Collaboration efforts between educator preparation programs and children's science museums are important in assisting elementary pre-service teachers connect the theory they have learned in their classrooms with the actual practice of teaching. Elementary pre-service teachers must not only learn the science content, but how to effectively deliver that science content to a group of students. One university provided their elementary pre-service teachers with the opportunity to prepare and deliver science lessons to students in a children's science museum in south Texas.
This research investigated gender equitable exhibit development by enhancing a geometry exhibit with several female-friendly design features and analyzing video data to determine the effects on girls' engagement and social interactions with their caregivers. The findings suggest that incorporating several female-friendly design features leads to significantly higher engagement for girls (evidenced by greater attraction and time spent). This study also looked for any unanticipated negative effects for boys after incorporating the female-friendly design features.
The 21st century's information economy is creating more jobs that require not only a college education but also at least some expertise in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, collectively known as STEM. In order to stay competitive in the global marketplace and provide our children with the best chance to succeed in life, we must get more students on the STEM path. Combining STEM learning with afterschool programming offers middle school students a fun, challenging, hands-on introduction to the skills they will need in high school, college and the work place. This MetLife
In the past 15 years, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as an ideal technology for delivering child-computer interaction that is adapted to children’s psychomotor and cognitive skills development. The rapid evolution of these tangible technologies has meant that there has been little or no time to build a foundation for the design of games and learning applications that could offer pleasant and useful experiences to children. Our research group specializes in multimodal and natural human-computer interaction and conducts child-focused research that highlights children’s real needs
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Javier MarcoSandra BaldassarriEva CerezoDiana Yifan XuJanet Read
This paper examines "New Faces, New Places: An Introduction to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math," a program designed to promote the formation of 4-H STEM programs to engage urban youth in science learning.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Walter BarkerEric KillianWilliam Evans
The article discusses an effective physical science center, which can be incorporated on the reading instructions of teachers, the inclined plane center, that helps enhance science teaching. It mentions that to create an inclined plane center, one must collect various objects that roll, slide and wobble and wooden cove molding for the tracks. The author thinks that it is not necessary to understand everything about force and motion, what is important is offering students with opportunities for concrete experiences.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Beth Van MeeterenLawrence Escalada
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
In this article, the author expresses her views on how science technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) standards can be developed to upgrade lifelong science learning. She mentions that the International Conference in the Learning Sciences (ICLS) that will be conducted by the International Society for the Learning Sciences (ISLS) will have an advantage to the development of the STEM standards. She also comments on the establishment of cyberlearning environments to improve science education.
This article investigates the development of agency in science among low-income urban youth aged 10 to 14 as they participated in a voluntary year-round program on green energy technologies conducted at a local community club in a midwestern city. Focusing on how youth engaged a summer unit on understanding and modeling the relationship between energy use and the health of the urban environment, we use ethnographic data to discuss how the youth asserted themselves as community science experts in ways that took up and broke down the contradictory roles of being a producer and a critic of
The Engineer Your Life (EYL) project is a national initiative to encourage college-bound young women to consider pursuing a degree and a career in engineering. The project aims to communicate to young women the societal value and rewards of being an engineer, rather than the traditional emphasis on the process of becoming an engineer. Target audiences include academically prepared high school girls, career counselors, and professional engineers. Evaluation data were collected in Year 1 and Year 2 of the EYL initiative to assess its impact. We found that young women were especially interested
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Concord Evaluation GroupChristine PaulsenChris BransfieldThea Sahr