This article examines middle school girls’ participation in school-day science classes and out-of-school time science clubs to understand the girls’ identification with and relationship to science. Looking at the girls’ science experiences across settings, researchers compared how the identities developed from these experiences supported or worked against the girls’ future trajectories in STEM.
This article discusses the potential for learner engagement in the contexts of a basketball team and a mathematics classroom. The qualitative analysis centers on three aspects of each context: access to the domain, the integral roles available to learners, and opportunities for self-expression.
This paper explores how a school-day science and nutrition curriculum, Choice, Control and Change (C3), shaped student thinking, decision making, and actions outside the classroom. The curriculum taught health science content and engaged students in activities focused on analyzing and changing their personal health choices.
Design-based research (DBR) is a method for testing educational theories while simultaneously studying the process of creating and refining educational interventions. In this article, Sandoval proposes “conjecture mapping” as a technique to guide DBR processes. Conjecture mapping responds to critiques that DBR lacks clear standards and methodological rigor.
This study explored the influence of a Saturday Science program that used explicit reflective instruction through contextualized and decontextualized guided and authentic inquiry on K‐2 students’ views of nature of science (NOS). The six‐week program ran for 2.5 hours weekly and emphasized NOS in a variety of science content areas, culminating in an authentic inquiry designed and carried out by the K‐2 students. The Views of Nature of Science Form D was used to interview K‐2 students pre‐ and post‐instruction. Copies of student work were retained for content analysis. Videotapes made of each
A midpoint progress poster on the Sparks of Discovery Project which connects UW-Madison NSF researchers to produce interdisciplinary science investigations that will be/have been implemented in a number of settings, including participants from underrepresented groups in science. Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) along with the Morgridge Institute for Research staff support the project and implement the education programs at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. This poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting in Washington, DC.
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University of Wisconsin, MadisonTravis Tangen
This CRPA award addresses the issue of multidisciplinary science and the public's awareness of the ideas. The PIs believe that the prevalence of multidisciplinary science is high and growing fast. Thus, the public and particularly the younger generations need to understand these concepts and to begin thinking in those terms. Thus, they will derive hands-on modules for three age groups that are age appropriate. The project team includes 7 NSF funded researchers who do multidiscipline-based research in biology, mathematics and engineering. These modules will be tested at the Boy and Girls Club of Dane County prior to being exhibited at the Madison Children's Museum and the Aldo Leopold Nature Center. Further, the local PBS TV station (WPT) will air some of the demonstrations giving the project more visibility and impact. Each set of modules designed for the three age groups shall be evaluated separately using age specific goals and objectives. The project is a collaboration between 7 scientists and engineers, the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, the Madison Children's Museum, and the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery of the University of Wisconsin.
This is the poster for the CCI Solar Fuels and Westside Science Club collaboration presented by Michelle Hansen and Benjamin Dickow at the 2014 AISL PI meeting in Washington DC.
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California Institute of Technology Center for Chemical InnovationMichelle Hansen
This poster provides an overview, program goals, evaluation plan, and research questions for the AISL project, Techbridge Broad Implementation: An Innovative Model to Inspire Girls in STEM Careers. The poster was presented at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting.
The data collection for this project involved three audiences: (1) a post-event survey completed by participants at the 'Eight-Legged Encounters' event, (2) a club experience survey completed by middle school students in an after-school club, and (3) focus groups, observations, and end-of-course evaluations conducted with students in the BIOS 497/897 'Communicating Science through Outreach' seminar class at the University of Lincoln, Nebraska. Year two data collection was completed from September 2013 - March 2014. Appendix includes survey.
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University of Nebraska-LincolnEileen Hebets
This project takes advantage of the charismatic nature of arachnids to engage the public in scientific inquiry, dialogue, and exploration. The project has two specific programs: (1) The development, implementation, and assessment of an informal museum event entitled 'Eight-Legged Encounters' which now has more than 25 associated activity stations. These activities encompass stations relating to (a) classification and systematics (e.g., 'What is an Arthropod', 'Create a Chelicerate', and 'Assemble an Arachnid'), (b) spider-specific stations focused on silk (e.g., 'Build a Burrow', 'Cribellate vs. Ecribellate Silk', 'Weave a Web', and 'Catch a Moth'), and (c) research related stations (e.g., 'Microscope Madness' and 'Community Experiment'). In addition, there is a stand-alone module entitled the 'Path of Predators' that includes an activity booklet and eleven stations that walk participants through the eleven living arachnid orders. Each stations has original artwork backdrops, clay sculptures, trading cards, and collectible stamps (participants place stamps on a phlylogenetic tree depicting the current hypothesis of evolutionary relationships among the eleven orders). Most stations have live animals and prizes are given to participants that complete their stamp booklet. 'Eight-Legged Encounters' has been hosted at the Nebraska State Museum (Morrill Hall) twice, with record-breaking attendance (>800 people in
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University of Nebraska-LincolnEileen Hebets
Deals with the success of the Rural Girls in Science Program at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington State, which uses science to address local issues through long-term research projects. Source of funding for the program; Components of the research projects; Factors which contributed to the success of the program.
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Angela GinorioJanice FournierKatie Frevert