The Informal STEM Community Resource Library, also known as the Repository, is a crowdsourced and searchable database of thousands of informal STEM learning project descriptions, research materials, and evaluation reports.
Found 9681 results. Change search to: repository and web pages combined or website only.
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
Many informal learning institutions are experimenting with STEAM approaches to engage diverse learners. However, what STEAM means, including how to design and enact STEAM experiences, is undertheorized. We are offering a PD series for informal educators that centers around a set of core STEAM practices that support identity work among learners. The series involves in-person sessions, online training, and team...
DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
This article describes a citizen science project that collects data on sharks.
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DATE: April 15th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
Science centers such as museums and planetariums have used stereoscopic (“three-dimensional”) films to draw interest from and educate their visitors for decades. Despite the fact that most adults who are finished with their formal education get their science knowledge from such free-choice learning settings very little is known about the effect of stereoscopic film presentation on their science learning. We...
DATE: February 28th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
The COMPASS conference will bring together 80 participants for two days in September 2018 at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA. The first dissemination will take place in a presentation at the ASTC conference the following month in October 2018. A webinar sharing insights from COMPASS and inviting others to engage will be held in March 2019 hosted by ASTC...
DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
Why Zoos and Aquariums Matter (WZAM3) conference presentaiton slides for the 2018 ASTC Annual Conference (Hartford, CT) and the NAAEE 2018 Annual Conference and Research Symposium (Spokane, WA).
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DATE: October 1st, 2018
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
The project asks, “What are the real outcomes of the zoo or aquarium enterprise, both as a visitor destination and as a public voice in public media?” and has the following three aims:
To understand how visitor goals and behavior impact learning.
To understand how the conservation education agenda of most Z/As interlaces with those goals.
To understand how the public situates the voice...
DATE: February 12th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
Casual games are everywhere. People play them throughout life to pass the time, to engage in social interactions, and to learn. However, their simplicity and use in distraction-heavy environments can attenuate their potential for learning. This experimental study explored the effects playing an online, casual game has on awareness of human biological systems. Two hundred and forty-two children were given...
DATE: September 5th, 2015
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
We present results of an experimental study of an urban, museum-based science teacher PD programme. A total of 125 teachers and 1676 of their students in grades 4–8 were tested at the beginning and end of the school year in which the PD programme took place. Teachers and students were assessed on subject content knowledge and attitudes towards science, along...
DATE: April 9th, 2018
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
The maker movement has evoked interest for its role in breaking down barriers to STEM learning. However, few empirical studies document how youth are supported over time, in STEM-rich making projects or their outcomes. This longitudinal critical ethnographic study traces the development of 41 youth maker projects in two community-centered making programs. Building a conceptual argument for an equity-oriented culture of...
DATE: February 27th, 2016
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
This poster, which was presented in Alexandria, VA at the CAISE AISL PI meeting in February 2019, summarizes the Under the Arctic: Digging into Permafrost traveling exhibition developed for the Hidden World of Permafrost project.
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DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
This poster, which was presented in Alexandria, VA at the CAISE AISL PI meeting in February 2019, summarizes the Winter Worlds/Snow: Musuem Exhibit, Educational Outreach, and Learning Research collaborative project that engages audiences in snow as a platform to explore Earth’s climate system and explores how culture affects STEM learning in informal settings.
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DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
This poster was presented at the 2019 NSF AISL Principal Investigators Meeting, and describes a project conducting science cafes in Richmond, VA.
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DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
In November 2016, within an Environmental studies course at the University of Venice, students carried out an experiment aimed at collecting scenarios of the Venetian coast's future starting from lessons learnt during the episode of storm surge 50 years ago (Aqua Granda ‘flood’). The students built scenarios able to anticipate the effect of sea level rise on coastal areas in...
DATE: August 10th, 2018
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
The STEM + Digital Literacies (STEM+L) project investigates science fiction composing as an effective mechanism to attract and immerse adolescents (ages 10-13) from diverse cultural backgrounds in socio-scientific issues related to environment.
The participating students (G5-8) work in small groups to design and produce STEM content rich, multimedia science fictions during the summer (1 week) and the academic year (4-6 2.5hr...
DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
How does focusing on “community science literacy” change the role of an informal science learning center?
This poster was presented at the 2019 NSF AISL Principal Investigators meeting.
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DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
A group of 12 researchers gathered at MSI to discuss issues surrounding the critical but challenging area of how to measure the long-term effects or impacts of ISE experiences, chaired by Dr. John Falk, Oregon State University and Institute for Learning Innovation, and hosted by Aaron Price, Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago, (MSI) on July 18, 2018. All the...
DATE: October 22nd, 2018
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
This project creates interactive experiences about the social sciences in the middle of San Francisco's Civic Center open space. How do we design this to work for all walks of life?
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DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
This project creates "data-catcher" exhibits that allow museum visitors to participate in scientific research, contributing data from their interactions while engaged in compelling learning experiences.
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DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
Latina SciGirls addresses specific barriers that prevent many young Latinas from participating fully in STEM, including:
Lack of STEM identity (girls’ ability to envision themselves as STEM professionals)
Limited exposure to STEM role models who look like them
Lack of knowledge and/or misunderstanding of STEM fields
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DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
The goal of this three-year project is to leverage NSF’s investment in both SciGirls and computer science education by engaging 8-13 year-old girls in computational thinking and coding through innovative transmedia programming which inspires and prepares them for future computer science studies and careers.
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DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
SciGirls CONNECT 2 is a three-year NSF project that examines how the gender equitable and culturally responsive strategies currently employed in the SciGirls informal STEM educational program influences middle school girls’ STEM identity formation.
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DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
Field stations across the United States provide learning opportunities to the general public through their outreach programming. With approximately 78% and 98% of the US population living within 60 and 120 miles of a field station, respectively, stations have the potential to be key providers of informal STEM education. We surveyed a sample of US biological field stations and asked...
DATE: October 10th, 2018
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
In this participatory research project, a partnership between the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) and the Department of Evaluation and Research in Learning at the Science Museum of Minnesota, participants are working to rename and reclaim theory and research methods so as to foster relevance and equity. We have renamed the theory of science capital: "science capitxl" signals its...
DATE: February 11th, 2019
REPOSITORY | EVALUATION
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is planning to redesign existing conservation-related interactives as well as add new experiences on the Aquarium floor. In preparation for this project, the Aquarium sought to gain a better understanding of visitors’ awareness of and engagement in conservation-related actions and responses to conservation-related messaging. The Aquarium contracted with MWA Insights to conduct a front-end evaluation study to...
DATE: September 27th, 2018
REPOSITORY | RESEARCH
This poster was presented at the 2019 AISL PI Meeting, and describes the evaluation of the STEM Scouts program.
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DATE: February 21st, 2019
