The Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre (doing business as the Learning World Institute), in collaboration with informal science education venues, universities, and corporations in Chicago, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., is organizing a set of three professional conferences and a web site to encourage stronger national and local communities of practice around the application of arts-based learning (ABL) to informal science education. Arts-based learning is the instrumental use of artistic skills, processes, and experiences to foster learning in non-artistic disciplines. The goal is to apply ABL to informal science education in ways that can foster the acquisition of STEM skills that are important in today's workforce. The set of conferences, with a total attendance of 750, will focus on an understanding of current and potential ABL applications to workforce skill development, opportunities to practice ABL directly, and creation of a research agenda on the impact of ABL on science education. The web site (funded through other sources) will help conference attendees prepare for the workshops, provide opportunities for networking, aggregate resources, and host the research agenda.
The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) contracted with Randi Korn & Associates, Inc. (RK&A) to help determine realistic strategies and next steps for scaling up its Science in Pre-K program, a PNC Bank-funded teacher professional development program that supports District of Columbia Public Schools’ (DCPS) preschool teachers in teaching science through exploration and problem solving. How did we approach this project? RK&A prepared two literature reviews—Scaling Up and Distance Education—intended to explore best practices for scaling up non-profit programs and facilitating distance learning
This coding framework was developed to categorize the evaluation reports on informalscience.org. Coding categories and related codes were created to align with key features of evaluation reports and the potential coding needs of the five BISE (Building Informal Science Education) synthesis authors.
This application requested (and received) an exemption from the consent requirement. The key in this application is that all data collection was done anonymously.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
University of California, San DiegoLoren ThompsonJeremy Babendure
The purpose of the project is to develop, initiate, and disseminate a collaborative and sustained learning research agenda to inform how natural history museums can best use their resources to support our audiences in the 21st Century. A key component of the project was the 21st Century Learning in Natural History Settings Conference, held at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, February 12 - 15, 2012. During the conference, 100 participants from across the US and three international sites engaged in a dynamic process of initiating the development of a Call to Action and Learning Research Agenda
As organizations grow in size, geographical scope, and complexity, it is increasingly apparent that sponsorship and support of communities of practice—groups whose members regularly engage in sharing and learning, based on common interests—can improve organizational performance. Although many authors assert that communities of practice create organizational value, there has been relatively little systematic study of the linkage between community outcomes and the underlying social mechanisms that are at work. To build an understanding of how communities of practice create organizational value
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Eric LesserJohn Stork
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This chapter presents an introduction to design-based implementation research (DBIR). We describe the need for DBIR as a research approach that challenges educational researchers and practitioners to transcend traditional research/practice barriers to facilitate the design of educational interventions that are effective, sustainable, and scalable.
This is a brief study of the changes in the merit review criteria for proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation (NSF) over its 60-year history. Because far more worthy proposals are received than are fundable, it has been necessary for the NSF to develop review criteria to distinguish among meritorious proposals. For reasons of politics and policy, NSF has had to consider criteria other than simply good science—what are now known as “broader impacts.” This study shows that the general nature of the criteria has not changed over the years. Instead, the NSF has fought a continuing
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marc Rothenberg
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
A working group of the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director was tasked with developing a model for a sustainable and diverse U.S. biomedical research workforce that can inform decisions about training the optimal number of people for the appropriate types of positions that will advance science and promote health. Based on this analysis and recognizing that there are limits to NIH’s ability to control aspects of the training pipeline, the working group was asked to make recommendations for actions that NIH should take to support a future sustainable biomedical research infrastructure. This
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National Institute of HealthDorit Zuk
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The Conference on Public Participation in Scientific Research 2012 was held on 4 and 5 August in association with the Ecological Society of America’s 97th Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. The conference took important steps toward formalizing the field of public participation in scientific research (PPSR); facilitated communication, collaboration, and innovation, and identified points of strength and concern for the field. Additional information about and results from the conference can be found at citizenscience.org.
With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Mathematics in Zoos and Aquariums project worked with zoo and aquarium staff members to integrate mathematical concepts into the interpretation of living collections. Over two years, the project developed three activities related to logic, measurement, and data analysis and conducted workshops with over 400 staff from 124 institutions. In refining the workshop model and conducting evaluation, we found that most staff increased their comfort with and use of math-based activities and that the goals of the participants and the