The Informal STEM Community Repository is a crowdsourced and searchable database of thousands of informal STEM learning project descriptions, research materials, and evaluation reports. Projects are invited to share their work and resources to help others build upon their experiences. Resources often fall into the following categories:
- Descriptions of projects funded by the National Science Foundation, as well as other public and private funders. Projects in the collection are diverse, but can broadly be defined as engaging public audiences in informal STEM learning.
- Research and reference materials including field-wide syntheses, peer-reviewed articles, research briefs, grey literature, posters, conference proceedings, presentations, reports, and other products that explore the findings, contexts, and lessons learned from informal STEM learning experiences and settings.
- Evaluation reports that share project impacts and evaluation findings. These include submissions from professional evaluators conducting front-end, formative, summative, and other evaluation studies. Projects are invited to publicly share their evaluation reports via InformalScience.org to share results and help others build upon their experiences.
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What is the repository? What counts as informal STEM knowledge?
The repository is an open-access database for the informal STEM education (ISE) field. Historically, those with AISL funding were required to submit their project’s materials. Doing this gives others in the ISE community the opportunity to see the kind of work that AISL projects have completed. However, other projects that have received funding in the ISE field have also submitted and shared the products that they have worked on.
The repository is organized into three sections:
The REVISE Center is continuing an existing conversation on what counts as informal STEM knowledge. The repository currently represents ISE projects that have received formal funding, but we understand that not all ISE organizations have access to this kind of funding. This should not mean that those that do not have funding do not have ISE knowledge.
The repository aims to create access to these organizations by showcasing what funded projects have worked on. However, all of us have some sort of knowledge to offer. Anyone in the ISE community should not just receive knowledge, but have the ability to share what they know and have experienced.
If you are involved in any sort of ISE organization and want to share something that you have worked on, we invite you to do so. Whether you are a practitioner, researcher, a youth participant, or have any other role, this is your opportunity to brag about the work you have done at an ISE organization.
What is REVISE’s role in managing the repository?
The REVISE Center manages the repository. No one can automatically submit and publish something without us reviewing it first. We do not edit or change anything in someone’s repository submission without asking permission from the submitter. REVISE reviewing the repository involves:
As we open the repository to include projects that do not have formal funding, we want to make sure that all work is as best accurately represented as possible. If you submit a project that does not have formal funding, our review process will also include:
I’m not sure if the item that I want to submit is allowed on the repository.
That’s okay! You can email us at equity [at] informalscience.org to provide more detail about your submission. You can also email us at equity [at] informalscience.org if you have any questions about the repository.