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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...

The Knowledge Management/Eskind Biomedical Library at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center will develop a model for delivering patient-specific, consumer-friendly information that will lead to more informed patients, who are more likely to take a proactive, participatory role in their health care. The project's test bed will be My Cancer Genome (mycancergenome.org), a freely available web-based tool that provides information on...

This article is a case study describing how one science teacher makes everyday science in the community and classroom science intersect. This article is useful to help science educators relate information from home and neighborhoods to scientific content. The concept of transformative boundary objects is introduced in this article and can aid educators design projects that incorporate important science going...

This traveling exhibit was developed in collaboration with the American Library Association and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. It consists of six two-sided panels that include images and captions that highlight relevant, historical discoveries in astronomy. The exhibit is supported by a connected suite of standards-based educational resources. Also, each exhibit panel is available as a downloadable, poster-size file. ...

The objective of this project is to extend the concept of crowdsourcing in citizen science to the interaction design of the organization as well as to data collection. Distributed technologies offer new opportunities for conducting scientific research on a larger scale than ever before by enabling distributed collaboration. Virtual organizations that use distributed technologies in scientific organizations have primarily focused...

Accounts of the life of Scottish engineer James Watt have tended to take a rather monocular approach to his life’s work – primarily concentrating on the steam engine. However, the evidence of Watt’s workshop, preserved at the Science Museum, points to the diverse nature of his interests, and particularly to the close integration of philosophical and pragmatic elements in his...

This article investigates the development of agency in science among low-income urban youth aged 10 to 14 as they participated in a voluntary year-round program on green energy technologies conducted at a local community club in a midwestern city. Focusing on how youth engaged a summer unit on understanding and modeling the relationship between energy use and the health of...

The aim of this study was to explore 22 Web site evaluation reports, or sections of larger evaluation reports centering on a Web site, to identify, define, and provide examples of the range of evaluation focus areas to inform the design of Web site evaluation studies. The sample included a group of reports contributed to the Informalscience.org online database. Prior...

Health care in the United States is expensive and complex, and there are many competing interests that make it an increasing necessity for health care consumers to take an active role to better advocate for themselves and those who are impacted by the decisions that are made. Making effective health care choices requires both science literacy and critical thinking skills...

This presentation was part of the "Science of Science Communication" dyad at the 2015 CAISE Convening on Broader Impacts + Informal Science Education held in Arlington, VA on April 7-8. The presentation explores what we know from the science of science communication and how scientists can work strategically for effective communication....

This essay seeks to explain what the “science of science communication” is by *doing* it. Surveying studies of cultural cognition and related dynamics, it demonstrates how the form of disciplined observation, measurement, and inference distinctive of scientific inquiry can be used to test rival hypotheses on the nature of persistent public conflict over societal risks; indeed, it argues that satisfactory...

There can be a mistaken impression that the new vision for K-12 science education is only relevant to classroom science instruction. But youth frequently engage in powerful science and engineering activities that take place after or outside-of-school. They learn STEM content, engage in STEM practices, and develop an understanding of how STEM is used in the world. To capitalize on...

This longitudinal study examined factors that contribute to the persistence of underrepresented racial minority (URM) undergraduates in STEM fields. The primary source of data came from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program’s 2004 The Freshman Survey (TFS) and 2008 College Senior Survey (CSS). The sample included 3,670 students at 217 institutions who indicated on the TFS that they intended to major...

In this paper we articulate an alternative approach to look at video games and learning to become a creator and contributor in the digital culture. Previous discussions have focused mostly on playing games and learning. Here, we discuss game making approaches and their benefits for illuminating game preferences and learning both software design and other academic content. We report on...