The State University of New York (SUNY) and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) are collaborating to implement the SUNY/NYAS STEM Mentoring Program, a full scale development project designed to improve the science and math literacy of middle school youth. Building upon lessons learned through the implementation of national initiatives such as NSF's Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) Program, university initiatives such as the UTeach model, and locally-run programs, this project's goals are to: 1) increase access to high quality, hands-on STEM programs in informal environments, 2) improve teaching and outreach skills of scientists in training (graduate and postdoctoral fellows), and 3) test hypotheses around scalable program elements. Together, SUNY and NYAS propose to carry out a comprehensive, systemic science education initiative to recruit graduate students and postdoctoral fellows studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines at colleges and universities statewide to serve as mentors in afterschool programs. SUNY campuses will partner with a community-based organization (CBO) to place mentors in afterschool programs serving middle school students in high-need, low-resource urban and rural communities. Project deliverables include a three-credit online graduate course for mentor training, six pilot sites, a best practices guide, and a model for national dissemination. The online course will prepare graduate and postdoctoral fellows to spend 12-15 weeks in afterschool programs, introducing students to life science, earth science, mathematics and engineering using curriculum modules that are aligned with the New York State standards. The project design includes three pre-selected sites (College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering at the University of Albany, SUNY Institute of Technology, and SUNY Downstate Medical Center) and three future sites to be selected through a competitive process, each of which will be paired with a CBO to create a locally designed STEM mentoring program. As a result, a minimum of 192 mentors will provide informal STEM education to 2,880 middle school students throughout New York State. The comprehensive, mixed-methods evaluation will address the following questions: 1) Does student participation in an afterschool model of informal education lead to an increase in STEM content knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and interest in pursuing further STEM education and career pathways? 2) Do young scientists who participate in the program develop effective teaching and mentoring skills, and develop interest in teaching or mentoring career options that result in STEM retention? 3) What are the attributes of an effective STEM afterschool program and the elements of local adaptation and innovation that are necessary to achieve a successful scale-up to geographically diverse locations? 4) What is the role of the afterschool model in delivering informal STEM education? This innovative model includes a commitment to scale across the 64 SUNY campuses and 122 Councils of the Girl Scouts of the USA, use an online platform to deliver training, and place scientists-in-training in informal learning environments. It is hypothesized that as a result of greater access to STEM education in an informal setting, participating middle school youth will develop increased levels of STEM content knowledge, self-efficacy, confidence in STEM learning, and interest in STEM careers. Scientist mentors will: 1) gain an understanding of the context and characteristics of informal science education, 2) develop skills in mentoring and interpersonal communication, 3) learn and apply best practices of inquiry instruction, and 4) potentially develop interest in teaching as a viable career option. It is anticipated that the project will add to the research literature in several areas such as the effectiveness of incentives for graduate students; the design of mentor support systems; and the structure of pilot site programs in local communities. Findings and materials from this project will be disseminated through presentations at local, regional, and national conferences, publications in peer-reviewed journals focused on informal science education, and briefings sent to more than 25,000 NYAS members around the world.
WGBH Educational Foundation will create PEEP'S WORLD/EL MUNDO DE PEEP, a Web-based "Digital Hub," in both English and Spanish, to significantly increase the impact of the extensive collection of proven preschool science and math assets from the Emmy Award-winning TV show PEEP AND THE BIG WIDE WORLD®. This project will: (1) redesign the PEEP Web site, creating interactive media experiences that will contextualize existing content and take advantage of new Web design; (2) provide professional development for preschool educators; and (3) reach a new audience of family childcare educators, one that is woefully underserved when it comes to educational resources about science. Dissemination through a network of national organizations, including National Association of Family Child Care, National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, National Head Start Association, National Education Association, AVANCE, and Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, will help engage the maximum number of educators and parents in the project. PEEP'S WORLD/EL MUNDO DE PEEP will provide resources for targeted audiences. Specifically these resources will provide: Children with multiple ways to engage with science or math content areas, including interactive games, animated stories, and live-action videos; Parents with guided experiences to facilitate their child's math and science play; Center-based preschool educators with a media-rich, year long science curriculum and professional development materials; and Family childcare educators with curriculum modules, integrated with media, focused on six science content areas, and professional development materials for home-care settings in English and in Spanish. The University of Massachusetts's Donahue Institute will conduct a formative evaluation of the family childcare educator resources: 200 Spanish-speaking and 200 English-speaking educators will pilot the curriculum modules and professional development videos. Concord Evaluation Group, Inc. will conduct a summative evaluation, consisting of a Family Web Site Experiment and a National Observational Study, to assess the extent to which the project is successful at achieving its intended impacts. A multifaceted national dissemination plan will include a robust social media strategy, implemented by a Spanish-speaking online community manager, to reach parents, and collaborations with early childhood education statewide systems to reach educators. The projects intended impacts are to: (1) help English- and Spanish-speaking preschoolers effectively apply science and mathematical inquiry and process skills; (2) empower English- and Spanish-speaking parents to feel more equipped and inclined to facilitate science and math exploration with their preschoolers; and, (3) provide center-based and family childcare educators with resources for incorporating math and science into their curricula and boosting their confidence in teaching these subjects. While many parents know how to read to their children, they do not typically know how to approach science or math investigations with their pre-schoolers. After parents, preschool educators are the most important promoters of a young child\'s learning. Yet, center-based and family childcare educators do not receive significant training in science, and thus lack confidence when conducting preschool science activities. By providing parents and educators resources for approaching preschool science and math, which meet their specific needs, PEEP will help alleviate these challenges.
This full scale research and development collaborative project between Smith College and Springfield Technical Community College improves technical literacy for children in the area of engineering education through the Through My Window learning environment. The instructional design of the learning environment results from the application of innovative educational approaches based on research in the learning sciences—Egan's Imaginative Education (IE) and Knowledge Building (KB). The project provides idea-centered engineering curriculum that facilitates deep learning of engineering concepts through the use of developmentally appropriate narrative and interactive multimedia via interactive forums and blogs, young adult novels (audio and text with English and Spanish versions), eight extensive tie-in activities, an offline teachers’ curriculum guide, and social network connections and electronic portfolios. Targeting traditionally underrepresented groups in engineering—especially girls—the overarching goals of the project are improving attitudes toward engineering; providing a deeper understanding of what engineering is about; supporting the development of specific engineering skills; and increasing interest in engineering careers. The project will address the following research questions: What is the quality of the knowledge building discourse? Does it get better over time? Will students, given the opportunity, extend the discourse to new areas? What scaffolding does the learning environment need to support novice participants in this discourse? Does the use of narrative influence participation in knowledge building? Are certain types of narratives more effective in influencing participation in knowledge building? Evaluative feedback for usability, value effectiveness, and ease of implementation from informal educators and leaders from the Connecticut After School Network CTASN) will be included. The evaluation will include documentation on the impact of narrative and multimedia tools in the area of engineering education. Currently, there is very little research regarding children and young teen engagement in engineering education activities using narrative as a structure to facilitate learning engineering concepts and principles. The research and activities developed from this proposed project contributes to the field of Informal Science and Engineering Education. The results from this project could impact upper elementary and middle-school aged children and members from underrepresented communities and girls in a positive way.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and The Watermen's Museum, Yorktown, VA, will produce an underwater robotics research and discovery education program in conjunction with time-sensitive, underwater archeological research exploring recently discovered shipwrecks of General Cornwallis's lost fleet in the York River. The urgency of the scientific research is based upon the dynamic environment of the York River with its strong tidal currents, low visibility, and seasonal hypoxia that can rapidly deteriorate the ships, which have been underwater since 1781. Geophysical experts believe that further erosion is likely once the wrecks are exposed. Given the unknown deterioration rate of the shipwrecks coupled with the constraints of implementing the project during the 2011-2012 school-year, any delays would put the scientific research back at least 18 months - a potentially devastating delay for documenting the ships. The monitoring and studying of the historic ships will be conducted by elementary through high school-aged participants and their teachers who will collect the data underwater through robotic missions using VideoRay Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and a Fetch Automated Underwater Vehicle (AUV) from a command station at The Watermen's Museum. Students and teachers will be introduced to the science, mathematics, and integrated technologies associated with robotic underwater research and will experience events that occur on a real expedition, including mission planning, execution, monitoring, and data analysis. Robotic missions will be conducted within the unique, underwater setting of the historical shipwrecks. Such research experiences and professional development are intended to serve as a key to stimulating student interest in underwater archeological research, the marine environment and ocean science, advanced research using new technologies, and the array of opportunities presented for scientific and creative problem solving associated with underwater research. A comprehensive, outcomes-based formative and summative, external evaluation of the project will be conducted by Dr. L. Art Safer, Loyola University. The evaluation will inform the project's implementation efforts and investigate the project's impact. The newly formed partnership between the Waterman's Museum and VIMS will expand the ISE Program's objectives to forge new partnerships among informal venues, and to expand the use of advanced technologies for informal STEM learning. Extensive public dissemination during and after the project duration, includes but is not limited to, hosting an "Expedition to the Wrecks" web portal on the VIMS BRIDGE site for K-12 educators providing real-time results of the project and live webcasts. The website will be linked to the education portal at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, the world's largest organization devoted to promoting unmanned systems and to the FIRST Robotics community through the Virginia portal. The website will be promoted through scientific societies, the National Marine Educators Association, National Science Teachers Association, and ASTC. Links will be provided to the Center for Archeological Research at the College of William and Mary and the Immersion Presents web portal--consultants to Dr. Bob Ballard's K-12 projects and JASON explorations. The NPS Colonial National Historic Park and the Riverwalk Landing will create public exhibits about the shipwreck's archeological and scientific significance, and will provide live observation of the research and the exploration technologies employed in this effort.
'Be a Scientist!' is a full-scale development project that examines the impact of a scalable, STEM afterschool program which trains engineers to develop and teach inquiry-based Family Science Workshops (FSWs) in underserved communities. This project builds on three years of FSWs which demonstrate improvements in participants' science interest, knowledge, and self-efficacy and tests the model for scale, breadth, and depth. The project partners include the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, the Albert Nerken Engineering Department at the Cooper Union, the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, and the New York Hall of Science. The content emphasis is physics and engineering and includes topics such as aerodynamics, animal locomotion, automotive engineering, biomechanics, computer architecture, optics, sensors, and transformers. The project targets underserved youth in grades 1-5 in Los Angeles and New York, their parents, and engineering professionals. The design is grounded in motivation theory and is intended to foster participants' intrinsic motivation and self-direction while the comprehensive design takes into account the cultural, social, and intellectual needs of diverse families. The science activities are provided in a series of Family Science Workshops which take place in afterschool programs in eight partner schools in Los Angeles and at the New York Hall of Science in New York City. The FSWs are taught by undergraduate and graduate engineering students with support from practicing engineers who serve as mentors. The primary project deliverable is a five-year longitudinal evaluation designed to assess (1) the impact of intensive training for engineering professionals who deliver family science activities in community settings and (2) families' interest in and understanding of science. Additional project deliverables include a 16-week training program for engineering professionals, 20 physics-based workshops and lesson plans, Family Science Workshops (40 in LA and 5 in NY), a Parent Leadership Program and social networking site, and 5 science training videos. This project will reach nearly one thousand students, parents, and student engineers. The multi-method evaluation will be conducted by the Center for Children and Technology at the Education Development Center. The evaluation questions are as follows: Are activities such as recruitment, training, and FSWs aligned with the project's goals? What is the impact on families' interest in and understanding of science? What is the impact on engineers' communication skills and perspectives about their work? Is the project scalable and able to produce effective technology tools and develop long-term partnerships with schools? Stage 1 begins with the creation of a logic model by stakeholders and the collection of baseline data on families' STEM experiences and knowledge. Stage 2 includes the collection of formative evaluation data over four years on recruitment, training, co-teaching by informal educators, curriculum development, FSWs, and Parent Leadership Program implementation. Finally, a summative evaluation addresses how well the project met the goals associated with improving families' understanding of science, family involvement, social networking, longitudinal impact, and scalability. A comprehensive dissemination plan extends the project's broader impacts in the museum, engineering, evaluation, and education professional communities through publications, conference presentations, as well as web 2.0 tools such as blogs, YouTube, an online social networking forum for parents, and websites. 'Be a Scientist!' advances the field through the development and evaluation of a model for sustained STEM learning experiences that helps informal science education organizations broaden participation, foster collaborations between universities and informal science education organizations, increase STEM-based social capital in underserved communities, identify factors that develop sustained interest in STEM, and empower parents to co-invest and sustain a STEM program in their communities.
Young people's participation in informal STEM learning activities can contribute to their academic and career achievements, but these connections are infrequently explicitly recognized or cultivated. More systemic approaches to STEM education could allow for students' experiences of formal and informal STEM learning to be aligned, coordinated, and supported across learning contexts. This Science Learning+ planning project brings together stakeholders in two digital badge systems--one in the US and one in the UK--to plan for a study to identify the specific structural features of the systems that may allow for the alignment of learning objectives across institutions. Digital badge systems may offer an inventive solution to the challenge of connecting and building on youth's STEM-related experiences in multiple learning contexts. When part of a defined system, badges could be used to represent and communicate evidence of individual learning, as well as provide youth and educators with evidence-supported indicators for other activities in the system that might be interesting or valuable. Properly designed and supported badge systems could transmit critical information within a network of informal STEM programs and schools that (1) recognize context-dependent, interest-driven learning and (2) provide opportunities to explore those interests across multiple settings. This project advances the field of informal STEM learning in two ways. First, the project documents and analyzes the processes by which two small groups of informal science education organizations and schools negotiate the meaning and value of badges, as proxies for learning objectives, and how they decide to recognize badges awarded by other institutions. This process builds capacity within the target systems while also beginning to identify the institutional, cultural, and material capacity issues that facilitate or constrain the alignment process. Second, the project conducts a pilot study with a small number of youth in the US and UK to investigate factors associated with an individual youth's likelihood of: a) identifying badges of interest; b) connecting the activities of various badge systems to each other and to non-badging institutions, such as school or industry; c) determining which badges to pursue; and d) persisting in a particular badge pathway. Findings from this pilot study will help identify institution- and individual-level factors that might be associated with advancing student interest and progression in STEM fields. Deepening and validating the understanding of those factors and their relative impact on student experiences and outcomes will be the focus of investigations in future studies.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
James DiamondNew York City Hive Learning NetworkMOUSEDigitalMeKatherine McMillan
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This is a Science Learning+ planning project that will develop a research plan for investigating how applying the principles of embodied cognition to the design of informal learning environments can support young children's (ages 2-6) engagement with, and understanding of, science topics and concepts. While it has been fairly well established that cognition is intertwined with the body's interaction in the physical world, the precise means of applying these ideas to the design of effective learning environments is still emerging. Experimenting with various embodied cognition activities and physical learning configurations to understand what conditions are optimal for informal learning environments for early learners is a major objective of this project. During the planning grant period, the project will identity additional practitioner/research collaborations and will develop research plans for a suite of studies to be enacted by multiple teams of informal learning practitioners and cognitive scientists across the US and UK and that will be submitted as a Phase 2 research. The primary activities of this planning period include organizing a series of workshops that bring together informal learning educators and embodied cognition researchers to engage in deep discussion and design experimentation that will inform the development and refinement of research questions, protocols, and measurement tools. These discussions will be informed by observations of young children as they interact with the River of Grass, an exhibit prototype in which principles of embodied cognition are embedded in its design. The planning period will be led by a collaborative team of informal learning practitioners and cognitive scientists from the US and UK. This group will also oversee plans for the development of a new model for informal STEM research in which a constellation of practitioner/research teams across multiple organizations investigates topics of importance to informal learning practice and research that have the potential to result in a robust body of research that informs the design of informal learning spaces.
The CSMC-OMSI Partnership for Public Engagement (COPPE) project was developed to establish a strong and long-lasting partnership between the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry (CSMC) and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). Through participation in this project, COPPE researchers and OMSI educators sought a deeper understanding of each other's profession while simultaneously developing a suite of Informal Science Education (ISE) outreach programs that engage the public in new and enduring ways. These new ISE platforms were developed to enhance public awareness in the areas
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Oregon Museum of Science and IndustryAnne Sinkey
President Obama announced in April 2013 that the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) would launch a STEM AmeriCorps initiative to build student interest in STEM. A RFA is currently being prepared to be released in the late fall of 2013. This project will engage in quick response research to identify an evaluation and research agenda that can begin to inform the program launch. Thus, the timeframe for informing the initial stages of STEM AmeriCorps is relatively short, and the creation of an evaluation and research agenda is very timely. The products from the RAPID proposal are: (1) a review of the evaluation and research literature on the use of volunteers and/or mentors to build students' interest in STEM; (2) to convene a workshop to identify evaluation and research priorities to guide the initiative; and (3) a summary evaluation agenda that identifies promising directions along with the strength of evidence around key issues.
This working white paper begins the process of establishing a research agenda for how to use adult volunteers most effectively to engage K-12 students in STEM subjects. It does so by describing a comprehensive review of the literature, searching for articles and papers about programs designed to increase student interest, engagement, participation and academic achievement/attainment in STEM subjects.
The Ross Sea Project was a Broader Impact projects for an NSF sponsored research mission to the Ross Sea in Antarctica. The project, which began in the summer of 2010 and ended in May 2011, consisted of several components: (1) A multidisciplinary teacher-education team that included educators, scientists, Web 2.0 technology experts and storytellers, and a photographer/writer blogging team; (2) Twenty-five middle-school and high-school earth science teachers, mostly from New Jersey but also New York and California; (3) Weeklong summer teacher institute at Liberty Science Center (LSC) where teachers and scientists met, and teachers learned about questions to be investigated and technologies to be used during the mission, and how to do the science to be conducted in Antarctica; (4) COSEE NOW interactive community website where teachers, LSC staff and other COSEE NOW members shared lesson plans or activities and discussed issues related to implementing the mission-based science in their classrooms; (5) Technological support and consultations for teachers, plus online practice sessions on the use of Web 2.0 technologies (webinars, blogs, digital storytelling, etc.); (6)Daily shipboard blog from the Ross Sea created by Chris Linder and Hugh Powell (a professional photographer/writer team) and posted on the COSEE NOW website to keep teachers and students up-to-date in real-time on science experiments, discoveries and frustrations, as well as shipboard life; (7) Live webinar calls from the Ross Sea, facilitated by Rutgers and LSC staff, where students posed questions and interacted directly with shipboard researchers and staff; and (8) A follow-up gathering of teachers and scientists near the end of the school year to debrief on the mission and preliminary findings. What resulted from this project was not only the professional development of teachers, which extended into the classroom and to students, but also the development of a relationship that teachers and students felt they had with the scientists and the science. Via personal and virtual interactions, teachers and students connected to scientists personally, while engaged in the science process in the classroom and in the field.
For over 60 years annual Science Fairs and Engineering competitions have been held in schools and communities throughout the country, engaging large numbers of middle school students and culminating in national and international events. Science fairs are at the intersection of formal learning in school and informal science learning in other settings including science centers, after-school programs, and clubs. However, in spite of their wide implementation and long history, there are few empirical studies that have examined the relationship between student participation in these fairs and their learning and interest in science. Additionally, there have been no studies to understand the real cost of these programs relative to the student benefits. This educational research project will fill that gap in understanding. It will systematically document and describe science fair models; measure their impact on learning; and provide evidence about the costs of various models and related benefits. The findings from this study will inform a wide range of stakeholders (including teachers, science fair leaders, volunteers, parents, and businesses) about these models and how they impact students' mastery of science and engineering practices. This four-year study in all regions of the country will be conducted in two phases: Phase 1 will be a survey of 3800 middle school science teachers will define the characteristics of science fair models; Phase 2 will use those understandings to conduct case studies in 20 schools. Deliverables include handbooks for teachers and the science fair community, articles in journals summarizing findings, the Science and Engineering Practice and Interest Inventory, and a suite of data collection instruments for scoring rubrics to describe science fairs and measure their impact. Research questions will include: (1) What are the basic models of middle school science fairs? (2) To what extent does participation in a particular model enhance students' mastery of science and engineering practices and/or their interest in science? (3) What student-teacher and school-level factors contribute to or inhibit students' mastery? (4) What resources, human and financial, are required to implement an effective middle school science fair? and (5) What are the most cost-effective aspects of the science fair experience, and how can they be applied or adapted by science fair leaders and teachers to strengthen students' mastery of science and engineering practices? Findings from this study will have the potential to improve current practices in the design and implementation of science fairs and their impact on student learning; they will be widely disseminated to the various stakeholders through publications, conference presentations, and educational association channels.