning findings, technologies, models, materials, and best practices; creating a national presence for Cyberlearning; helping the disparate Cyberlearning research and development communities coordinate efforts to build capacity; and providing infrastructure (technological and social) for supporting these efforts. Monitored through the Cyberlearning: Transforming Education program, the CRC serves as a resource for all NSF grantees and programs with cyberlearning components, helping to promote synergy and integrate projects across NSF's cyberlearning investments. Among society's central challenges are amplifying, expanding, and transforming opportunities people have for learning and more effectively drawing in, motivating, and engaging young learners. Engaging actively as a citizen and productively in the workforce requires understanding a broad variety of concepts and possessing the ability to collaborate, learn, solve problems, and make decisions. Whether learning is facilitated in school or out of school, and whether learners are youngsters or adults, to develop such knowledge and capabilities, learners must be motivated to learn, actively engage over the long term in learning activities, and put forth sustained cognitive and social effort. Consistent with NSF's mission and strategic plan, a variety of programs at NSF invest in research aimed towards achieving these goals. In support of this important thematic thrust, the Cyberlearning Resource Center works with researchers and NSF program officers to identify and disseminate findings from across programs and projects; develop ways to broker productive partnerships and collaborations; convene meetings for purposes of envisioning the future, integrating findings, and building capacity,; and monitor the cyberlearning portfolio and its influences and impacts.
A growing body of research suggests that many types of institutions and experiences contribute to science and technology learning by the public. These include the formal education system, libraries, science centers, citizen science, after school programs, television programs, film and video, newspapers, radio, books and magazines, the internet, community and health organizations, environmental organizations, and conversations with friends and family. It is also important that research about who learns and how they learn from these institutions and experiences is informed by and discussed within the communities themselves. This project focuses specifically on STEM learning in interactive science centers. It invites science center professionals from around the country to contribute to and share findings from an on-going research study designed to better understand the influence that interactive science centers have on youth and adult's long-term understanding, interest and engagement with science and technology. The pair of workshops supported by this grant will engage science center administrators, educators, exhibition and program designers, evaluators and researchers in two sets of tasks. The first workshop, held prior to the start of the larger research project, will examine and focus the research's overall goals and help frame a set of specific research questions. Although no research study can answer all important issues, the goal of the workshop is to ensure that the planned investigation attempts to address the issues and outcomes considered most critical to the broader science center community. The second workshop will occur after completion of all data collection and initial data analysis. It will engage a broad cross-section of the science center community in discussing findings, brainstormind implications and usage, and developing dissemination strategies to insure that the findings of the research reach the broader science center and policy communities. The goal of these workshops is to use the collective wisdom of dozens of active professionals from across the country to develop a suite of strategies for grounding research in practice, incorporating research results into practice as well as bringing important research findings to a broader national audience.