The focus of the November 9, 2006 Community Based Science Organization (CBSO) Roundtable was to gather participant's ideas for future CBSO and the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) partnerships. These ideas were used to inform the development of a new program that would involve CBSOs and SMM. The goal was for participants to re-imagine the way SMM and CBSOs collaborate to facilitate better community-based science in Minnesota. Participants were asked to think about what this collaboration would look like. A brainstorming method was used, and to guide the brainstorming process, participants
Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG) conducted process and summative evaluation for the New York Aquarium (Wildlife Conservation Society) of Project POWER: Protecting Our Wetlands with Educators and Regulators. The project was designed to train teams from around the country to present wetlands workshops in their local communities to reduce the frequency and magnitude of wetlands violations by community residents. As part of their participation in Project POWER, in March 2006, teams attended a two-day Leadership Seminar where they received training and resources. The primary goal of the
This external evaluation of the PEEP Explorer's Guide found the Guide effective in meeting its goals. Teachers who used the Guide were extremely satisfied with its content, materials, and usability. They reported the Guide was highly appealing to children, and they used materials from the Guide to forge home-school connections. Teachers found the Guide made useful links between science, literacy, and language. Pre-post comparisons demonstrated that, while teachers were engaged in similar instructional practices before and after using the Guide, the Guide alleviated the challenges of teaching
Front-line educators are arguably critical to the visitor experience at museums and science centers across the country. However, little research exists to inform staff facilitation strategies or professional development efforts. In this article, we describe the results of a qualitative study of 63 staff-family interactions in a science center, focusing particularly on the role of adult family members.We observed three distinct phases of interaction, during which adult family members acted as gatekeepers to deeper staff engagement. The results suggest that in order to successfully facilitate
I-CLEEN, a project led by the Museum of Science of Trento (Italy), has developed and currently manages an information gateway of Earth system science educational resources. The aim of the project is to support Italian science teachers in setting up Earth science student-centred lessons. To do so effectively, the gateway exhibits the following key features: it adopts a bottom – up approach to resource development that relies on strong cooperation between science teachers and professional researchers (who also act as resource referees); it is subject–oriented and enhances the multi- and interdisciplinary traits that characterize geosciences; it embraces the concept of open source, through the technological tools (LifeRay) used and copyright policies adopted. A service usability study was performed after the first launch of the gateway and the results were used to develop the second release, which is currently online. During the preliminary phase of the project, as well as the development and set-up of the gateway, valuable insight was gained in various different fields: On the current situation in geoscience education in Italy – where teachers are encouraged to take up a student-centred approach, experiential education and learning initiatives, but currently opt for academic teaching methods because they lack the support and the tools needed. On the educational resource gateways currently available online, on the materials they provide and on the role of ICT in Earth science education. On the results achieved and the tools developed during previous science communication activities that involved teachers and students in research projects.
Members of the public participate in scientific research in many different contexts, stemming from traditions as varied as participatory action research and citizen science. Particularly in conservation and natural resource management contexts, where research often addresses complex social–ecological questions, the emphasis on and nature of this participation can significantly affect both the way that projects are designed and the outcomes that projects achieve. We review and integrate recent work in these and other fields, which has converged such that we propose the term public participation
Researchers from the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS), Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center and two other centers recently published LOST Learning Opportunities: Learning about Out-of-School Time. The book, published by Springer, addresses conceptual, methodological, and empirical issues related to studying learning in everyday and afterschool settings. Primarily written for researchers, LOST Learning Opportunities includes chapters on what math looks like in everyday family settings, how science is positioned in afterschool, how children's learning and
Graduates of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) degrees stand to earn more in their lifetime while contributing innovation and technical expertise necessary for a robust society. Further, improving the diversity of such graduates will produce a workforce that empowers all communities to equally share in the benefits of a STEM-literate society. The success of STEM programming thus depends on attracting aspirational students and providing the resources for them to excel in learning. Further, teaching and mentoring methods need re-tooling and energetic instructors to retain
Naturejobs.com article called “Education: Free-range learning,” highlighting some of the benefits of and challenges for informal science education. The article includes quotes and examples from project leaders in citizen science, cyberlearning, science museums, learning research, and evaluation, and makes the claim that in a time of uncertain funding, research and evaluation for ISE projects are critical.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Virginia Gewin
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
As part of its ongoing Practice-and-Research (PaR) initiative, the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), in collaboration with the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, has engaged cross-sector groups of informal STEM learning practitioners and researchers through a trajectory of activities that include surveys, conference calls, an online forum, and a recent convening to explore, discuss, and brainstorm about the existing and potential relationships between practice and research in the field.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
CAISE
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
As part of its Practice-and-Research initiative, the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) has been hosting a series of field-wide discussions to explore the current and potential connections between ISE practice and research. A rich variety of practitioners, researchers and evaluators have contributed to one or more of these conversations that have taken place on conference calls, an online forum, and an in-person convening to share and broaden understandings about the benefits and challenges in facilitating these connections.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
CAISE
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Horizon Research, Inc. has recently completed the fifth in a series of national surveys funded by the National Science Foundation. The most recent survey “was designed to provide up-to-date information and to identify trends in the areas of teacher background and experience, curriculum and instruction, and the availability and use of instructional resources.”
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Eric BanilowerP. Sean SmithIris WeissKristen MalzahmKiira CampbellAaron Weis