Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF),The STEM Pathways project focused on exploring strategies through which at-risk and incarcerated Hispanic youth could be engaged around STEM careers, understand the education, training, and skills they would need to attain them, and think that such a path was a future possibility. To this end, the project and evaluation teams collaborated on a literature review, the development of a logic model, and the design, implementation, and evaluation of a diverse set of program activities that included media, art, and flash mentoring with STEM role models
Funded by NSF, Earth: The Operators’ Manual (ETOM) is a users’ guide to the present and future energy resources of our planet, providing “users” with the information, attitudes and tools to make wiser choices about powering homes, schools, businesses and communities. ETOM uses a hybrid model of science communication including video + in-person presentations + Web 2.0 social networking. Rockman et al evaluated project impact, working from front-end to summative stages to understand the reactions of media, online and on-site audiences using both qualitative and quantitative measures to look at
These audio presentation and transcript files are from a series of webinars about the NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) FY14 solicitation. "AISL Webinar 101: Introduction to the Solicitation" includes an overview of the AISL program, project types, preparing competitive proposals, the review process and NSF merit criteria, other relevant programs and resources, and contact information. "AISL Webinar 102: Digging Deeper into the Solicitation" focuses on key issues in the submission and review processes, examples of project types, an introduction to the Common Guidelines for Education
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National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation
This report was completed by the Program Evaluation Research Group at Endicott College in October 2013. It describes the outcomes and impacts of a four-year, NSF-funded project called Go Botany: Integrated Tools to Advance Botanical Learning (grant number 0840186). Go Botany focuses on fostering increased interest in and knowledge of botany among youth and adults in New England. This was being done through the creation of an online flora for the region, along with the development of related tools, including PlantShare, and a user-friendly interface for ‘smartphones’. In January 2012, the PI
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Judah LeblangNew England Wild Flower Society
This website is set up to provide easy to use tips to design, implement and assess the quality of evaluations on programs and projects to improve the quality, quantity and diversity of the STEM workforce. However, most of the tips and other information can be of use to a broad range of researchers and evaluators and those who fund them.
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Science Museum of MinnesotaEric JollyPatricia CampbellTom Kibler
Produced by National Geographic Kids and Cricket Moon Media with support from the National Science Foundation, Marine Missions is a free iPad touch screen application for preschoolers. The app is hosted by Jacques, a hermit crab character who guides pre-readers through six ocean missions and the building of a fantasy sea creature. Players steer Jacques’ boat to three green markers to clean up polluted spots in the ocean and three orange markers to complete different water current challenges in which players rescue Jacques’ tools from a whirlpool, run past blowholes, and surf on tidal bores
Rockman et al (REA) conducted an independent summative evaluation of the Eutelelost Tree of Life: Web Module. The Euteleost Tree of Life (EToL) is a collaborative National Science Foundation research project between eight institutions, including Kansas University, to resolve evolutionary relationships within the euteleost fishes. The main aim of the interactive Web module is for users to explore the evolutionary history of fish and how they are related to one another. REA's summative evaluation was designed to (1) gather users' feedback about the website, as well as (2) assess the impact of
Across the globe, citizen science projects are becoming increasingly poised to address social and environmental challenges and answer broad scientific questions. Although rapidly increasing in number, these projects need easy-to-use software tools for data management, analysis, and visualization to be successful. This project transforms how citizen science projects unfold locally, regionally, and globally by creating software that supports the full spectrum of project activities. It empowers projects to ask and answer their own local questions while contributing data critical to larger-scale issues. These tools will allow projects to announce training events; track volunteers; create datasheets; enter, review, analyze, and visualize data; publish reports; discover resources; integrate data; and ensure that data are contributed to repositories (e.g., DataONE, NEON, GBIF, HydroShare, and EOL). Tools will be made available to citizen science projects and will be delivered as reusable software elements for use in existing websites; as website features on CitSci.org; and as Application Programming Interface (API) services and mobile applications. The tools will expand the national reach, local appeal, computational abilities, visualization techniques, statistical analysis capabilities, and interoperability of the nations' cyber-infrastructure. Using participatory design and agile methods, the project will: (1) develop reusable software elements that citizen science organizations can embed into their own websites, (2) harden and expand the functionality and capabilities of CitSci.org through new website features, and (3) extend the APIs of CitSci.org and develop associated mobile applications to increase system and tool interoperability. The target user communities will include citizen science project coordinators. It will deliver customizable tools and services related to all project activities and engage projects across a wide array of disciplines. Project coordinators will be able to customize all tools developed to suit their specific project needs. Adoption and use of the tools developed will create a cyber-ready workforce capable of collecting, contributing, and applying high quality ecological, geophysical, social, and human health related observations to solve real-world problems. These broader impacts will help the citizen science community better understand effective models of public engagement to ensure more impactful application of citizen science to societal challenges.
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Gregory NewmanStacy LynnMelinda Laituri
Living Liquid is a full-scale development project that will develop and research a new genre of science exhibit that engage visitors in inquiry with large scientific datasets through interactive visualizations. Building on findings from a prior pathways project, Living Liquid will develop three interactive visualizations on a multi-touch Viz Table with a tangible user interface. Each visualization will support visitors in the exploration of a dataset provided by the project’s science partners: 1) Plankton Patterns will show how the ocean is defined by regions of microscopic life using data from the MIT Darwin Project; 2) Ocean Tracks will reveal the “highways” large marine creatures travel with data from the TOPP project at Stanford University; and 3) Genetic Rhythms will follow the activity of marine creatures’ genes in response to environmental conditions based on data from the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education (C-MORE). Through an iterative process of collaborative research and development among museum professionals, educational researchers, computer scientists, marine biologists, data artists and interaction designers, this project seeks to: (1) Advance public understanding of ocean ecosystems and large data inquiry skills through the development of a Viz Table. (2) Advance STEM professionals’ knowledge of how to engage the public in inquiry with visualizations through an educational research study. (3) Increase the capacity of STEM professionals (both ISE developers and research scientists) to develop visualizations through a collaborative development process that includes graduate student training and residencies.
Brigham Young University and the University of Maryland, in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, the Computer History Museum, and NASA, plus leading game designers, educators, scientists, and researchers, will conduct research on the design and development of two large-scale Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) based on deep-time science in astrobiology, astrophysics, and interplanetary space travel. The project will iteratively design and test two distinct types of ARGs (closed- and open-ended) to study the effects of these ARGs on STEM learning. The ARGs will be based upon the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), affording learners with intensive, self-driven, and scaffolded scientific learning and will be aimed at attracting girls and other groups historically underrepresented in science and technology. Each ARG will be designed by NASA scientists, educators and education researchers, and game-based learning experts and will be highly interactive: engaging learners in collaborative investigations in real and virtual worlds to collect scientific data, conduct data analysis, and contribute scientific evidence that will help solve scientific questions within a science-based narrative derived from real world problems that will develop learners' computational thinking skills in a collaborative, participatory virtual learning environment. Combining data from web and social media analytics, player interviews, surveys, and user-generated content, researchers, and evaluation experts at UXR who will provide an outcomes-based evaluation, including front-end, formative, remedial, and summative evaluations, will establish the properties of ARGs that most effectively advance informal STEM learning outcomes. By comparing open-ended and closed-ended ARGs, the PIs will be able to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of two distinct approaches to Alternate Reality Game design. The project team will test the hypothesis that open-ended, user-generated content will support inquiry-based learning, peer-to-peer learning, and life-wide and life-deep learning, while close-ended, narrative-rich ARGs will support specific transfer of STEM knowledge, collaboration, and problem solving. To help ensure that the games appeal to their target audiences, the project team will adopt co-design methods, enlisting the creative input of participating teens at each stage of the design process. Supplementary materials and lesson plans developed in close consultation with teachers, librarians, teens, and external stakeholders will enable the ARGs to be widely and effectively used as a model in museums, classrooms, libraries, and after-school programs. The proposed ARGs represent a unique environment to test learning principles that enable players to bridge their learning through transmedia across multiple contexts and test the effects of collaboration with massive numbers of concurrent players. As a result, the project should yield insights on how learning principles can be adopted and re-appropriated for emerging learning environments, including those that that might be crowd-sourced. The research is well grounded in the literature and the PIs do an excellent job of mapping ARG design principles to the pertinent learning science research, providing a clear sense of the particular affordances of the genre that should lead to new understandings. The approach has profound implications for the way we might teach the next generation of students. The ability to mix problem solving and learning in virtual spaces with experiences and data derived from the physical world could dramatically change how we understand the role of technology in education.
This project from the University of Florida proposes to derive and develop a network and community of practice (CoP) among amateur and professional paleontologists across the country. Should this project be successful, it would put together 40 professional Paleontologist with 23 amateur Paleontology clubs across the country. The advantage of this organization would be to facilitate sharing of specimens (digitally on the web), educating each other, and most important, making the public outreach from each club more effective. While each club has specimens, this network would provide access to over 100 million digitized samples. The web-base for this collection will be managed at the University of Florida under the direction of the PI. The research portion of this project will determine what the essential elements necessary are for effective learning between professionals and amateurs and how the CoP enhances amateur learning and outreach efficacy. The project plan includes a centralized organization to initially form the community of practice, call general meetings, publish newsletters and organized a large meeting at the University of Florida in the coming year. Further, the project team will conduct evaluation on how the project is helping members develop and how the organization can be improved. Educating individuals in the field of paleontology is generally a positive experience. This project will facilitate knowledge building among the individual members of the clubs, which will enhance their perspective and enable them to reach out to members of their communities. The project will be evaluated at every level to ensure that the existing clubs are incorporated into the project and new clubs are welcomed and engaged as well.
This full-scale project addresses the need for more youth, especially girls, to pursue an interest in engineering and eventually fill a critical workforce need. The project leverages museum-based exhibits, girls' activity groups, and social media to enhance participants' engineering-related interests and identities. The project includes the following bilingual deliverables: (1) Creative Solutions programming will engage girls in group oriented engineering activities at partner community-based organizations, where the activities highlight altruistic, personally relevant, and social aspects of engineering. Existing community groups will use the activities in their regular meeting structure. Visits to the museum exhibits, titled Design Your World will reinforce messages; (2) Design Your World Exhibits will serve as a community hub at two ISE institutions (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and the Hatfield Marine Science Center). They will leverage existing NSF-funded Engineer It! (DRL-9803989) exhibits redesigned to attract, engage, and mobilize a more diverse population by showcasing altruistic, personally relevant, and social aspects of engineering; (3) Digital engagement through targeted use of social media will complement program and exhibit content and be an online portal for groups engaged in the project; (4) A community action group (CAG) will provide professional development opportunities to stakeholders interested in girls' STEM identity (e.g. parents, STEM-based business professionals) to promote effective engineering messaging throughout the community and engage them in supporting project participants; and (5) Longitudinal research will explore how girls construct and negotiate engineering-related identities through discourse across the project activities and over time.