As science centers and children's museums re-define their roles in a society that is increasingly linguistically diverse, many seek to engage more effectively with dual language learners. Dual language learners are young children who are still in the process of acquiring basic language skills in their first language while at the same time acquiring a second language. At present, museum professionals face the challenge of developing programs and practices in the absence of research on informal science education for this population. The Center of Science and Industry (COSI) and The Ohio State University (OSU) will collaborate to begin a systematic study of informal science education programs and practices for reaching and serving preschool dual language learners. The improvement of dual language learners' informal science learning experiences is an increasingly important part of efforts to achieve equity and diversity in participation in science. Such efforts are particularly important as this population grows in number and as the significance of early science learning experiences for later achievement becomes better understood. This project will begin to address the lack of research through three interconnected activities: (1) a national needs assessment of children's museums and science museums, (2) an in-person convening and quarterly virtual meet-ups with teams from eight partner museums, and (3) an exploratory study of COSI's programs and practices to support the access, participation, and learning of preschool dual language learners and their parents/caregivers. The project will yield important insights into current practices and priorities with respect to effective museum engagement with dual language learners, their families, and the early childhood professionals who serve them. The project will (1) produce a comprehensive report on the current state of the field related to providing informal science experiences for preschool dual language learners; (2) identify gaps in existing research and practice, as well as promising foci for future study and improvement and expansion of museum practice; and (3) create a full-scale Research in Service to Practice proposal and a national network of museums to implement the proposal. The overarching goal of the project is to advance the knowledge and awareness of needs and practices related to informal science programming for preschool children who are learning English as an additional language. The national needs assessment will be conducted by means of an online questionnaire sent to museums identified via public association lists, and questions will focus on institutional practices in relation to school readiness and the needs of preschool dual language learners and perceived gaps in services. In the convening and virtual meet-ups, the project team, local community partners, project advisers, museum association leaders, and museum partners selected for their innovative work with linguistically diverse populations will discuss partners' programs, practices and frameworks; emergent project findings; and directions for further study. The exploratory study of COSI programs and practices will entail participant observation, document analysis, and interviews and focus group conversations with stakeholders, including parents, early childhood educators, COSI team members, community organization leaders. The 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. Its funding includes 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. An AISL Pathways grant, such as this one, allows practitioners and researchers to undertake exploratory development work that has the potential to produce evidence, findings, and/or deliverables that will form the basis of anticipated further innovative, or potentially transformative, research and development work.
This project engages members of racially and economically diverse communities in identifying and carrying out environmental projects that are meaningful to their lives, and adapts technology known as NatureNet to assist them. NatureNet, which encompasses a cell phone app, a multi-user, touch-based tabletop display and a web-based community, was developed with prior NSF support. Core participants involved in programs of the Anacostia Watershed Society in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, and the Reedy Creek Nature Preserve in Charlotte, NC, will work with naturalists, educators, and technology specialists to ask scientific questions and form hypotheses related to urban waterway restoration and preservation of native species. They will then collect and analyze data using NatureNet, requesting changes to the technology to customize it as needed for their projects. Casual visitors to the nature centers will be able to interact with the environmental projects via the tabletop, and those who live farther away will be able to participate more peripherally via the online community. The research project, led by researchers from the University of Maryland, College Park, with collaborators from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and the University of Colorado, Boulder, will provide answers to two questions: 1) How do community-driven informal environmental learning projects impact participants, including their motivation to actively participate in science issues via technology and their disposition toward nature preserves and scientific inquiry? and 2) What are the key factors (e.g., demographic composition of participants, geographical location) that influence the development of community-driven environmental projects? Researchers will gather extensive qualitative and quantitative data to understand how community projects are selected and carried out, how participants approach technology use and adaptation, and how informal learning and engagement on STEM-related issues can be fostered over a period of several months and through iterative project cycles. Data will be collected through motivation questionnaires; focus groups; interviews; tabletop, mobile, and website interaction logs; field notes from participatory design and reflection sessions; and project journals kept by nature preserve staff. Through extensive research, iterative design, and evaluation efforts, researchers will develop an innovative model for community-driven environmental projects that will deepen informal science education by demonstrating how members of diverse communities connect environmental knowledge and scientific inquiry skills to the practices, values, and goals of their communities, and how technology can be used to facilitate such connections.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Tom YehMary Lou MaherJennifer PreeceTamara CleggCarol Boston
This project will identify opportunities and strategies to support the integration of citizen science into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. Public participation in scientific research is growing rapidly. It is resulting in important scientific insights and is engaging the public in authentic scientific experiences. However, citizen science has yet to achieve its full potential for improving STEM learning by enabling learners' full participation in the practices of science in the process of leading to scientific insight. This workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners from across disciplines to identify citizen science projects that are also exemplary models for learning by the public. Workshop participants will generate ideas and potential solutions to overcome barriers to implementing citizen science to improve learning outcomes in schools, museums, parks, and other learning environments with diverse audiences. Consistent with the aims of the Advancing Informal Science Learning program of the Division of Research on Learning, this workshop will advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments and pave the way to broaden access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences for underrepresented audiences. This two-day workshop will be held in San Jose, California on February 11th and 12th, 2015, as a component of the Citizen Science 2015 Conference. It will be led by the Citizen Science Association Education Working Group. The goal of the workshop is to facilitate growth, innovation, and improved outcomes in the use of citizen science in STEM education for diverse, informal audiences. The workshop will result in (1) interdisciplinary discussions and sharing of perspectives, best practices, and innovations among leading researchers, educators, and citizen science practitioners; (2) a framework for bridging citizen science and STEM education communities and effectively implementing citizen science in a variety of learning environments; and (3) a draft research, resource development, and action agenda to advance the use of citizen science for STEM learning. The workshop will help to establish a global community of practice invested in improving STEM learning outcomes through citizen science in informal learning environments.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mark BerrySarah KirnAbraham Miller-RushingMeg Dormroese
Stanford University Library, in partnership with the University of Santa Cruz, will develop a publishable metadata scheme for digital games, including ontology and terminology, as well as a system and tools for citation of in-game events and game states. While the work of collection and preservation is underway, digital games present unique and complex stewardship problems, including methods for description, discovery and citation. As acquisition of this type of collection increases, challenges with cataloguing, storage, and access are compounded. This framework will provide a complete solution to the closely linked problems of finding, accessing, and citing digital games, a growing and important part of modern culture.
The Boys and Girls Club Afterschool Outreach Program, designed by UC Irvine Science Educators in conjunction with Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit faculty, aimed to increase elementary students' interest, enthusiasm, and learning outcomes in STEM fields through the development of hands-on physical science science lessons. External evaluation results showed the program was successful in altering students' perceptions of scientists and supported their internalization of science as a potential career choice. Now in its third year, the program continues includes support from undergraduate student, graduate student, and faculty volunteerism.
LIGO's Science Education Center is in charge of Education and Public Outreach Component for the LIGO Livingston Observatory. The three prime efforts are: (1) Professional development for teachers utilizing lab facilities and cross-institute collaborations. (2) Outreach to students K-16 (targeting 5- 9th grade), with on-site field trips to the LIGO Lab and Science Education Center, as well as off-site visits & presentations. (3) Outreach to the general public and community groups with on-site tours and Science Education Center Experience, as well as off=site visits and presentations. LIGO's Science Education Center is located at the LIGO Observatory, and has an auditorium, a classroom and a 5000 square foot exhibit hall with interactive exhibits at its disposal to complete its mission. In addition LIGO-SEC staff serve to help press and documentary film makers complete their missions in telling the "LIGO story" and encouraging budding scientists.
The integration of research with education and outreach is an essential aspect of our Center's mission. In order to assure the most effective use of our expertise and resources, we have developed a multi-faceted approach with activities that focus on coherent themes that address our three primary audiences: research community, our neighborhood, and the general public. These activities include research internships, enrichment programs for students & teachers, and informal science opportunities.
The Observatory’s “Education and Outreach” (EDU) capability is designed to facilitate the interface between the Observatory and communities of users. Ultimately, our goal is to empower people to effectively use NEON data to enable understanding of continental-scale ecological change over time. To ensure that NEON science/data products are accessible to and usable by diverse communities, including scientists, students, educators, citizen scientists, decision-makers and the interested general public, we provide a suite of online data-centric resources/tools, workshops, a variety of courses, internship/research programs for undergraduates, and citizen science projects.
The UMN MRSEC conducts an ambitious and multi-faceted education and outreach program to extend the impact of the Center beyond the university, providing undergraduates, college faculty, high school teachers, and K-12 students with opportunities that augment their traditional curriculum and increase their appreciation of materials science and engineering (MS&E). Our summer research program provides high-quality research and educational experiences in MS&E to students and faculty, drawn primarily from undergraduate institutions with limited research opportunities, while placing a strong emphasis on inclusion of women and members of underrepresented groups.
This REAL project arises from the 2013 solicitation on Data-intensive Research to Improve Teaching and Learning. The intention of that effort is to bring together researchers from across disciplines to foster novel, transformative, multidisciplinary approaches to using the data in large education-related data sets to create actionable knowledge for improving STEM teaching and learning environments in the medium term and to revolutionize learning in the longer term. This project addresses the issue of how to represent and communicate data to young people so that they can track their learning and weaknesses and take advantage of what they learn through that tracking. The project team aims to address this challenge by giving young people (middle schoolers) the tools and support to create, manipulate, analyze, and share representations of their own understanding, capabilities, and participation within the Scratch environment. Scratch is a programming language and online community in which youngsters (mostly middle schoolers) engage in programming together, sometimes to make scientific models and sometimes to express themselves artistically using sophisticated computer algorithms. Scratch community participants are often interested in keeping track of what they are learning, so this population is a good one for exploring ways of helping young people make sense of data that records their participation and learning. The team will extend the Scratch programming language with facilities for manipulating, analyzing, and representing such data, and Scratch participants will be challenged to make sense of their learning and participation data and helped to use the new facilities to do write programs to carry out such interpretation. Scratch participants will become visualizers of their participation patterns and learning trajectories; research will address how such data explorations influence their learning trajectories. Scratch and its community are the place for the proposed investigations, but what is learned will apply far more broadly to construction of tools for allowing learners to understand their participation and learning across a broad range of environments. This project addresses the sixth challenge in the program solicitation: how can information extracted from large datasets be represented and communicated to maximize its usefulness in real-time educational stings, and what delivery mechanisms are right for that? The PIs go right to the learners; rather than looking for delivery mechanisms for communicating the data representations, they give young people tools and support to create manipulate, analyze, and share those representations, bringing together approaches to quantitative evidence-based learning analytics with the constructionist tradition of learning through design experiences. In addition to helping us learn about how to help youngsters analyze data about their perforance and self-assess, the PIs expect that their endeavor will help us better learn how to help young people become data analyzers, an important part of computational thinking. Learners will, in the process of engaging with data representing their development and participation, interact with visualizations, model and troubleshoot data sets, and search for patterns in large data sets. In addition, the tools being developed as part of this project will be applicable for analysis of other types of data sets. The results that will transfer beyond Scratch and the Scratch community, are (1) the kinds of tools that make such analysis possible for youngsters, (2) the kinds of challenges that will get youngsters interested in doing such analyses, (3) the kinds of data youngsters can handle, and (4) the kinds of scaffolding and coaching youngsters need to make sense of that data.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Benjamin Mako HillMitchel ResnickNatalie Rusk
This Cyberlearning Integration and Deployment (INDP) project brings together an interdisciplinary research team from the MIT Media Lab, the Digital Media and Learning Hub at University of California Irvine, and Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society to explore development and use of new types of online tools, activities, and gatherings to engage more young people in developing computational fluency, particularly youth from groups currently underrepresented in computing. The project builds on the success of the NSF-funded Scratch programming language and online community (http://scratch.mit.edu), where more than 1.5 million young people have created interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations based on their interests. The Coding for All project aims to provide new pathways into Scratch for youth from populations that are not currently drawn in easily to technological and scientific discourse and activities. The PIs are designing and refining a variety of interest-based microworlds -- introductory programming environments that are customized to particular interests of youngsters in those populations -- to provide easier and more inviting entry points for getting started with coding, and they aim to develop guidelines for designing microworlds that are simple enough not to be overwhelming, engaging enough to draw youngsters in, rich enough to allow creative expression, and tuned well enough to the interests and prior knowledge of new participants to foster curiosity and learning. In addition, the team is exploring how to use personnel in libraries and other spaces where low-income youth congregate to support initial introduction to and engagement with these microworlds and developing and refining tools to support interest-based on-line hangouts and unconferences, where young people who become engaged through these microworlds can meet peers and mentors to share ideas, form collaborations, and increase their programming and expressive capabilities. The PIs are collecting much data about the engagement and participation of youngsters, the development of their skills and understanding, and the development of their interests, and their analysis will contribute to deeper understanding of needed supports, pathways, and outcomes related to computational fluency. This project addresses the need to draw in and promote learning among those in populations not served well by current educational practices and important national priorities in workforce development, equity, and the need for a technologically fluent public. The project's tools and activities will provide alternative pathways into coding, increasing opportunities for young people in non-dominant communities to develop computational fluency. The focus on public libraries explores how to use public educational institutions most geared towards serving the technology needs and diverse interests of non-dominant communities in taking advantage of new online learning opportunities. The findings from this research will inform researchers and practitioners concerned with STEM-related learning, online educational resources, equity in education, and cyberlaw.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mizuko ItoMitchel ResnickNatalie RuskUrs Gasser