The EcoTeens Program is a hands-on, science based enrichment program offered by the Franklin Park Zoo. The program is open to youth in Boston Public Schools grades 9 - 11, and is designed to teach students about natural history and conservation issues, and to provide them with opportunities to develop leadership skills. Youth participate in the out-of-school time program during weekly after-school sessions, as well as every other Saturday sessions. In the 2008 program, they could choose to participate in one session (January through March, or April through early June) or in both sessions
This commentary forms the conclusion of a special Virtual Issue of Science Education focusing on the intersection of informal STEM education and the learning sciences.
Using families as the analytical focus, this study informs the field of informal science education with a focus on the role of prior experiences in family science conversations during nature walks at an outdoor-based nature center. Through video-based research, the team analyzed 16 families during walks at a nature center. Each family's prior science learning experience provided conversational strategies for learning together as a social group and when making meaning out of observations in the outdoors. This analysis provides three main findings: (1) families frequently tapped into a vast
While the opportunity to engage in scientific reasoning has been identified as an important aspect of informal science learning (National Research Council, 2009), most studies have examined this strand of science learning within the context of physics‒based science exhibits. Few have examined the presence of such activity in conjunction with live animal exhibits at zoos and aquariums. A video study of 41 families at four touch‒tank exhibits, where visitors can observe and interact with live marine species, revealed that families engaged in making claims, challenging claims, and confirming
We aim to understand how to help young people recognize the value of science in their lives and take initiative to see the world in scientific ways. Our approach has been to design life-relevant science-learning programs that engage middle-school learners in science through pursuit of personally meaningful goals. In this paper, we analyze the case studies of two focal learners in the Kitchen Science Investigators life-relevant, science-learning program. Our analysis highlights ways to design life-relevant science-learning programs to help learners connect science to their everyday lives in
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Tamara CleggJanet Kolodner
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Science Education has a long tradition of publishing theoretical and empirical articles that push the boundaries of learning research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To that end, we edited a collection of articles that focus on themes relevant to the intersection of learning sciences research and science learning in everyday life approaches and contexts for Science Education.
Most communities have afterschool programs that give school-aged students a safe place to go after the dismissal bell rings. The next step after simply providing a safe haven is to create a nurturing environment that develops young people’s talents and supports their needs. A formal mentoring program can help to achieve this goal.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Sara McDanielAnna-Margaret YarbroughKevin Besnoy
Afterschool continues to be promoted as a complementary setting to school for strengthening science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education (for example, Krishnamurthi, Bevan, Rinehart, & Coulon, 2013). This is a reasonable idea: 10.2 million children and youth in the U.S. participate in structured afterschool programs (Afterschool Alliance, 2014), and the flexibility of afterschool settings allows for innovative approaches to STEM exploration and engagement.