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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) will continue its collaboration in providing scientists and engineers experiential professional development and public service fellowships via the AAAS Science and Technology Fellowship (STPF) Program. The STPF program objectives are to: educate scientists and engineers on the intricacies of federal policy making; provide information and...

The polar regions inspire wonder, awe, and fascination. But they are also icons of fragility that have provided global audiences with unforgettable images of glacial melt, shrinking permafrost, and the resiliency of Indigenous communities in the face of changing Arctic climates. Scientific activity at the poles addresses these urgent global challenges, explores the mysteries of our earth's history, our solar...

Improving diversity in STEM fields is key to addressing the critical and complex issues faced by society in the 21st century. Research shows that only 17% of American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) students continue their education after high school versus 60% of the U.S. population. AIAN communities experience some of the greatest educational disparities of any racial/ethnic group in STEM subjects...

This REU Site award to TERC, located in Cambridge, MA, will support the training of eight students for ten weeks during the summers of 2023-2025. Students will perform research in the field of informal STEM education. Their projects will have a theme of advancing social justice and equity. The social justice theme aims to attract students to STEM education research,...

The exponential increase in extreme events over the last decade compels new methods of managing risk in communities exposed to recurring natural hazards. This project advances the National Science Foundation's goal Growing Convergence Research to enable smart and connected communities by initiating and expanding collective learning capacity through integrating digital twin technologies and social games. This project proposes to engage...

The Coastal Bend Region (CBR) of Texas is vulnerable to acute and chronic environmental stressors stemming from natural and industrial sources, including flooding and erosion from high tides, storm surge events, and ship traffic, as well as higher levels of air and water pollution due to expansion of nearby industrial operations. Despite the multitude of environmental hazards facing the region,...

The eruption of Mauna Loa, Earth's largest volcano, is an opportunity to greatly increase new information about natural hazards, and how scientists and students learn about volcanoes. By acquiring new footage of the eruption and surroundings, interviews with Native Hawaiian scientists, students, and others, this project hopes to extend the impact of geoscience research, outreach, and education by providing timely...

With funding from the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s (NASA SMD) Science Activation program, the Space Science Institute (SSI) launched NASA@ My Library in 2016. The vision of NASA@ My Library is to help public libraries increase NASA and STEM learning opportunities for library patrons throughout the U.S., including those in geographic areas and populations currently underserved in STEM education. The...

Re-Living Paleontology conducted usability and comparison studies on immersion and interactivity in augmented reality (AR) and visitors' engagement and understanding of science. Two "Tar AR" experiences were designed and studied: 1) Pit 91 Experience: A tabletop AR experience, based on fossils found at La Brea. Learners “dig up” fossils and reconstruct a simulated environment based on fossil evidence. Each fossil cycle...

This paper presents synthesized research on where XR is most effective within a museum setting and what impact XR might have on the visitor experience. It was funded via Re-Living Paleontology, a project which researched learning through differing AR experiences. It was led by researchers from USC’s Rossier School of Education and Institute for Creative Technologies partnered with from the Natural...

This report summarizes the main findings from the Cultivating Confidence research study, which investigated the impact of a single science museum visit on young adults' science self-efficacy and views of science.  What will you get from this article? - For people creating museum content and programs: Learn what features of the museum experience young adults reported as supporting their self-efficacy in science. -For...

This essay centers on the voices of leading scholars in science and STEM education on how equity can and should be centered in reviewing proposals for granting organizations. As the decisions made as a result of the reviewing process significantly impact the future directions of the field, we recognize the urgency in considering how equity is considered in this process....

The attached document is a masterlist of all Ute STEM evaluation reports and includes the following: Process Evaluation Ute STEM Process Evaluation 1 Report (July 2017) Ute STEM Process Evaluation 2 Report (April 2018) Ute STEM Process Evaluation 3 Report (2022) Fieldwork Evaluation Ute STEM 2017 Fieldwork Evaluation (see association video here) Ute STEM 2018 Fieldwork Evaluation (see association video here) Exhibit Evaluation Ute STEM 2018 Front End Topic...

Over the course of six years (2016–2022), History Colorado, three Ute Tribes, and archaeology and ethnobotany partners undertook an ambitious, highly collaborative project, called Ute STEM, to explore new ways of looking at the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) learning. This final report goes into details about the project and lessons learned. ...

History Colorado (HC) conducted an NSF AISL Innovations in Development project known as Ute STEM. This project built on the long-standing collaborations between HC, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Ute Indian Tribe, Uintah &  Ouray Reservation (the three Ute Tribes), and the Dominguez Archaeological Research Group (DARG), with the addition of new partners. HC implemented...

This series of research briefs is a look at how a STEM-focused museum youth development program prepared youth for college, through their own voices. Aimed at both practitioners and research-practitioners, the intent is to share what youth identified as being impactful to them about the Museum’s youth development program. It includes both successes and challenges youth faced as they adapted...

The linked repository contains select resources from the SICIIT NSF project (Supporting Science and Engineering Identity Change in Immersive Interactive Technologies). The project did not reach its main objective, mainly due to disruptions caused by COVID, but we hope that the materials will be a useful resource for follow-up research. ...

The Museum of Science, Boston and Boston University received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement a pilot program mentoring high school students in science research, communication, and education practices, through the lens of experimental psychology research. The project's evaluation explored how participation in programmatic elements contributed to changes in youth identity across 3 key dimensions -...

The Museum of Science, Boston and Boston University received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement a pilot program mentoring high school students in science research, communication, and education practices, through the lens of experimental psychology research. The project's evaluation explored how participation in programmatic elements contributed to changes in youth identity across 3 key dimensions -...

The Museum of Science, Boston and Boston University received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement a pilot program mentoring high school students in science research, communication, and education practices, through the lens of experimental psychology research. The project's evaluation focused on understanding how program elements contributed to changes in teens' science identities. This poster establishes the...

The Museum of Science, Boston and Boston University received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement a pilot program mentoring high school students in science research, communication, and education practices, through the lens of experimental psychology research. This poster reflects on the program's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how shifting to a virtual curricula impacted youths'...

The Museum of Science, Boston and Boston University received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement a pilot program mentoring high school students in science research, communication, and education practices, through the lens of experimental psychology research. In this conference session, presenters shared strategies employed by the project team to shift the program to a virtual format...

The Museum of Science, Boston and Boston University received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement a pilot program mentoring high school students in science research, communication, and education practices, through the lens of experimental psychology research. The project's evaluation focused on understanding how program elements contributed to changes in teens' science identities; this poster highlights the...

We explored a long-standing community science partnership between the Science Museum of Virginia and Groundwork RVA, a local organization that connects youth with opportunities to enhance greenspaces in Richmond. Overview In 2022, we worked with the Science Museum of Virginia to explore their community science partnership with Groundwork RVA, a local non-profit organization that works with teens at the intersection of sustainability...

The informal learning community often assumes that people choose to learn for one of two reasons: dispassionate interest in the subject, or some kind of drive for achievement or mastery. But this story is incomplete — what about motivations for learning that are connected to our desire to protect other people or support their wellbeing? Between January and April 2022, we...