Mueller, Tippins, and Bryan's contrast of the current limitations of science education with the potential virtues of citizen science provides an important theoretical perspective about the future of democratized science and K-12 education. However, the authors fail to adequately address the existing barriers and constraints to moving community-based science into the classroom. We contend that for these science partnerships to be successful, teachers, researchers, and other program designers must reexamine questions about traditional science education and citizen-science programs and attend to
Mueller, Tippins, and Bryan (2012) presented a new conceptualization of citizen science that is meant to facilitate emerging trends in the democratization of science and science education to produce civically engaged students. This article reviews some relevant trends in the field of citizen science, for clarity here referred to as public participation in scientific research (PPSR), and presents overlooked styles and outcomes of PPSR. Education efforts should seize the opportunity to emphasize the key and distinct roles students can play in both the science and the values elements that inform
The article looks at so-called Maker spaces, areas of public libraries devoted to helping patrons work together and learn by offering tools, access, and training to create ideas and objects. The spaces' focus on learning through play is emphasized. Other topics include incorporating 3-D (three-dimensional) printing and mentoring.
The article presents information on library makerspace models in the U.S. that allow patrons to create, build, and craft using technology, including ideas related to deliberate opportunism, collaboration, and centralization and development. The author looks at strategies used at Allen County Public Library (ACPL) in Indiana, the Cleveland Public Library in Cleveland, Ohio, and the DeLaMare Science and Engineering Library at the University of Nevada in Reno, Nevada.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Travis GoodAmerican Library Association
Modern zoological gardens have invested substantial resources in technology to deliver environmental education concepts to visitors. Investment in these media reflects a currently unsubstantiated belief that visitors will both use and learn from these media alongside more traditional and less costly displays. This paper proposes a model that identifies key factors theorized to influence the likelihood of visitors engaging in technology-delivered media. Using data from two case studies of large National Science Foundation-funded projects in zoos, the authors argue key factors in predicting
The article discusses the growing interest and excitement over Makerspaces referred to as places where design and entrepreneurial ideas are allowed and where technology and construction equipment are available in an area dedicated to play. It cites the launching of Techbridge in 16 schools in California where U.S. Department of Education officials participated on a lively discussion on how Maker activities with the Departments pursuit of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and Common Core goals. It notes how the physical and digital nature of the spaces are reminiscent of
The article discusses the promotion of creative thinking at school libraries through Makerspace, a space in which students, teachers and librarians can take advantage of multiple learning styles. Individuals who are users of this space may be considered non-conformists, radicals and misfits. They use the Using, Tinkering, Experimenting and Creating (uTEC) Maker Model which guides them to the creative and inventive processes.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David LoertscherLeslie PreddyBill Derry
Natural history has all but disappeared from formal education in the United States. This places the responsibility of introducing people to natural history within nonformal educational settings, with interpretive naturalists taking a leading role. This qualitative study of the life histories of 51 natural history-oriented professionals establishes additional roles for interpretive naturalists interacting with and programming for people with an emerging interest in natural history. Young adults with a strong interest in competency in natural history topics were characterized by having access to
Amateur astronomers play a critical role engaging the general public in astronomy. The role of individual and club-related factors is explored using data from two surveys (Survey 1 N=1142; Survey 2 N=1242) of amateur astronomers. Analysis suggests that formal or informal training in astronomy, age, club membership, length of club membership, and participation in club service are factors that contribute to the likelihood of an amateur engaging in education and public outreach. Sex (male or female) and club service were found to influence the level of outreach amateurs engage in. Interventions
Over many decades, science education researchers have developed, validated, and used a wide range of attitudinal instruments. Data from such instruments have been analyzed, results have been published, and public policies have been influenced. Unfortunately, most science education instruments are not developed using a guiding theoretical measurement framework. Moreover, ordinal-level attitudinal data are routinely analyzed as if these data are equal interval, thereby violating requirements of parametric tests. This paper outlines how researchers can use Rasch analysis to develop higher quality
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TEAM MEMBERS:
William BooneJ. Scott TownsendJohn Staver
The purpose of this study was to investigate how situational interest of high school students was triggered during a field trip to an aquarium. Although the role of museums in stimulating interest among students has been acknowledged for some time, empirical evidence about how the specific variable of a museum setting might trigger situational interest is almost nonexistent. The present study was conducted as a case study to provide an inductive, explorative investigation of how situational interest emerged during the field trip. A situative approach to the study of interest was applied in the
This paper is birthed from my lifelong experiences as student, teacher, administrator, and researcher in urban science classrooms. This includes my years as a minority student in biology, chemistry, and physics classrooms, 10 years as science teacher and high school science department chair, 5-years conducting research on youth experiences in urban science classrooms, and current work in preparing science teachers for teaching in urban schools. These experiences afford me both emic and etic lenses through which to view urban science classrooms and urban youth communities. This paper, both