This document is a list of culturally responsive research resources developed by the Researching the Value of Educator Actions for Learning (REVEAL) project.
National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded an Informal Science Education (ISE) grant, since renamed Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) to a group of institutions led by two of the University of California, Davis’s centers: the Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) and the W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES). Additional partner institutions were the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center (ECHO), Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) at the University of California, Berkeley, and Audience Viewpoints Consulting (AVC). The summative evaluation study was
This summative evaluation report details the Broad Implementation of the Living Laboratory model--an initiative to promote partnership between museums and cognitive science researchers in order to promote professional learning and involve the public in scientific research. The evaluation investigated the extent of the dissemination effort’s depth, spread, sustainability, and shift in ownership, based on Coburn’s criteria for scale-up (2003). Evaluators collected data from surveys, interviews, focus groups, document review, and observations. Findings about depth suggest that adopters fully
Informal learning, and by extension, museums, are inherently emotional experiences, evoking feelings of awe, excitement, and curiosity. Oftentimes, museum professionals have prioritized traditionally positive emotions such as excitement and interest as being the most desirable and useful in supporting museum learning. However, prior research into naturally occurring emotions at museums found that some visitors who experienced negative emotions, such as confusion or frustration, at exhibits also reported deeper engagement and overall feelings of satisfaction (Rappolt-Schlichtmann et al., 2017). Based on these findings and similar results from formal education (D’Mello et al., 2014), this project team has worked to develop and refine a framework of strategies for creating exhibits that invoke and support visitors through the complex emotional state called productive struggle (PS) which is defined as a three-part emotional arc characterized by: 1) disequilibrium (experienced emotionally as emotions like confusion, frustration, surprise, or unease) that arises from encountering a challenging task, phenomenon, or idea, 2) persistence through the task which is supported by exhibit design scaffolds, and 3) an emotionally productive resolution tied to the source of disequilibrium or an overall sense of effortful achievement. In deliberately attending to and supporting a range of negative and positive emotions in museums, visitors can gain access to a wider variety of complex emotional experiences, including those critical to STEM learning, and have potential to broaden participation in STEM by supporting learners' diverse emotional needs and preferences.
This multidisciplinary project team consisting of researchers and exhibit professionals utilized a design-based research (DBR) process to develop, test, and refine a definition of museum-based productive struggle, and create a framework of design strategies that support PS. Three physical exhibits and a virtual exhibit were created during this multi-year project. Additionally, a summative research study was conducted with 105 youth ages 10-17 to explore: 1) whether visitors experienced the expected emotional arc of PS; 2) how exhibit design strategies supported PS; and 3) the extent of visitors’ learning and engagement at these PS exhibits.
The connections between technology applications of all sorts and human users that are ubiquitous in informal learning and assume a great deal about how the technology is used and how learning takes place. Much of the research in this area has been focused on game design and interaction. This project will examine this interaction involving the use of gestures that represent how individuals work with systems and large data sets that represent complex systems like the oceans, to understand how basic elements of a project with a 3-D type of design might enhance the user experience and increase the utility and learning that takes place by understanding the cognitive elements of these game like interactions in specific STEM related settings like museums.
This exploratory pathways project will investigate the use of interactive, gesture-enabled, multi-touch spheres for teaching about ocean systems in science centers and museums. The gesture-enabled aspect of the project will improve on interactive table-top installations which can frustrate users who use unexpected gestures and receive no response leading to brief interaction and abandonment without significant interaction or learning. The project will investigate ways in which unsupported gestures would still produce a system response which would encourage the user to remain at the installation and continue to investigate. The effect of multiple gestures will be supported by using natural mappings between gestures and interactions with the on-sphere data.
The project investigates theories of embodied cognition that support the notion that by engaging with global-scale datasets on a spherical display more effectively models the earth in a non-distorted manner and therefore will be more natural and allow users to develop a more accurate conceptual model of how data relates to itself and the globe. In this way, the project shares some aspects of understanding about learning through game play. The sphere will not be a fully developed game but will share characteristics of game play.
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.
My Sky is a joint project between Boston Children’s Museum (BCM) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). This three-year project was supported by NASA’s NRA/ROSES 2011 (NNX12AB91G) program, and resulted in the creation of My Sky, a 1,500 sq. ft. traveling astronomy exhibit designed for adults and children, ages 5 – 10. My Sky emphasizes authentic experiences that encourage the development of skills and content foundational to later appreciation and understanding of astronomical science. My Sky includes interactive explorations of objects and phenomena visible in the sky, encouraging families to “look up” not only when they visit the exhibit, but as a practice they might adopt in their everyday lives. This is all punctuated by real NASA data and assets, including a 5’ diameter model Moon created using the latest Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter measurements; and high-resolution images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite. This project also developed a series of public programs, museum staff training programs, and family workshops, all utilizing NASA resources and existing curriculum.
This EAGER project sought to generate early knowledge for the museum field about the capabilities and limitations of an Indoor Positioning System to: 1) automate the collection of visitor movement data for museum research, and 2) enable location-aware applications designed to support museum visitor learning. Working with Qualcomm, Inc., the Exploratorium installed and experimented with an early prototype of a whole-museum, WiFi-based IPS that acquired and processed timestamped location data (latitude/longitude) from mobile test devices, similar to cell phones. The project 1) defined IPS ground
While the model for transmitting scientific information a model that attributes the effects of a message on the public to the intent of the communicator mediated by text is increasingly becoming an exclusive tool for communication novices, other alternative models are emerging and most importantly field research is being tested and examined.
Providence Children’s Museum was tasked with examining how children demonstrate their learning and thinking through their play at the museum, and how exhibit activities and resources can be designed to build awareness of these learning processes among children’s caregivers and museum educators. The project team created a set of resources, including an exhibit space called Mind Lab, a Circuit Block activity, and an Observation Tool for caregivers that highlighted different types of behaviors associated with learning that happens naturally while children play. Rockman et al conducted a summative
The REVEAL project is an NSF funded project to learn about how facilitation impacts family’s experiences of math exhibits. The goal of the project was to iteratively develop and refine a theoretical model of how staff facilitation deepens and extends family mathematical discourse at interactive exhibits. This model underwent rigorous testing and ultimately provided the evidence and research-based tools to support PD efforts for informal STEM educators. As part of this testing the learnings from developing at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, in Portland, Oregon) were applied in an
In this theoretical paper we explore the use of narrative as a learning tool in informal science settings. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to explore how narrative can be applied to exhibits in the context of science centers to scaffold visitors science learning. In exploring this idea, we analyze the theoretical, structural and epistemological properties of narrative. In the pages that follow, we first discuss the advantages and possibilities for learning that science centers offer alongside challenges and limitations. Next, we discuss the role of narrative in science, as a tool
After serving the community for seven years, the Science Museum of Castilla-La Mancha (MCCM) has decided to renew itself. In this context, a survey of the needs and expectations of the people to which the museum is dedicated plays a major role for the changes planned to prove successful. Teachers are among the main users of the museum, staying at the core of all teaching-learning processes, and play a role as mediators between science and students. This paper analyses the judgements made by teachers about various types of events and teaching resources which are normally provided by science