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Museums, science centers, zoos and other informal science education (ISE) institutions often focus on the real and authentic a way to engage, inspire or inform the public. We refer to this idea of authenticity as providing something real, original or even awe-inspiring to the visitor or learner, be it an object, a setting or an activity of some kind. While...

This toolkit includes recommendations for STEM youth programs in informal science learning sites....

One way to encourage youth to pursue training in the STEM fields and enter the STEM workforce is to foster interest and engagement in STEM during adolescence. Informal STEM Learning Sites (ISLS) provide opportunities for building interest and engagement in the STEM fields through a multitude of avenues, including the programming that they provide for youth, particularly teens. Frequently, ISLS...

This systematic review was designed to strengthen the evidence base supporting the integration of STEM and social-emotional development (SED) in the out-of-school time (OST) field. Integrating STEM and SED has many practical purposes, including increasing youth interest, motivation, identity, and attitudes towards STEM education and careers, particularly for youth who have historically been underrepresented in STEM. This study builds on...

This systematic review examined intersections between the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and social-emotional development (SED) in out-of-school time (OST) programs....

Historically, spatial ability assessments have been used to measure spatial thinking on specific constructs in students participating in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. High spatial ability is linked to greater performance in STEM courses and professional STEM career fields. A spatial ability test used commonly for this measurement is the Mental Cutting Test (MCT) developed in 1939 by...

This article presents tactile drafting techniques developed in collaboration with blind educators and students that have the potential to increase BLV students’ access to drafting and engineering graphic curriculum in K-12 and higher education. This work builds on previous work funded by the National Science Foundation (Goodridge et al., 2019; Ashby et al., 2018; Lopez et al., 2020; Goodridge et...

Spatial ability is a well-known predictor of success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The purpose of this study was to investigate and understand the spatial strategies that were used by blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals as they solved problems on the tactile mental cutting test (TMCT), an instrument that was designed to measure the spatial ability of...

RISES (Re-energize and Invigorate Student Engagement through Science) is a coordinated suite of resources including 42 interactive English and Spanish STEM videos produced by Children's Museum Houston in coordination with the science curriculum department at Houston ISD. The videos are aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, and each come with a bilingual Activity Guide and Parent Prompt...

There is ever-growing research indicating that high spatial ability correlates with student and professional success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses and career fields. A few valid and reliable testing instruments have been developed to measure specific constructs of spatial thinking in sighted populations. However, due to a lack of accessibility, most of these testing instruments are unable...

We helped The Wild Center understand the impact of its longstanding youth climate program on participants in rural communities and, more broadly, its network of partners across New York state and beyond.  Overview We worked with The Wild Center and its partner, the Finger Lakes Institute, to conduct relationship mapping, a literature review, and a summative evaluation of their climate programming for...

The purpose of this paper is to explore results from a qualitative study of how high school aged BLV youth used spatial language during a virtual engineering experience administered by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). Findings from this study can provide recommendations to enhance language in curricula that better reflects BLV students' content and may ultimately encourage more...

Spatial ability has been shown through numerous studies to be a strong predictor of student success in STEM fields. Despite the focus on spatial ability in engineering education research, members of the blind and low vision (BLV) population have largely been omitted from research in this area, likely due to the lack of a nonvisually accessible instrument for measuring spatial...

The purpose of this research paper is to explore advantages and disadvantages of conducting an engineering experience for blind and low vision (BLV) participants in a virtual/online environment. This experience was designed to expose BLV high school students to engineering content and enhance their spatial ability. Spatial ability is an intelligence generally defined as the ability to generate, retain, retrieve,...

Architectural and Engineering graphics have traditionally been delivered as part of many middle school or high school TEE curricula.  These experiences with drafting, measuring, orthographic/isometric understanding, and modelling help educate students towards a graphical understanding and common language required of those involved with the design, production, or engineering of a variety of artifacts important to our world and society.  In...

Spatial ability is an intelligence that has been shown to be particularly important in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. Targeted spatial interventions have been shown to improve spatial ability and support the success of individuals in these fields. However, the blind and low vision community has largely been omitted from this research, in part because no accepted and validated...

This paper seeks to illustrate the first steps in a process of adapting an existing, valid, and reliable spatial ability instrument – the Mental Cutting Test (MCT) – to assess spatial ability among blind and low vision (BLV) populations. To adapt the instrument, the team is developing three-dimensional (3-D) models of existing MCT questions such that a BLV population may...

There is significant work indicating that spatial ability has correlations to student success in STEM programs. Work also shows that spatial ability correlates to professional success in respective STEM fields. Spatial ability has thus been a focus of research in engineering education for some time. Currently, researchers rely on a variety of different spatial ability instruments to quantify participants spatial...

Building on lessons learned through implementing and studying the Youth Lead the Way program, a professional development (PD) workshop was developed with project partners from the Sciencenter in Ithaca, New York, to train Sciencenter youth and adult staff on practices and approaches for including teen voices in their museum, shifting the focus and operations of current youth programming to be...

Youth Lead the Way: A Youth Advisory Research Board Model for Climate Impact Education, hosted by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), offered a theory-based approach for youth from communities underrepresented in STEM to conduct content research on local climate change impacts and develop interactive educational products designed to engage public audiences around these impacts. Through the Youth...

This is a guide to supporting a Youth Advisory Research Board, abbreviated to “YARB.”  A YARB integrates two well-established methods of working with youth: Youth Advisory Boards and Youth Participatory Action Research. Youth Advisory Boards give young participants an opportunity to implement real, observable change at institutions such as informal science education centers.  A YARB is different from "typical" youth programming...

This guide outlines how to tackle potential gaps in communication, engagement, scheduling, and work styles, as well as provide different ways to incorporate youth input and voice into projects. This guide is divided into four sections: Youth vs. Adults, Youth Engagement, Communicating with Youth, and Advising. ...

The aim of this evaluation study was to assess the extent to which the three PD workshop sessions (one for non-education staff, one for education staff and one for program youth) supported knowledge and confidence of Sciencenter staff and youth participants around the topics of integrating feedback from, and co-creating content with youth. The evaluation team used qualitative approaches to...

The aim of this evaluation study was to assess the extent to which youth-led products elicited public awareness of climate science or content communicated, and the desire to keep learning more about local climate impacts. The evaluation team used qualitative approaches to collect data through exit surveys and interviews with visitors at three events that were organized by the Youth...

The aim of this evaluation study was to document the progress and improvement of the 16-month Youth Lead the Way program. Specifically, the goal of the evaluation strand was to gather evidence of how the Youth Lead the Way experience provided opportunities to elicit in youth skills that aligned with the project and youth’s priorities. The evaluation team used qualitative...