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The Building Supports Towards a Useful, Usable, and In-Use Framework of Professional Competencies in the Informal STEM Learning Field (AISL #2215274) project was undertaken to create professional learning and development tools for those who engage the public in informal STEM learning (ISL). The resulting tools are now collectively known as Professional Pathways in Informal STEM Learning, or "Pathways" for short....

Chicago Children’s Museum (CCM) and Loyola University Chicago (LUC) have a nearly 20-year history of research-to-practice partnership that enables us to collectively better understand children and families’ learning in informal STEM environments, and for CCM to take a data driven approach to the design and implementation of its programs. Our most recent collaboration, TALES (Tinkering and Learning Engineering Stories) Project...

Participatory science, ranging from citizen to community science, refers to ways that everyday people collaborate with scientists in meaningful ways. There are thousands of participatory projects, each of which can engage thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of people. Projects occur across varied disciplines such as astronomy, biochemistry, conservation, engineering, and environmental sciences. Research suggests that people engaged in...

This Integrating Research and Practice project uses an iterative approach to develop a STEM tabletop role-playing game for informal science learning. The project supports the development of game materials, which include freely available rules and learning-centered adventures. The game targets players ages 15 and older and includes content from biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and physics. Players acquire STEM content by...

Paper-based electronics offer a creative and accessible entry point for STEM education, grounded in the rich tradition of papercrafting. However, most K-12 education tools and activities remain focused on introductory concepts, leaving a gap in opportunities for advanced electronics learning. This project aims to address the gap by integrating emerging printed electronics techniques with craft-friendly conductive materials, such as...

In January 2025, Los Angeles faced a series of devastating wildfires, notably the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, which collectively destroyed over 18,000 structures and led to the evacuation of more than 200,000 residents. These fires continue to profoundly impact schools and families, requiring new forms of environmental literacy and community public health efforts. In recognizing the complex decision-making...

Sesame Workshop is an American nonprofit organization with a mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. Inspired by the 75th Anniversary of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), this project will leverage current research efforts in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and multimedia resources as delivery mechanisms for developing the content knowledge and process skills...

Soils provide critical ecosystem services that support agriculture, determine nutrient and carbon cycles, maintain clean air and water, and sustain biodiversity. These services are controlled by microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi. Plants can manipulate these microbial communities through the chemicals they release—root exudates—with subsequent consequences for soil functions. Characterizing root exudates and their relationships with other plant traits will improve...

The Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology program provides support to enhance the research capabilities of minority-serving institutions through the establishment of centers that effectively integrate education and research. With National Science Foundation support, California State University San Bernardino will build on the accomplishments with their Phase I Center by advancing knowledge in functional materials, while providing quality...

There is an urgent need for a well-trained cybersecurity workforce in the government and private sectors. An effective cybersecurity education for our undergraduate and graduate students, using a well-designed curriculum, is essential to meet this need. The emergence of the Internet-of-Things, which promises an unprecedented number of devices, all connected to the Internet, makes the demand for cybersecurity education stronger...

The UDare Cyber Scholarships For Service (SFS) program at the University of Delaware (UD) will advance cybersecurity education and cultivate a skilled workforce by preparing highly qualified cybersecurity professionals for service in crucial roles across federal, state, local, and tribal security sectors. This SFS project will prepare twenty undergraduate and Master's students from UD’s broad cybersecurity degree programs, employing a...

This project establishes a new CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) program at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and addresses the increasing demand for a skilled cybersecurity workforce. This project leverages faculty expertise and course offerings to drive student training and skill development at the intersection of cybersecurity and thematic areas of artificial intelligence (AI), post-quantum cryptography, and hardware security. The FAU...

This guide presents a facilitation model developed through a collaboration between the Exploratorium science museum and Urban Alchemy, a community-focused nonprofit organization. The model was developed and tested at Middle Ground, an outdoor social science exhibition in San Francisco. It integrates the Exploratorium’s inquiry-based Spark, Sustain, Deepen framework with Urban Alchemy's trauma-informed practices. The model establishes safety and trust as the...

The H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest is an internationally known center for forest and stream ecosystem research in central Oregon and is part of multiple research networks, including the Long-Term Ecological Research network where scientists and NSF have invested in long-term research programs about environmental change. In the fall of 2023, a major wildfire burned over much of this forest, threatening...

As livestreaming trends continue, opportunities for STEM media producers to engage with audiences in new and meaningful ways are emerging. Streamer/viewer interactions offer users the opportunity to engage synchronously and collaborate on games, puzzles, or other real-time problem solving. Yet what are learners experiencing in these online environments, how can they be designed to be inclusive, what learning outcomes do...

This report presents the results of an impact study of a 5-week implementation of the Work It Out Wombats! Family App and Work it Out @ Your Library outreach program. This study was designed to evaluate how the Wombats! App's media resources and mobile technology, in combination with the Wombats! Library Program’s support for families in library settings, may impact...

This report presents the results of an impact study of a 5-week implementation of the Work It Out Wombats! Family App and Work it Out @ Your Library outreach program. This study was designed to evaluate how the Wombats! App's media resources and mobile technology, in combination with the Wombats! Library Program’s support for families in library settings, may impact...

We report on a conversational agent presented as an avatar on a TV and deployed inside a science museum in 2021. The avatar, Ilse, could answer questions about herself, the institutions she was connected to (the local university, the nearby lab, the museum), and a relevant science area (linguistics). We compared conversational interactions from 118 visitors to those...

This document provides instructions for families to set up video and audio equipment on their own as part of the Brains On the Move research study. Families had the equipment over a period of up to two weeks, and listened to a minimum of three episodes during that time. For each listening experience, they set up the recording equipment in...

This document contains the instruments and protocols used during the Brains On the Move research project. Our project was a video-based research study that gathered data of families listening to a children’s science podcast together while driving around in their vehicle. The research was carried out in two phases: 1) a video-based listener experience study of 32 families and 2)...

As part of our research study to understand how the child’s science podcast Brains On! sparked conversations in a vehicle environment, we developed a handout for parents with tips for engaging with their children and sparking conversation while listening to a podcast together in a vehicle space....

This guide provides advice for collecting video and audio data in a vehicle environment based on learnings from carrying out video-based research on families listening to podcasts in their vehicles. Guidance includes planning for vulnerability and safety, equipment recommendations, how to set up and use the recording equipment, and considerations for data handling and equipment storage....

Many families spend a considerable amount of time together in their vehicles, and podcasts can provide a highly engaging, screen-free educational alternative for children during this time. With National Science Foundation funding, we conducted a first-of-its-kind video-based research study to see how families interact with each other while listening in a vehicle environment and how a podcast can help facilitate...

The first phase of the Modeling Zoos and Aquariums as Inclusive Communities of Science for Autistic Individuals (MoZAICS) research was an in-depth review and synthesis of existing literature in the informal STEM learning (ISL) and adjacent (e.g., recreation, tourism) fields. This annotated bibliography was created to leverage prior research from fields relevant to zoos and aquariums by synthesizing studies and...

Most high school students indicate that participation in science and engineering fairs (SEFs) increased their interest in science and engineering (S&E). The underlying appeal of SEF participation is unknown. However, having this information will help to identify best practices leading to more effective student participation and successful outcomes. To learn more about the appeal of SEF participation, we incorporated into...