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There is a revolution occurring in how, when, where and even why people learn science. Learning today is continuous and on-demand. Learners of all ages seek science educational experiences from myriad sources and across multiple platforms – while at home, on weekends and even while on vacation. Unlike in the past, most science learning today is free-choice, driven primarily by...

Through "Addressing the Science of Really Gross Things: Engaging Young Learners in Biomedical Science Through a Fulldome Planetarium Show and Supporting Curricula," Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in close collaboration with NIH-funded researchers at the UNC and a leading children's book author, will develop an informal science education media project and...

Successful scientists must be effective communicators within their professions. Without those skills, they could not write papers and funding proposals, give talks and field questions, or teach classes and mentor students. However, communicating with audiences outside their profession - people who may not share scientists' interests, technical background, cultural assumptions, and modes of expression - presents different challenges and requires...

Rural and small public libraries provide a variety of critical services and information resources to meet the needs of residents across the United States. Recognizing the unique needs of rural communities, state governments and federal agencies support targeted programs to promote social and economic development. This IMLS research brief provides an overview of the state of small and rural libraries...

This project's interdisciplinary team will carry out research and training that will identify ways for professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to engage with public audiences that currently lack the community connections, resources, time, or know-how to gain access to science education and to scientists. The project will create real and on-line materials for scientists to convey the...

The integration of research with education and outreach is an essential aspect of our Center's mission. In order to assure the most effective use of our expertise and resources, we have developed a multi-faceted approach with activities that focus on coherent themes that address our three primary audiences: research community, our neighborhood, and the general public. These activities include research...

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), in partnership with the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), proposes to develop the Zoo in You: Exploring the Human Microbiome, a 2,000 square foot bilingual (English and Spanish) traveling exhibition for national tour to science centers, health museums, and other relevant venues. The exhibition will engage visitors in the cutting edge research...

Community gardens are rich non-school sites of informal adult learning and education in the North American food movement. To date, however, they have seldom been the subject of research in environmental education. This paper argues that theorising on public pedagogy and social movement learning from the field of Adult Education might effectively be applied to frame the study of learning...

This paper draws on ethnographic data to bring equity to the fore within discussions of tinkering and making. Vossoughi, Escudé, Kong & Hooper argue that equity lies in the how of teaching and learning through specific ways of: designing making environments, using pedagogical language, integrating students’ cultural and intellectual histories, and expanding the meanings and purposes of STEM learning. The...

The investigators address a major educational challenge by introducing a novel format and content for science education, (a) building on past successes; (b) combining development and dissemination at a new level; and (c) centered around an interactive planetarium show aimed to inform the public on an emerging scientific discipline and medical field: Tissue Engineering. For achieving a multitude of goals,...

The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) requests a grant from the National Center for Research Resources through the SEPA program to develop and evaluate a model biomedical science education partnership program in collaboration with the University of Minnesota's Cancer Center, Medical School, School of Public Health, and College of Veterinary Medicine. The museum will work with 19 researchers at the...

This presentation was given as a preconference workshop at the 6th Annual International Science of Team Science Conference in 2015. It presents tools and resources for implementing effective practices in team science, and introduces tools and resources to help bolster collaboration....

Tornado Alley is a giant screen adventure that follows renegade filmmaker Sean Casey and the scientists of VORTEX2, the largest tornado research project ever assembled, on their epic missions to encounter one of Earth’s most awe-inspiring events: the birth of a tornado. Program components included the giant screen film; a Web site; educators’ guides and resources for classroom and informal...

The overall goal of the current proposal is to adapt the interdisciplinary research-based curriculum created at the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt (SSMV) for implementation of a four-year program in three Metropolitan Nashville Public School (MNPS) high schools. The specific aims of the proposal are to adapt the on-campus (at Vanderbilt) model for implementation in three public high...

This document is a “think piece” about why and how informal science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education institutions could be placing amusing, novel experiences in people’s paths to create memorable STEM experiences embedded in their everyday lives. The report focuses on what we learned about creating interactive STEM exhibits in public spaces outside of a science center. That said,...

When exchange telephony was first marketed to the British public by the early telephone companies in the late nineteenth century it was as an intuitive technology requiring no specialist knowledge or training. This has gone unquestioned in subsequent telephone historiography but, as this article demonstrates, telephone instruments and systems were not always unproblematic or easy to use. Whilst other scholars...

Does the public trust science? Scientists? Scientific organizations? What roles do trust and the lack of trust play in public debates about how science can be used to address such societal concerns as childhood vaccination, cancer screening, and a warming planet? What could happen if social trust in science or scientists faded? These types of questions led the Roundtable on...

This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments,...

In this article Bell, Tzou, Bricker, and Baines describe how formal and informal educational experiences can merge through three case studies of youth engaged in science and technology. The theory of “cultural learning pathways” reframes our understanding of how, why, and where people learn over time and across spaces that have varying cultural values, everyday practices, and hierarchies of privilege...

Public Television station WQED/Pittsburgh, in partnership with five medical research and clinical centers, proposes to develop, test and distribute a national biomedical video education program based on "The Universe Within," a planned PBS series. The project is intended to bring scientists and clinicians into closer contact with pre-college students to study human body systems and increase career interest in the...

The University of Arkansas Center for Math and Science Education (CMASE), one of eleven mathematics and science centers on university and college campuses around the state, provides quality resources and materials to the home, private and public education community. The Arkansas NASA Educator Resource Center, located within CMASE, is the state's dissemination point for education materials provided by NASA. Resources...

The UMN MRSEC conducts an ambitious and multi-faceted education and outreach program to extend the impact of the Center beyond the university, providing undergraduates, college faculty, high school teachers, and K-12 students with opportunities that augment their traditional curriculum and increase their appreciation of materials science and engineering (MS&E). Our summer research program provides high-quality research and educational experiences in...

EdVenture Children's Museum, a hands-on, children's museum in Columbia, S.C., in close collaboration with NIH-funded researchers at the University of South Carolina, proposes a five-year, SEPA project titled "Unlocking the Mysteries of Chronic Diseases: BioInvestigations for Family, School and Youth Audiences." The program will develop teaching laboratories and experiments to educate youth ages 5-14, teens and adults about biomedical science...

This project will study two emerging and innovative technologies: interactive, dynamic simulations and touch-based tablet devices. The use of touch-based tablet technology (e.g., iPads) in the classroom is rapidly increasing, though little research has been done to understand effective implementation for learning science. Interactive simulations are now in use across K-16 levels of education, though what impact tablet devices have...

In concert with the overall strategy of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments, Principal Investigators from Oregon State University, University of Idaho, and University of Texas at Dallas, will study a range of data in online social networks to identify...