Empowering the Next Generation of Explorers is a program that uses space science and technology to provide informal STEM education and STEM career inspiration for students in regional Head Start programs, as well as underrepresented/underserved student groups in schools with a high Native American student population. The program is run by the staff of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, the Official Visitor Center for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The goal of Empowering the Next Generation of Explorers is to educate students about NASA’s overall mission, raise student interest and engagement in STEM subjects, and make students aware of STEM career opportunities. In 2012, 252 third through fifth grade students and 344 Head Start children participated in this program. Empowering the Next Generation of Explorers consists of an annual Native American Heritage Day and an annual Head Start Field Trip Day. On Native American Heritage Day, students participate in a guided field trip of the USSRC’s collection of space hardware and artifacts and take part in a hands-on STEM workshop, which includes elements from Native American Culture. Students also hear about the past, present and future of Native Americans in NASA programs, talk with Native American employees of MSFC, and watch a presentation on Native American culture. Head Start Day consists of a guided tour of the USSRC, including hands-on STEM-based activities for pre-K students about NASA’s current missions, like the Mars Curiosity Rover.
NASA STEM Educational Project for the Goddard Greenbelt and Wallops Visitor Center and the Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility Education Resource Center is a project designed to provide high value STEM education activities. The Goddard Office of Education is fortunate to have three facilities (Greenbelt, WFF and IV&V) that coordinate to produce high impact, sustainable results using NASA’s unique capabilities for their education customers which include visitors, K-16 students, educators and science centers, museums and planetariums. The Greenbelt project elements will take our current Visitor Center in the direction of the Science Education and Exploration Center (SEEC). This project includes utilizing the GeoDome portable planetarium with underserved populations, expanding STEM engagement programs held at the Visitor Center and growing the network of museum partners that implement programs through an experiential workshop held in September 2012. This project also includes support for a summer experience for students and educators for the SEEC held July 2012. The WFF elements of the project include developing educational exhibits and information on NASA’s WFF missions and launches. A presentation on the LADEE orbital moon mission is being developed for the Science on a Sphere. Content is being developed for a kiosk with hands-on exhibits for students that inspire them in STEM fields and based on NASA’s Suborbital and Orbital missions at Wallops Flight Facility. The IV&V elements leverage past NASA and Visitor Center investments, content, and programs. Using the IR camera enables sharing science and engineering information about missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope to a broader audience. IV&V is using the Space Weather kit to train educators and students on space weather forecasting. Having IV&V as a partner allows us to target rural underserved populations with our programs.
The Discover Aeronautics and Aerospace Gallery (Discover) engages students, families and the general public in the STEM research that makes major accomplishments in space and aeronautics possible. Great Lakes Science Center, home of NASA Glenn Visitor Center, developed the gallery in collaboration with NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) to provide interactive learning opportunities, amazing NASA artifacts, and multimedia experiences that encourages them to discover more about STEM. The overarching project goal is to engage visitors in the important research of NASA GRC, and summative evaluation concluded that Discover is an immersive environment of interactive exhibits that increases visitors’ levels of knowledge about aeronautic and aerospace research. The Gallery successfully raises the profile of NASA GRC, and emphasizes the importance of research and experimentation for the challenges of flight – in the air and in space.
Discover is divided into mini-laboratory settings—Aeronautics Lab, Materials Lab, Rocket Lab and Power Lab—and the Discover Stage, an ideal environment for demonstrations, and presentations by astronauts and aerospace experts. When not in use for live productions, the stage hosts a video tour of NASA GRC’s impressive labs and test chambers. Visitors can experiment with a microgravity drop tower, plan a space mission, analyze slow-motion footage from a ballistic impact facility, see how motion and sound are affected by the vacuum of space, and more. Discover engages over 300,000 visitors a year in the STEM research necessary for flight. As part of the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, the Gallery exemplifies the Science Center’s dedication to sharing NASA content to inform, engage, and inspire students, educators, and the public. Discover immerses visitors in the exciting challenges and rewards of space exploration, and is a place of inspiration for tomorrow’s scientific leadership and workforce.
CREATE (Creating Relevant Education in Astronomy Through Experience) will immerse and teach astronomy to underserved high school students in Milwaukee who will then become planetarium producers and astronomy mentors to younger students. The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) is the lead this effort in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee (BGCGM). MPM will also work with NASA and local astronomy institutions (Adler Planetarium & Yerkes Observatory) for educational materials and speakers. CREATE’s goal is to increase participation of high school youth from central-city neighborhoods in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The objectives are to: Engage these students who have shown an interest in STEM and leverage NASA resources to produce relevant astronomy education. Have the students become mentors for peers and younger students—thus inspiring themselves as well as their mentees to continue their educational paths in science. Build interest in NASA programs and in STEM careers with the creation of their planetarium shows and educational programs for their mentees. Expand CREATE’s impact by making these programs available nationwide and distribution of the planetarium show. The CREATE project will span three years. The first year will be spent on further development and planning of the program. During years two and three, CREATE staff will work with the students in an intensive 40-week program. Twenty students will be chosen to participate in CREATE each year.
Bridging Earth and Mars (BEAM): Engineering Robots to Explore the Red Planet engages the general public and K-8 students in exhibits and programs designed to foster awareness of robotic technology, computer programming, and the challenges and opportunities inherent in NASA missions and S-STEM careers. The Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC) of St. Louis, Missouri is the lead institution and project site; partners include Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis University, the St. Louis regional FIRST Robotics organization, and the Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis. Project goals are to: 1) inform, engage, and inspire the public to appreciate NASA’s Mission by sharing findings and information about NASA’s missions to Mars; 2) ignite interest in S-STEM topics and careers for diverse K-8 students; and, 3) encourage students in grades 6-8 to sustain participation in educational experiences along the S-STEM careers pipeline. The SLSC will design and build a Martian surface and panorama where two rovers can be remotely controlled. Visitors in the McDonnell Planetarium will use controllers to program rover exploration of the Martian landscape in real-time. Visitors in SLSC’s Cyberville gallery, located one-quarter mile away across a highway-spanning enclosed bridge, will program the second rover with simulated time lag and view its movements via a two-way camera system. SLSC will organize and host a series of Innovation Workshops for K-8 students, each featuring teamwork-building engineering challenges from current and updated NASA-based science curricula. Participants will be recruited from SLSC community partners, which include community centers and faith-based programs for underserved families.
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) and its collaborators are conducting a set of research and development activities focusing on early childhood astronomy in the first field-wide effort to increase the capacity of informal science education (ISE) institutions to effectively engage their youngest visitors (ages 3 - 5) in astronomy. Leading the project is an Action Research Group comprised of the ASP; experts in cognitive development, early childhood, and astronomy learning progressions from UC Santa Cruz, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Penn State; and the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, and San Luis Obispo Children's Museum as sites for research, field testing, and implementation. The project will identify critical areas of focus for early childhood astronomy and will test the hypothesis that early astronomy learning is not only possible but may contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of the domain. A key question is: How can the ISE field scaffold children's early curiosity and ideas about astronomy to position them for greater understanding and interest in the topic? The results of the research and the materials that are created for educators will receive broad distribution nationally.
Funded jointly by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the MacArthur Foundation, in partnership with the and Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and Urban Libraries Council (ULC), Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums supports the planning and design of 24 learning labs in libraries and museums nationwide. The inaugural cohort of 12 sites ran from January 2012 to June 2013, and a second cohort of 12 additional sites began in January 2013 and will extend through June 2014. In addition to the primary awardees, most grants included additional institutional partners, resulting in a rich community including over 100 professionals from approximately 50 participating organizations (libraries, museums, universities, and community-based organizations). The labs are intended to engage middle- and high-school youth in mentor-led, interest-based, youth-centered, collaborative learning using digital and traditional media. Inspired by YOUmedia, an innovative digital space for teens at the Chicago Public Library, as well as innovations in science and technology centers, projects participating in Learning Labs are expected to provide prototypes for the field based on current research about digital media and youth learning, and build a "community of practice" among the grantee institutions and practitioners interested in developing similar spaces.
This paper discusses how museums can encourage chaperones to facilitate deeper experiences for students during field trips. The authors describe how the California Science Center's ThinkSCIENCE! Pathways field trip program addresses this issue. Pathways asks chaperones to become facilitators by using "chaperone sheets," sets of materials containing gallery-specific questions, activities, and points of interest to help chaperones engage students in discussion. This article cites findings from a rigorous formative evaluation of these chaperone sheets and the program in general.
Engineering Adventures (EA) is a free, hands-on, project-based engineering curriculum designed for out-of-school time (OST) programs serving children in grades 3 to 5. The EA curriculum was developed by Engineering is Elementary® (EiE), a project of the National Center for Technological Literacy® at the Museum of Science, Boston. Each Engineering Adventures (EA) curriculum unit features a hands-on "engineering design challenge" based on real-world events that gives children the opportunity to apply and reinforce the science and engineering practices put forth in the Next Generation Science Standards. Every EA unit focuses on a different field of engineering and features 10-12 hours of activities with flexible scheduling options. EA units area available as FREE DOWNLOADS on the project website.
Climate change science is becoming a more frequent and integral part of the middle school curriculum. This project, NASA Data in My Field Trip, proposes to leverage a regional network of Informal Science Institutions (ISIs) committed to climate change education, the Global Climate Change Consortium (GC3). This project will support climate change education in the formal curriculum by creating opportunities for inquiry-based exploration of NASA data and products in class and as part of already established field trip experiences to ISIs. The ISIs of the recently formed GC3 include a broad range of science-based institutions including Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH), Carnegie Science Center (CSC), Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, National Aviary, and the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. Partners, Pittsburgh Public Schools and Wilkinsburg School District have respectively 70 and 99% minority populations. NASA Data in My Field Trip will build innovative connections among NASA data and products, ISI resources and experiences, curriculum standards, and educators in formal and informal environments. It has three components: (1) joint professional development for formal and informal educators, (2) in-class pre-field trip data explorations, and (3) the integration of NASA resources into ISI field trip experiences. In the first phase of NASA Data in My Field Trip, CMNH and CSC will pilot NASA resources as central components of middle school climate change field trips as well as in pre-visit experiences. In the second phase, three other GC3 ISIs will tailor the pilot products to their climate change field trips. In both phases, formal and informal educators will participate in joint professional development. Alignment with the school districts' curriculum and formative evaluation is critical at all steps of this project and will guide and inform the implementation of the project through both phases. The success of the project will be measured in terms of (1) educators’ attitudes toward and ability to use NASA resources, (2) the effectiveness of in-class and field trip experiences for students, (3) the development of a community of practice among informal and formal educators, and (4) the adoption of NASA data and products into informal and formal programming outside of the project’s specified reach. Primary strengths of this project are that it brings NASA resources to underserved schools and includes ISIs that have a commitment to climate change education but have not previously connected with NASA or its resources. Techniques developed in this project will be tailored to a diversity of ISIs and can therefore serve as a replicable model for NASA products throughout the ISI field.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kerry HandronEllen McCallieJohn RadzilowiczPittsburgh Public SchoolsWilkinsburg School DistrictPittsburgh Zoo and PPG AquariumNational AviaryPhipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
This Communicating Research to Public Audiences (NSF 03-509) project in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History seeks to increase public understanding of research being conducted at the Pierre Auger Observatory that will be shown in 22 science centers and available on the web, as well as live interactive presentations by the lead researchers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Angela OlintoMark SubbaRaoJames CroninRandall LandsbergVivian Trakinski
Robotics brings together learning across mechanism, computation and interaction using the compelling model of real-time interaction with physically instantiated intelligent devices. The project described here is the third stage of the Personal Rover Project, which aims to produce technology, curriculum and evaluation techniques for use with after-school, out-of-school and informal learning environments mediated by robotics. Our most recent work has resulted in the Personal Exploration Rover (PER), whose goal is to create and evaluate a robot interaction that will educate members of the general