News & View Category: Project Spotlights

This Spotlight was co-written with Sarah Breen Bartecki, Lisa-Anne DeGregoria Kelly, & Michael Howard What happens when two organizations with similar missions partner to focus all of their informal science education programs in an under-resourced neighborhood in ways local residents want to be supported to improve their community? SCIENCES, Supporting a Community’s Informal Education Needs: … Read more

This Spotlight is co-authored by Angela Calabrese Barton, Michigan State University, PI and Edna Tan, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, co-PI I was really proud [about making my light up football] ‘cause it just made me feel good about myself so I could, like, acknowledge people what I could do. – Samuel, 12 years … Read more

“Citizen Science” has a long and distinguished past. Amateur naturalists such as Charles Darwin made revolutionary discoveries, court officials in ancient Japan documented dates of cherry blossoms, and 14th century French vintners carefully recorded temperature and humidity, data now invaluable as today’s researchers look back at how Citizen Science is also as American as apple … Read more

Co-authored with Carrie Tzou The Badges for College Credit (BCC) project (NSF AISL DRL-1322512) is a four-year project that connects informal science learning with higher education by designing badge systems that recognize informal science learning in the form of college credit at the University of Washington Bothell (UWB). The project is a collaboration between the … Read more

Visual-spatial ability underlies success in both art and science, yet few girls with this talent go on to enter STEM careers. At the root of the problem is the story we often hear about girls and science: many don’t see science as relevant to their interests, and they often see science as rote, uncreative, and … Read more

This Spotlight was collaboratively written by Susan Foutz, Jenni Martin, Jennifer Rehkamp, and Melissa Swank   With the leadership of the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) and the University of Washington’s Museology Graduate Program (UW), staff from ten children’s museums are working to design and implement research to benefit the field of children’s museums. Building a … Read more

Project Team: PI Dr. Eli Tucker-Raymond, Co-PI Dr. Brian Gravel, Dr. Aditi Wagh, Kaitlin Kohberger, Ada Ren, Briana Jefferson, Kyle Browne (past member)   Making is becoming increasingly popular as a way to engage learners in informal STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning.  The informal education field is just beginning to conduct research in … Read more

On remote Pacific islands, water insecurity is growing. More frequent and severe floods and droughts, rising sea levels, and development threaten already limited potable water supplies. In response, Water for Life (WfL; NSF AISL award 1224185) is building communities’ water literacy while improving their access to high quality drinking water. Organized and run through Pacific … Read more

Ten miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska, a tunnel penetrates a hillside covered by small black spruce trees. The tunnel was built in the 1960s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. For more than 50 years the Permafrost Tunnel has supported cutting-edge research on permafrost, and in addition has seen a steady stream of visitors … Read more

Under the guidance of the Conservation Education Committee (CEC) at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the Visitor Studies Initiative* has been conducting a study to determine the state of educational evaluation and research at AZA institutions. Many AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums are conducting important and useful research and evaluation work with their educational … Read more