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Overview In 2022, we worked with The Wild Center to evaluate its new IMLS-funded climate change exhibition, which used an innovative approach focused on presenting climate solutions through place-based examples and storytelling. Our evaluation came at a time when many museums were wrestling with how to effectively empower visitors to take climate action. In the early stages of exhibition development, we also...

Reflections and Ideas about Collaboration with Integrity explores the work Generations of Knowledge: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Environmental Science (National Science Foundation DRL-1010559), a six-year collaborative project between OMSI and Native partners from diverse tribes, cultures, and ecoregions that co-created traveling exhibits and programs for science and tribal museums. This legacy document reflects on and shares what we learned on this journey, including our...

This resource presents a catalog of 25 unique projects, with short descriptions and details about how each project integrates imagination. To support practitioner use, the projects are indexed by title, contributor, project context and format, project audiences, and imaginative ways of thinking. Projects in this resource were selected from works shared by Unpacking the STEM Imagination Convening participants, and works...

This resource presents a one-page summary of the methods, results, and conclusions from a comprehensive literature review of 137 pieces of literature addressing the intersections of imagination and STEM. The research questions guiding this comprehensive literature review were: (a) What types of literature address imagination in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education and practice? (b) How does the literature...

A brief summary of the results of an analysis of 137 pieces of literature reviewed as part of the project’s comprehensive literature review, focusing specifically on the range of ways imagination is positioned in relation to STEM (as a trait or capability, an outcome, a process, a theoretical framework, or as valuable). ...

This resource presents a list of categories of “imaginative ways of thinking” as well as word clouds illustrating the huge range of ways imagination is described in literature at the intersections of imagination and STEM. This resource reflects results from a comprehensive review of 137 pieces of literature addressing the intersections of imagination and STEM. ...

This report describes results of a professional impacts evaluation to understand the impact of the Unpacking the Imagination Convening on its participants. Evaluation Questions were: (1) What, if any, new perspectives on imagination, STEM, and learning did participants gain through the pre conference activities and/or the convening? (2) How, if at all, did participation in the convening impact participants’ awareness...

This report presents results of a survey of 101 professionals' perspectives on imagination in STEM, describing the survey’s methods and results. The goal of the survey was to describe the landscape of beliefs about and understandings of imagination in the context of STEM practice and STEM education. Findings suggest that professionals (representing various sectors within or adjacent to STEM education...

This document categorizes several strategies for fostering imaginative thinking, emergent from our review of literature. Strategies are organized by high-level categories, sub-categories, and specific actions educators or experience designers can take to foster imagination in a range of contexts. The resource also includes relevant citations for further exploration of these strategies. This resource reflects results from a comprehensive review of...

This resource briefly summarizes the work of the Unpacking the STEM Imagination Convening and associated project research activities, and posits several "imagination problems" emergent from this work: 1) Defining Imagination; 2) Intentionally Addressing Imagination; 3) Fostering Imagination; 4) Addressing The Myth that STEM is Not Imaginative; 5) Buying-in to Imagination in STEM; 6) Un-Privileging Certain Imaginative Ways of Thinking; and...

The National Science Foundation’s Division of Research and Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) has invested in several resource centers and networks in the past several years. In 2010, The National Science Foundation awarded a small Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) grant to bring together the Principal Investigators (PIs) and evaluators of these resource centers to collaborate and...

For a second year, Kera Collective measured the effectiveness of a summer camp designed by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum to empower underrepresented youth to succeed in STEAM. Overview In the winter, spring, and summer of 2022, Kera Collective again worked with the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum to evaluate the Soaring High Explorers (S.H.E.) Can STEAM Camp, which...

Kera Collective explored teachers’ and students’ experiences in Green-Wood Cemetery’s new Urban GreenSpace program focusing on environmental education. Overview In 2022, Kera Collective partnered with Green-Wood Cemetery to evaluate their new Urban GreenSpace program, which focused on environmental education programs for local middle school students. As a new pilot program, we focused on exploring which aspects of the program were successful at supporting...

Kera Collective evaluated the response of youth ages 10-14 to prototypes of a new paleontology exhibition being developed by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Overview In 2022, Kera Collective partnered with NCMNS to evaluate two exhibit prototypes–DinoLab Tools and Meet the Team–for the museum’s new Dueling Dinosaurs exhibition. The exhibition aims to spark youth’s interest in paleontology by exploring the questions...

Inverness Research and Oregon State University, with support and input from CAISE, conducted an evaluation of the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting which was held virtually October 19-21, 2021. The evaluation effort included observing the meeting, participating in debriefing the meeting with CAISE co-PIs, the CAISE equity audit committee, and NSF Program Officers; developing and administering a post-event survey;1 and...

This white paper describes outcomes from a conference about using non-science art in science education. Art and science are often combined for entertainment, education (STEAM) and inspirational value. However, in almost all cases the art is science-themed (scientific visualizations, science-inspired art, art about scientific topics, etc.). This conference asks the question “what about art for arts-sake?”. That is, what is the...

This piece explores the politics and possibilities of video research on learning in educational settings. The authors (a research–practice team) argue that changing the stance of inquiry from surveillance to relationship is an ongoing and contingent practice that involves pedagogical, political, and ethical choices on the part of researchers and educators. This discussion is grounded in ethnographic data collected in...

Presenting the Capacity Building for Youth Civic Leadership for Issues in Science and Society (CYCLIST) toolkit! Here on the CYCLIST leadership team, it is our hope that this toolkit will help educators incorporate civic engagement into their programming. CYCLIST’S leadership organizations include the New England Aquarium, The Wild Center, and Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE). Partner organizations include the Mote...

The National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation [NNOCCI] is a Community of Practice [CoP] dedicated to advancing the conversation on climate change, based on the principle that wide-scale training with proven communication techniques can change the national discourse around climate change to be more productive, creative, and solutions-focused. NNOCCI  CoP is a network of individuals and organizations in formal and...

This special issue of the Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies (LJCS) highlights the consolidation of the “citizen science” movement, which stems from different forms of direct participation of citizens in scientific projects. This issue also features contributions to the debate on the “open science” movement. ...

This study explores the part that child-orientated exhibitions play in the child and family museum experience. Such exhibitions are characterised by their distinctive approaches to learning, interpretation, and design, being especially devised for children. The research was carried out in children's galleries from three types of museum (a maritime museum, a science museum, and a children's museum) in order to...

Inverness Research and Oregon State University, with support and input from CAISE, conducted an evaluation of the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting which was held virtually October 19-21, 2021. The evaluation effort included observing the meeting, participating in debriefing the meeting with CAISE co-PIs, the CAISE equity audit committee, and NSF Program Officers; developing and administering a post-event survey; and analyzing...

The Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) has funded five resource centers/networks to provide support to five DRL programs, to the PIs connected to those programs, and to STEM education communities. (They are Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education--ISE; Center for Advancing Research and Communication in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics--REESE; Community for Advancing...

This chapter brings together cultural-historical approaches to human development with interpretive and multi-sited ethnography in order to: (1) develop ethnographic tools that attend to the ways young people learn within and across multiple contexts; (2) draw from and contrast the methodological insights of single and multi-sited ethnography; and (3) glean principles that help constitute a “multi-sited sensibility” appropriate for taking...

This review examines how natural history museums (NHMs) can enhance learning and engagement in science, particularly for school-age students. First, we describe the learning potential of informal science learning institutions in general, then we focus on NHMs. We review the possible benefits of interactions between schools and NHMs, and the potential for NHMs to teach about challenging issues such as...