This report summarizes the content and shares ideas coming out of a convening organized in September, 2013 by the Alliance and The Henry Ford. Essays by educators, students, researchers and reformers explore how leaders from the worlds of education and museums can work together to integrate the nation’s assets into a Vibrant Learning Grid. Produced with the support of the Robert and Toni Bader Foundation.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Center for the Future of MuseumsElizabeth Merritt
Grounded in the informal science education experiences of our partners around the country, Every Hour Counts developed this resource guide to profile promising strategies to advance informal STEM learning. The guide features: (1) Core elements of the national Frontiers in Urban Science Exploration (FUSE) strategy. (2) Overview of the The After-School Corporation's FUSE strategy and lessons learned in working to bring ISE to scale. (3) Profiles of city and county-wide initiatives, through the lens of a few key strategies to build after-school systems: advocacy, brokering relationships, building
Hundreds of millions of youth and adults visit science centers across the world. Although science centers have long asserted that these visits play a critical role in supporting the science learning of the public, robust and unequivocal evidence is limited. The International Science Centre Impact Study (ISCIS), a consortium of 17 science centers in 13 countries under the direction of John H. Falk Research, was designed to empirically determine whether experiences at science centres correlated with a range of critical public science and technology literacy outcomes. Because of the complex and
Earth science, which in this context does not include oceanic, atmospheric, and space sciences, is vital to the wellbeing of the United States and many of its issues, such as water resources, are expected to grow in importance. An earth science workforce will be needed to deal with this issues and it's important that this workforce draw on the talents of all citizens. Thus, federal education programs can be implemented to help attract and retain students on an earth science pathway; however, tight funding means agencies need to invest in programs that actually work. As a result, the U.S
STEM Integration in K-12 Education examines current efforts to connect the STEM disciplines in K-12 education. This report identifies and characterizes existing approaches to integrated STEM education, both in formal and after- and out-of-school settings. The report reviews the evidence for the impact of integrated approaches on various student outcomes, and it proposes a set of priority research questions to advance the understanding of integrated STEM education. STEM Integration in K-12 Education proposes a framework to provide a common perspective and vocabulary for researchers
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TEAM MEMBERS:
National Research CouncilMargaret HoneyGreg PearsonHeidi Schweingruber
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Advances in the life sciences - from the human genome to biotechnology to personalized medicine and sustainable communities - have profound implications for the well-being of society and the natural world. Improved public understanding of such scientific advances has the potential to benefit both individuals and society through enhanced quality of life and environmental protection, improved K-12 and undergraduate science education, greater understanding of human connections to the natural world, and more sustainable policies and regulations. Yet few systems of support exist to help life
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth Stallman BrownLaurence YoungKeegan SawyerNational Research Council
This book describes results of the Museum Impact and Evaluation Study, headed by the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The project that began in January 1990 and was completed in 1992 explored relationships between museums and their visitors and was intended to help staff members understand how they develop these relationships, what characterizes these relationships, and how these relationships are maintained.
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Museum of Science and IndustryPeter AndersonBonnie Cook Roe
This chapter is a selection from the book "The Arts, Education, and Aesthetic Knowing." Should arts education have a more significant place in our schools? An emphatic 'Yes' comes from the editors and other contributors to this provocative volume. They build their case by drawing upon recent developments in cognitive theory and, in particular, upon contemporary thought regarding aesthetic knowing. They contend that aesthetic knowing constitutes a 'special mode of cognition' and they see aesthetic learning as vital to intellectual growth and development. They argue that the arts should
Citizen science enlists members of the public to make and record useful observations, such as counting birds in their backyards, watching for the first budding leaf in spring, or measuring local snowfall. The large numbers of volunteers who participate in projects such as Project FeederWatch or Project BudBurst collect valuable research data, which, when pooled together, create an enormous body of scientific data on a vast geographic scale. In return, such projects aim to increase participants' connections to science, place, and nature, while supporting science literacy and environmental
This paper describes a frequently-overlooked aspect of embodied interaction design: physical effort. Although exertion is the direct goal of many embodied activities (e.g., exergames), and is used indirectly to discourage certain user interactions (as with affordances), exertion has not been used to support direct expressive interaction with an embodied system. Situating exertion in both psychological and physiological literature, this paper suggests guidelines for employing exertion as more than just an incidental component of proprioception in embodied interaction designs. Specifically, the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Leilah LyonsBrian SlatteryPriscillia JimenezBrenda LopezTom Moher
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Conference proceedings from the First Annual General Meeting of the Museums Association, which took place in Liverpool in 1890. Includes background on the association's formation.
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Museums Association
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) permeate the modern world. The jobs people do, the foods they eat, the vehicles in which they travel, the information they receive, the medicines they take, and many other facets of modern life are constantly changing as STEM knowledge steadily accumulates. Yet STEM education in the United States, despite the importance of these subjects, is consistently falling short. Many students are not graduating from high school with the knowledge and capacities they will need to pursue STEM careers or understand STEM-related issues in the
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Steve OlsonJay LabovNational Research Council