The National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) is a nationally recognized high school academic competition. NOSB provides a forum for talented students to excel in science and math and introduces team members, their teachers, schools and communities to ocean sciences as an interdisciplinary field of study and a possible future career path. The program operates within a supportive ocean science learning community that involves the research community in pre-college education. Its focal point is a national competition that expands high school students' knowledge of the ocean and career pathways in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The program's goals are to: (1) cultivate environments which develop knowledgeable ocean stewards; (2) foster the use of the ocean as an interdisciplinary vehicle to teach science and mathematics; (3) reach out to and support the involvement of underrepresented and geographically diverse communities in the ocean sciences; and (4) provide students with interactive education and career opportunities that develop critical thinking and workforce development skills.
This project will expand and enhance an initiative that offers zoos, aquariums, and science museums the market research they need to engage and motivate the public on issues related to the ocean and climate change. The three-year project will measure changes in public awareness and action on ocean and climate-related issues. It will integrate these research findings into recommendations offered to staff working at zoos, aquariums, and science museums as well as to the ocean conservation community and provide professional development for staff members at these institutions in order to support and shape public outreach efforts that connect climate change, the ocean and individual actions, especially among our nation's youth.
The most important consideration in evaluating chemistry outreach efforts is how to best use the evaluation to serve project needs. Evaluation should be about making programs more effective—at communicating ideas, changing attitudes, inspiring action, or reaching wider audiences, for example. A well-conducted evaluation typically contributes to the quality of a project by helping its leaders better define their goals, identify important milestones and indicators of success, and use evidence to support ongoing improvements. At its best, evaluation is an integral part of project design and
This evaluator reflection was provided to stimulate conversation at the June 20-21, 2013 CAISE Evaluation Convening. It reflects on the nature of learning and challenges assumptions of outcomes from engaging in informal learning experiences.
This funder reflection was provided to stimulate conversation at the June 20-21, 2013 CAISE Evaluation Convening. It describes the importance of evaluation to funders, and provides some prompts and questions for thinking about evaluation with relation to funding.
This leadership reflection was provided to stimulate conversation at the June 20-21, 2013 CAISE Evaluation Convening. It provides an organizational leadership perspective on evaluation.
This practitioner reflection was provided to stimulate conversation at the June 20-21, 2013 CAISE Evaluation Convening. It discusses improving practice through reflection.
My Sky is a joint project between Boston Children’s Museum (BCM) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). This three-year project was supported by NASA’s NRA/ROSES 2011 (NNX12AB91G) program, and resulted in the creation of My Sky, a 1,500 sq. ft. traveling astronomy exhibit designed for adults and children, ages 5 – 10. My Sky emphasizes authentic experiences that encourage the development of skills and content foundational to later appreciation and understanding of astronomical science. My Sky includes interactive explorations of objects and phenomena visible in the sky, encouraging families to “look up” not only when they visit the exhibit, but as a practice they might adopt in their everyday lives. This is all punctuated by real NASA data and assets, including a 5’ diameter model Moon created using the latest Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter measurements; and high-resolution images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite. This project also developed a series of public programs, museum staff training programs, and family workshops, all utilizing NASA resources and existing curriculum.
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Scientists and researchers from fields as diverse as oceanography and ecology, astronomy and classical studies face a common challenge. As computer power and technology improve, the sizes of data sets available to us increase rapidly. The goal of this project is to develop a new methodology for using citizen science to unlock the knowledge discovery potential of modern, large data sets. For example, in a previous project Galaxy Zoo, citizen scientists have already made major contributions, lending their eyes, their pattern recognition skills and their brains to address research questions that need human input, and in so doing, have become part of the computing process. The current Galaxy Zoo project has recruited more than 200,000 participants who have provided more than 100 million classifications of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This project builds upon early successes to develop a mode of citizen science participation which involves not only simple "clickwork" tasks, but also involves participants in more advanced modes of scientific thought. As part of the project, a symbiotic relationship with machine learning tools and algorithms will be developed, so that results from citizen scientists provide a rich training set for improving algorithms that in turn inform citizen science modes of participation. The first phase of the project will be to develop a portfolio of pilot projects from astrophysics, planetary science, zoology, and classical studies. The second phase of the project will be to develop a framework - called the Zooniverse - to facilitate citizen scientists. In particular, research and machine-learning communities will be engaged to identify suitable projects and data sets to integrate into Zooniverse.
The ultimate goal with the Zooniverse is to create a sustainable future for large-scale, internet-based citizen science as part of every researcher?s toolkit, exemplifying a new paradigm in computational thinking, tapping the mental resources of a community of lay people in an innovative and complex manner that promises a profound impact on our ability to generate new knowledge. The project will engage thousands of citizens in authentic science tasks leading to a better public understanding of science and also, by the engagement of students, leading to interest in scientific careers.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Geza GyukPamela GayChristopher LintottMichael RaddickLucy FortsonJohn Wallin
The Wild Center will partner with Adirondack Museum, Cornell’s Maple Program, and New York State/Northeastern New York Maple Producers Associations to build regional identity, revitalize a heritage industry, and connect people to nature through the art, story, history, and science of maple sugaring. The Northern New York Maple Project will create interpretative exhibits with ecological, historical, and economic information. The museum will develop an instructional maple sugaring video; a touch-screen story kiosk that lets visitors share stories through the exhibit and social media; a storytelling workshop for staff, project partners, and maple producers; community events and conferences; a school education program; community sugaring workshops; and educational materials, website, social media, and outreach to industry, food enthusiasts, and the business community. Regular planning meetings on goals and deliverables will track results and an outside consultant will evaluate the overall success of the project.
Many science communication activities identify children as their main target. There are several reasons for this, even if, quite often, they are not expressed explicitly, as if children were a somehow “natural” public for science. On the contrary, we can observe a high level of complexity in the children agenda to engage with science, and in the science institution agendas for targeting children. But this does not seem to be followed but the same level of complexity in devising science engagement activities for children. The profound transformation of the scope and understanding of science
In late 2012, Providence Children’s Museum began a major three-year research project in collaboration with The Causality and Mind Lab at Brown University, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (1223777). Researchers at Brown examined how children develop scientific thinking skills and understand their own learning processes. The Museum examined what caregivers and informal educators understand about learning through play in its exhibits and how to support children’s metacognition – the ability to notice and reflect on their own thinking – and adults’ awareness and appreciation of kids’ thinking and learning through play. Drawing from fields like developmental psychology, informal education and museum visitor studies, the Museum’s exhibits team looked for indicators of children’s learning through play and interviewed parents and caregivers about what they noticed children doing in the exhibits, asking them to reflect on their children’s thinking. Based on the findings, the research team developed and tested new tools and activities to encourage caregivers to notice and appreciate the learning that takes place through play.