The increasing need for communicating science to the public suggests that future scientists and science educators should be educated in science outreach and trained to communicate with lay audiences. We present a recently developed novel graduate course, which trains students in outreach efforts aimed to increase the public's understanding of science and of the role of science in our daily lives. In this course, the students, with the help of expert faculty mentors, prepare lay-language presentations about science-related topics of their choice and take the presentations to adult venues in the
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Hannah AlexanderAnna WaldronSandra Abell
America's adult populace has failed to keep pace with the rapid inundation of science-centric knowledge affecting nearly every facet of personal, familial, and communal life. With three out of eveiy four American adults considered scientifically illiterate, adult civic science literacy (CSL) has reached alarmingly low levels. The purpose of this research is to determine if the CSL of adults can be elevated through a renewed citizen science paradigm (RCSP)-incorporating nonformal outdoor adult education and structured experiential learning-in which volunteers conduct scientific research in an
The article focuses on the survey titled, "Use of Informal Education Resources in Technology and Engineering Education" (ITEEA) on the informal science education (ISE) resources. In the survey, half of the respondents were not familiar with the term informal education (IE), even though it was clear by their responses to other questions. All of the respondents who held Doctorates were familiar with the term IE. Most of the respondents with only a Bachelor's degree were not familiar with the term IE. This article includes survey questions.
Multimodal technologies are creating new experiential opportunities for exploring, tinkering, learning and interacting in the virtual world. Once combined with sensorial objects and open-ended activities in the physical world, they introduce a new genre of interactive environments called ThinkeringSpace. ThinkeringSpace is a hybrid system - made of networked and remotely accessible physical environments - that seeks to bring school-age children together to collaborate face-to-face and tinker with things, both physical and virtual, reflect upon what they do and discover, and elaborate their
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Heloisa MouraDale FahnstromGreg PrygrockiT.J. McLeish
The article offers information on Quin Etnyre, a 13-year-old boy from Southern California who founded the electronics company Qtechknow. Topics discussed include Etnyre's invention of the ArduSensors plug-and-play electronic device components, Etnyre's used of the open-source electronics prototyping platform Arduino to began his company, and Entyre's hobbies such as sports including volleyball, track, and swimming.
In the article, the author discusses technological developments in the education sector in the U.S. as of October 2013. He cites the introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in early 2013 that is focused on science and engineering in the K-12 curriculum. The NGSS' four disciplinary core concepts include Earth and Space Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Engineering and Technology. He presents several NGSS-friendly software like Celestia and NetLogo, as well as hardware such as the Arduino open-source programmable controller.
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 book chapter describes the early evolution of Project FeederWatch, Classroom FeederWatch (which later evolved into the Lab of Ornithology's BirdSleuth), and early work to conduct citizen science online with the advent of the World Wide Web. It cites and presents data from several evaluation reports produced for the Lab's first citizen science award from the National Science Foundation, called "Public Participation in Ornithology." Contact Rick Bonney (reb5@cornell.edu) for a PDF of this chapter.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
Cornell Lab of OrnithologyRick Bonney
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This handout is from a research and practice workshop at the NARST annual conference. The handout takes researchers through an exercise to craft a pitch to practitioners with whom they would like to partner for a research study.
DATE:
TEAM MEMBERS:
National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST)
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
In this presentation from a workshop on research and practice at the NARST annual conference, Bill Penuel of the University of Colorado and Ted Willard of the National Science Teachers Association discuss strategies that education researchers can use to propose partnerships and collaborations with practitioner communities.
In this presentation from a workshop on research and practice at the NARST annual conference, presenters presenters discuss: how to identify persistent problems of practice from practitioners' and stakeholders' perspectives; how to develop a collaborative design process that leverages the expertise of practitioners, researchers, subject matter experts in science, and other stakeholders; and how to formulate design goals that foreground supports for implementation, equity and diversity.
What Teachers and Districts Most Need from Research and Researchers: In this presentation from a workshop on research and practice at the NARST annual conference, Dan Gallagher of Seattle Public Schools and Tana Peterman of University of Washington discuss examples of what practitioners need from the education research community.