October 1st, 2013 - September 30th, 2015 | PROJECT
National Parks are full of interesting and unusual STEM features which often intrigue visitors whose questions are answered by park personnel. In addition to the natural features, there are often researchers in the parks gathering data and conducting experiments. Park personnel are not apprised of these studies yet are often questioned about them. This collaborative project's goals are to derive a mechanism to educate the park personnel so they can respond to the visitor's inquiries. Collaborators include the National Park Service (NPS), TERC, Winston-Salem State University, and the park personnel at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The plan is to work through the park interpreters who are employees of NPS and often are the voice for explaining the park's natural features. For this project, the interpreters and researchers will collaborate on the explanations of the science and TERC will work with the interpreters on interacting or educating the public visitors on the research. This is a pilot study to determine how best to bridge the scientists and their research to the park visitors. Evaluation on all elements in this study will be done by Char Associates and the Institute for Mathematics and Science Education at New Mexico State University. The results of this study are to determine the issues in explaining the research to the park interpreters and thence to the park visitors. If successful, it is anticipated that a model will be developed in collaboration with the NPS for use in other National Parks.
Project Website(s)
(no project website provided)
Project Products
http://www.iswoopparks.com/
2014 iSWOOP Poster
2016 Poster - Interpreters and Scientists Working on Our Parks (iSWOOP) Pathways Project and iSWOOP2.0, Innovations
Cultivating Collaborations: Site Specific Design for Embodied Science Learning
Science in the Public Eye: Leveraging Partnerships—An Introduction
Beyond the Brown Bag: Designing Effective Professional Development for Informal Educators
So You Want to Share Your Science …. Connecting to the World of Informal Science Learning
Designing for Broad Understanding of Science Insights from Practice
Team Members
Nickolay Hristov, Principal Investigator, Winston-Salem State UniversityMartha Merson, Principal Investigator, TERC
Funders
Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL
Award Number: 1323558
Funding Amount: 64138
Funding Program: AISL
Award Number: 1323030
Funding Amount: $205,021
Tags
Audience: Evaluators | Museum | ISE Professionals | Scientists
Discipline: Ecology | forestry | agriculture | Education and learning science | Geoscience and geography
Resource Type: Project Descriptions
Environment Type: Exhibitions | Park | Outdoor | Garden Programs | Parks | Outdoor | Garden Exhibits | Professional Development | Conferences | Networks | Professional Development and Workshops | Public Programs