We have a wide spectrum of informal programs that include museum-based programs, afterschool programs, an NSF AISL project on science identity formation in girls, observatory visitor center programs, night-based programs, programs for Native American groups, undergraduate student-based outreach programs,and professional development for informal educations.
In late 2012, COMPASS received NSF grant number 1255633, “A Workshop to Explore Building Systemic Communication Capacity for Next Generation Scientists.” Known in shorthand and on twitter as #GradSciComm, the work comprises three major components, culminating in this report: (1) To assess the current landscape of science communication workshops, courses, and trainings available to graduate students in the STEM disciplines; (2) To convene a workshop of science communication trainers, scholars, science society leaders, funders, administrators, and graduate students; and (3) To provide concrete
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Liz NeeleyErica GoldmanBrooke SmithNancy BaronSarah Sunu
Science communications proficiency is an important skill for STEM graduate students but is not a typical part of STEM graduate education nationally. At the institutions that do offer such science communications training, instructional approaches are highly variable, reflecting an absence of standards and evaluation metrics. The workshop will 1) inventory science communications training for STEM graduate students nationally, (2) identify high effective practices in science communications training with attention to curriculum, approaches, and evaluation, and (3) define a roadmap that gives concrete recommendations to university administrators and funding agencies for national implementation and scale-up of science communications training. The workshop will involve IGERT PIs, science communications trainers, science communications researchers, and individuals from national agencies and organizations with a high interest in STEM graduate student communications training. Products of the workshop will include a white paper to NSF that identifies best practices for science communications training and specifies a roadmap for national scale-up of effective practices; publications in the peer-reviewed literature and other media; and briefings of officials at organizations with capacity to foster changes in graduate education (e.g., NSF, Council of Graduate Schools, and AAAS).
The IRIS Education and Public Outreach program draws upon the seismological expertise of Consortium members and combines it with the staff expertise to create products and activities that advance awareness and understanding of seismology and geophysics while inspiring careers in Earth science. These products and activities are designed to impact 6th grade students to adults in diverse settings: self-directed exploration over the Web, interactive museum exhibits, major public lectures, and in-depth exploration of the Earth’s interior in formal classrooms. Each year, a select group of undergraduates spends the summer conducting research under the expert guidance of Consortium members and affiliates. Other highlights include the widely distributed Teachable Moment slide sets for use in college and school classrooms within a day of major earthquakes, new animations and videos, new content for the Active Earth Monitor, and expanded use of social media.
Wyoming EPSCoR's education, outreach and diversity programs include undergraduate and graduate research and student achievement support, K-12 educational programs and teacher trainings, diversity programs targeted at increasing the representation of URGs in the sciences, and research infrastructural improvements on the community college level. Our current Track-1 Award through NSF EPSCoR is related to understanding the water balance through hydrology, ecology, and geophysics; and most of our programs include a heavy emphasis in that area.
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 document includes a series of six checklists—one for each of the six types of research outlined in the Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development. The Guidelines, developed by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation, explains those agencies’ shared expectations for education research and development. The checklists, created by EvaluATE, are distillations of key points from the Guidelines. The checklists are intended to support use of the Guidelines, enabling users to quickly reference a type of research and
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Evaluation Resource Center for Advanced Technological Evaluation (EvaluATE)Lori Wingate
The Education and Outreach (EO) program is an essential part of the CRISP MRSEC located at Yale and SCSU. CRISP offers activities that promote the interdisciplinary and innovative aspects of materials science to a diverse group of participants. The objective of the program is to enhance the education of future scientists, science teachers, K-12 students, parents, and the general public. CRISP’s primary informal science activities include public lectures, family science nights, New Haven Science Fair and museum partnerships.
The LTER Network is an innovative platform for training the next generation of natural scientists in collaborative, integrative, long-term research in ecology. An important objective of the network is to share knowledge with other communities. The LTER Network Office addresses this objective by managing a Communication and Outreach program that targets key communities—scientists, policy makers, educators and students, and the mass media as a proxy of the rest of the non-specific audiences—and maintain strategic partnerships and collaborations that provide improved access to these communities.
Education and Community Engagement is one of three program directorates in the UNAVCO. Our primary areas of focus include: (1) Professional development/training: We broaden the community using UNAVCO-supported tools, data, and instrumentation through technical training and online resources, (2) educational materials: we facilitate the development and dissemination of geodesy-focused educational materials, (3) community communications: we facilitate greater communication, collaboration, access and dissemination of UNAVCO science and education to both the UNAVCO and broader community, and (4) geo-workforce development: we facilitate the development of a robust, well-trained and diverse geoscience workforce with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to tackle emerging scientific and societal issues.
The C-DEBI education program works with audiences at all levels (K-12, general public, undergraduate, graduate and beyond) in formal and informal settings (courses, public lectures, etc.). Sub-programs focus on community college research internships and professional development for graduate students and postdocs.
"Ongoing collaboration-wide IceCube Neutrino Observatory Education and Outreach efforts include: (1) Reaching motivated high school students and teachers through IceCube Masterclasses; (2) Providing intensive research experiences for teachers (in collaboration with PolarTREC) and for undergraduate students (NSF science grants, International Research Experience for Students (IRES), and Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) funding); and (3) Supporting the IceCube Collaboration’s communications needs through social media, science news, web resources, webcasts, print materials, and displays (icecube.wisc.edu). The 2014 pilot IceCube Masterclass had 100 participating students in total at five institutions. Students met researchers, learned about IceCube hardware, software, and science, and reproduced the analysis that led to the discovery of the first high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. Ten IceCube institutions will participate in the 2015 Masterclass. PolarTREC teacher Armando Caussade, who deployed to the South Pole with IceCube in January 2015, kept journals and did webcasts in English and Spanish. NSF IRES funding was approved in 2014, enabling us to send 18 US undergraduates for 10-week research experiences over the next three years to work with European IceCube collaborators. An additional NSF REU grant will provide support for 18 more students to do astrophysics research over the next three summers. At least one-third of the participants for both programs will be from two-year colleges and/or underrepresented groups. "