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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...

The "Exhibit appraisal and diverse populations: Pilot research about intersectional and science identities in science exhibits" (APPRAISE) project team worked extensively with minoritized youth between the ages of 9 and 17, including youth of color, girls and non-binary youth, and youth with disabilities, to create a research protocol that can:  Complexify our understandings of youth identity Support youth metacognition about their identities...

The "Exhibit appraisal and diverse populations: Pilot research about intersectional and science identities in science exhibits" (APPRAISE) project team worked extensively with minoritized youth between the ages of 9 and 17, including youth of color, girls and non-binary youth, and youth with disabilities, to create a research protocol that can:  Complexify our understandings of youth identity Support youth metacognition about their identities...

The "Exhibit appraisal and diverse populations: Pilot research about intersectional and science identities in science exhibits" (APPRAISE) project team worked extensively with minoritized youth between the ages of 9 and 17, including youth of color, girls and non-binary youth, and youth with disabilities, to create a research protocol that can:  Complexify our understandings of youth identity Support youth metacognition about their identities...

The On-the-Spot Feedback project was an iterative design and research project, which developed and tested a training model to help scientists build strategies to gather audience feedback into their outreach activities, allowing them to adjust and shift their communication and outreach on-the-spot, based on real time audience feedback. This report presents the findings of the project's summative evaluation, which primarily addressed:...

iPlan is a free online game that allows learners to construct, investigate, and solve simulated urban and regional planning problems. Suitable for use on smart phones, tablets, Chromebooks, and laptops, iPlan allows learners to explore the impacts of land-use decisions in their own local contexts. The system uses geospatial data, ecological and economic models, and optimization routines to transform any...

The Equity Lens Map (ELM) is a survey tool for educational organizations to identify where team members are on their journey to leading equity in their organization. The ELM is not an employee climate survey. It is not about organizational needs or attitudes towards the organization (though its data can have implications for both). It is aimed at the person-level...

The SciGirls in Space: Exploring the Moon, Mars and NASA Careers Implementation Evaluation Report focuses on the STEM outreach component of the project for 15 girl-serving organizations who used research-based gender equitable and culturally responsive instructional strategies,NASA-aligned media and STEM activities with a focus on integrating of NASA women role models.  ...

PocketMacro is a mobile app designed by the Learning Media Design Center at Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with Stroud Water Research Center, Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Clemson University, and stakeholder input. The PocketMacro app aims to help users better identify benthic macroinvertebrates commonly found in streams and other waterways. Rockman et al Cooperative (REA), an independent educational...

Informal physics programs are understudied partly due to the broad spectrum of program structures and wide variety of activities. Moreover, the program facilitators hold diverse positions - faculty members at universities, staff members of national labs, and student leaders. In this study, we conduct an in-depth analysis of surveys and interviews from a subset of a national data set. Our goal is...

Informal physics programs bring physicists together with youth and adults from local communities to engage with physics content outside of classroom settings. These public engagement or “physics outreach” programs are a significant endeavor of the physics community; however, we lack a systemic documentation of these efforts, which makes it difficult to situate physics education research on individual informal physics programs...