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To this volume on out-of-school STEM learning, we contribute an example of science. Our charge is to discuss what it means for children to be doing science and how educators can assess it. To that end, we’ve chosen an especially clear case. It happens to have taken place in school, but that shouldn’t matter for our purpose here; it’s the...

Charismatic megafauna are exotically impressive creatures guaranteed to attract immediate public fascination and sympathy. Their images and life stories provide indispensable resources for keen environmental campaign groups and publicists. The expression itself – charismatic megafauna – is barely a few decades old. Part of its point is to recall and contrast the hosts of apparently less alluring beings at least...

Over the last decade there has been a proliferation of out-of-school environments that foster building, making, tinkering, and design activities, creating an unprecedented opportunity to engage a wide range of participants in mathematics that is both purposeful and powerful. To date, this opportunity has been almost universally unexploited. The conference, which will take place at and in collaboration with the...

This paper was commissioned by the National Research Council Board on Science Education Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) as part of a consensus study on Successful Out-of-School STEM Learning. It explores the role of citizen science in youth STEM education, providing examples of projects developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology....

The final evaluation report for the Citizen Sky project highlights evaluative findings from three workshops, several live online events, participant interviews, and analysis of activity and project contributions through the citizensky.org website. Appendix includes survey questions....

If we truly wish to promote science or STEM education, then it would seem that the joining of resources and expertise from the communities of formal schooling and informal science education institutions or ISEIs (museums, aquariums, and the like) would be an important early step. Yet creating such connections between teacher and museum remain a challenge for both teachers and...

Click! Urban Adventure Game was a mixed-reality role-playing game where girls worked in teams to solve a fictional mystery based on a real-world issue, using technology and science to conduct their investigation. In this article we describe the design of the experience and present evidence that the game increased girls’ confidence, interest, and knowledge of science and technology and helped...

Although informal learning environments have been studied extensively, ours is one of the first studies to quantitatively assess the impact of learning in botanical gardens on students' cognitive achievement. We observed a group of 10th graders participating in a one-day educational intervention on climate change implemented in a botanical garden. The students completed multiple-choice questionnaires in a pre-post-retention test design....

McCallie et al. (2009) propose that two pedagogical models within informal science education, public understanding of science and public engagement with science, constitute a continuum rather than separate paradigms. This chapter seeks to understand the spread of informal science education projects along this continuum and uncover groupings through the creation of a project catalog. Through cluster analysis, it was found...

The focus of this paper is to turn our attention to the arts as an understudied area within the computer-supported collaborative learning community and examine how studying the learning of arts and programming can open new avenues of research. We document, describe, and analyze urban youths’ media arts practices within the context of the design studio, particularly by focusing on...

This presentation was part of the "Broader Impacts at Centers and Large Facilities" dyad at the 2015 CAISE Convening on Broader Impacts + Informal Science Education held in Arlington, VA on April 7-8. The presentation outlines how centers and large facilities have used informal learning experiences for broader impacts, identifying key opportunity areas for Broader Impacts and Informal Education as...

Nationally, there is tremendous interest in enhancing participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Providing rich opportunities for engagement in science and engineering practices may be key to developing a much larger cadre of young people who grow up interested in and pursue future STEM education and career options. One particularly powerful way to engage children in such exploration...

There is a growing body of evidence that informal learning environments focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines cultivates an interest among young people in STEM careers and promotes understanding of STEM content knowledge and the scientific process. This project centers on the creation and validation of a theoretically grounded and empirically derived framework for professional growth and...

Research shows that participation and interest in science starts to drop as youth enter high school. This is also the point when science becomes more complex and there is increased need for content knowledge, mathematics capability, and computer or computational knowledge. Evidence suggests that youth who participate in original scientific research are more likely to enter and maintain a career...

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) identify an ambitious progression for learning energy, beginning in elementary school. To help the nation's teachers address this challenge, this project will develop and investigate the opportunities and limitations of Focus on Energy, a professional development (PD) system for elementary teachers (grades 3-5). The PD will contain: resources that will help teachers to interpret,...

The Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative projects in a variety of informal settings. The iSWOOP project aims to equip National Park Service interpretive rangers with visualizations and interactive approaches for communicating science in natural learning spaces. An advantage to locating STEM learning in national parks is that they serve as America’s outdoor laboratories, hosting thousands of research...

This REAL project arises from the 2013 solicitation on Data-intensive Research to Improve Teaching and Learning. The intention of that effort is to bring together researchers from across disciplines to foster novel, transformative, multidisciplinary approaches to using the data in large education-related data sets to create actionable knowledge for improving STEM teaching and learning environments in the medium term and...

This collaborative project between Tufts University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is researching and developing a new version of the Scratch programming language to be called ScratchJr, designed specifically for early childhood education (K-2). The current version of Scratch, which is widely implemented, is intended for ages 8-16 and is not developmentally appropriate for young children. This work will...

This article focuses on collective impact, the idea that large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination rather than a focus on isolated interventions in individual organizations. The article lays out five conditions that help organizations collaborate--a common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone support organization....

The arrival of William Bally’s set of miniature phrenological specimens in Manchester for the Wellcome Collection exhibition Brains: The Mind as Matter (26 July 2013 – 4 January 2014) was an ideal time to reassess the mysteries of its production – was it made in Manchester or Dublin? In what context was it produced? Phrenology – the study of the...

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) seeks support to complete the reinstallation of its 25,800 square-foot permanent Gallery of California History and to develop and implement accompanying educational programs. OMCA’s history collections contain the largest, finest, and most comprehensive collection of California material culture anywhere. The Gallery of California History was originally created in the 1960s and 70s, and it...

This Resource Guide, developed by the California Endowment, was designed to assist foundation staff with evaluations of initiatives and programs working with diverse communities. It has been developed as a “how-to” manual for incorporating a greater multicultural focus when commissioning an evaluation, and also as a resource of ideas for those interested in learning more about the topic....

This virtual conference proposal would bring together NSF researchers and their media partners who worked collaboratively on previous NSF projects involved with communicating research to public audiences (the now archived CRPA program). The goal of the conference to is examine successful practices and lessons learned and aggregate the findings in a manner that can productively inform and support current and...

Botanic gardens are popular destinations for school visits to learn about plant-based science. However, little is known about teaching and learning in such settings, in particular about school visits guided by professional botanic garden educators (BGEs). The purpose of this study was to identify the pedagogical moves of the BGEs during guided school visits. More specifically, this study follows a...

The goal of "Communicating STEM -- Applying the Science of Science Communication to Natural History Media Products in Development/Production" is to bring standard methodology for media product development/production into better alignment with evidence-based best practices for science communication. Presentations in the professional development science strand at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival (JHWFF) conference will be curated to demonstrate how...