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The Crowd & The Cloud, a three-year project, developed by Passport To Knowledge and funded by the National Science Foundation, uses multimedia to engage different audiences around citizen science and crowdsourcing. The project team created four episodes of a broadcast television series, which appeared on PBS stations and via PBS.org, an interactive website, and a robust social media presence in...

The Montana Girls STEM Collaborative brings together organizations and individuals throughout Montana who are committed to informing and motivating girls to pursue careers in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The Collaborative offers professional development, networking and collaboration opportunities to adults who offer and/or support STEM programs for girls and other youth typically under-represented in STEM. The vision of...

Worldwide, four million people participate in geocaching--a game of discovering hidden treasures with GPS-enabled devices (including smart phones). Geocachers span all ages and tend to be interested in technology and the outdoors. To share information about the Montana Climate Assessment (MCA), an NSF-funded scientific report, Montana State University created a custom trackable geocaching coin featuring the MCA Website and logo....

This multiple case study analysis investigates the perceptions of four science teachers who are repeat attendees at professional development programs coordinated by a university center. Adult learning theory provided a lens to view the motivated participants of the study and each of the five assumptions were present. Findings revealed three themes: (1) these science teachers perceive dual identities as both...

To address the need for STEM reform in K-12 schools, this article describes the design and implementation of a rigorous, interdisciplinary science and research program (ISR) in two local high schools (HS-S and HS-H). The ISR, adapted from the successful School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt program, provides seven courses over four years that focus on the development of...

Dr. Ann Chester, Director of the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) in West Virginia was looking for professional researchers interested in working with HSTA's high school-aged participants through community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects. Dr. Alicia Zbehlik, with the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice in New Hampshire, needed to further her research in knee osteoarthritis to support...

Educational approaches that provide meaningful, relevant opportunities for place-based learning have been shown to be effective models for engaging indigenous students in science. The Laulima A ‘Ike Pono (LAIP) collaboration was developed to create a place-based inclusive learning environment for engaging local community members, especially Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, in scientific research at a historically significant ancient Hawaiian fishpond....

Increased emphasis on K-12 engineering education, including the advent and incorporation of NGSS in many curricula, has spurred the need for increased engineering learning opportunities for younger students. This is particularly true for students from underrepresented minority populations or economically disadvantaged schools, who traditionally lag their peers in the pursuit of STEM majors or careers. To address this deficit, we...

We describe a game and teachers’ experiences using it in their middle and high school science courses. The game, which is called “Luck of the Draw,” was designed to engage middle, high school, and college students in genetics and encourage critical thinking about issues, such as genetic engineering. We introduced the game to high school science teachers attending a summer...

Charles Darwin is largely unknown and poorly understood as a historical figure. Similarly, the fundamental principles of evolution are often miss-stated, misunderstood, or entirely rejected by large numbers of Americans. Simply trying to communicate more facts about Darwin, or facts supporting the principles of evolution is inadequate; neither students nor members of the public will care or retain the information....

Effective science teaching critically requires content-focused professional development (PD), particularly in life sciences where content evolves rapidly. How subject matter knowledge related to teaching (SCK) is most effectively incorporated into PD has not been investigated. We studied how a professional learning community of high school teachers and scientists co-designing a bioscience curriculum produced the accompanying SCK-focused PD. SCK was level...

This article explores science communication from the perspective of those most at risk of exclusion, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork. I conducted five focus groups and 32 interviews with participants from low-income, minority ethnic backgrounds. Using theories of social reproduction and social justice, I argue that participation in science communication is marked by structural inequalities (particularly ethnicity and class) in two...

Designing Our World (DOW) was a four-year NSF-funded initiative in which the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) sought to promote girls’ pursuit of engineering careers through community-based programming, exhibition development, and identity research. The overarching aim of DOW was to engage girls ages 9–14 with experiences that illuminate the social, personally relevant, and altruistic nature of engineering. In...

Designing Our World (DOW) was a four-year NSF-funded initiative in which the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) sought to promote girls’ pursuit of engineering careers through community-based programming, exhibition development, and identity research. The overarching aim of DOW was to engage girls ages 9–14 with experiences that illuminate the social, personally relevant, and altruistic nature of engineering. In...

A PowerPoint slide presentation given by John Kania, Global Managing Director from FSG on collective impact at the June 3, 2015 National Science Foundation INCLUDES Achieving Scale for Inclusion in STEM Director's Workshop. ...

Each year, the National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI) seeks to understand the current state of broader impacts (BI) in the national context. In 2017, NABI convened two forums to identify needs and solicit recommendations. The first event was a 90-minute town hall session with 120 participants facilitated by Jamie Bell at the April 2017 BI Summit. The second event...

Transforming Communities provides an overview of the agency mission, vision, goals, and objectives, and includes highlights of IMLS initiatives and projects....

Scientific ignorance can be a potential obstacle in the journey of India becoming a developed nation and a knowledge economy. Such ignorance can also be the cause of various myths, superstitions and blind faiths which can further hinder the development agenda of any nation. Science Communication can potentially dissipate scientific ignorance in the society. Science Communication is a rapidly growing...

MobiLLab is a mobile science education program designed to awaken young people’s interest in science and technology (S&T). Perceived novelty, or unfamiliarity, has been shown to affect pupils’ educational outcomes at similar out-of-school learning places (OSLePs) such as museums and science centers. A study involved 215 mobiLLab pupils who responded to three surveys: a pre-preparation, at-visit, and post-visit survey. Results...

In March of 2016, the Exploratorium transmitted a live webcast of a total solar eclipse from Woleai, a remote island in the southwestern Pacific. The webcast reached over 1 million viewers. Evaluation reveals effective use of digital media to engage learners in solar science and related STEM content. Edu, Inc. conducted an external evaluation study that shows clear and consistent evidence...

As part of a grant from the National Science Foundation, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) developed, implemented, and evaluated the National Center for Blind Youth in Science (NCBYS), a three-year full-scale development project to increase informal learning opportunities for blind youth in STEM. Through this grant, the NCBYS extended opportunities for informal science learning for the direct...

Staff facilitators in museums and science centers are a critical but often overlooked component of the visitor experience. Despite assertions about the important role they play in visitor learning, there continues to be almost no research to understand staff facilitation in these settings or identify effective practices. To address these gaps, we conducted a design-based research study to describe the...

This checklist identifies and describes the elements of an evaluation report. It is intended to serve as a flexible guide for determining an evaluation report’s content. It should not be treated as a rigid set of requirements. An evaluation client’s or sponsor’s reporting requirements should take precedence over the checklist’s recommendations. Decisions about the order of content and level of...

This study explored how different presentations of an object in deep space affect understanding, engagement, and aesthetic appreciation. A total of n = 2,502 respondents to an online survey were randomly assigned to one of 11 versions of Cassiopeia A, comprising 6 images and 5 videos ranging from 3s to approximately 1min. Participants responded to intial items regarding what the...

This paper reviews the purposes, definitions and criteria designed to embed ‘engaged research’ as a strategic priority with universities, and explores some of the challenges of implementation. Surveys of academics have shown various understandings of, and attitudes to, the practices of engaged research, but also impediments to realising the aspirations it expresses. Drawing on the experience as the academic lead...