Informal STEM Learning Framework Project: Baseline Survey Findings

The Informal STEM Learning (ISL) project research team from the STEM Research Center at Oregon State University, in collaboration with project partners, conducted a baseline survey with members of the informal STEM learning community. The main goals of the ISL Baseline Survey were to 1. Understand the current lived experiences of ISL professionals and determine factors around professional learning that might enhance belonging to institutions and the field of ISL, and success individual’s careers in ISL; and 2. Gain insights into current awareness and knowledge of the Framework and perceived needs in the community to make the Framework useful and usable for a variety of purposes. Findings from the baseline survey complement data from listening sessions and transference panels. Collectively, the project team can use baseline survey findings to inform the development of resources for the Framework, including how to best socialize the Framework into the ISL community. The survey was based on a similar survey to the ISL community conducted by the Center for the Advancement of Informal STEM Learning (CAISE), further co-developed by all project partners, and disseminated from contact lists from the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC). 732 respondents started the survey, and 630 completed at least one scale of survey items. This summary shares high-level findings from our initial analysis of the survey data of those 630 respondents to the survey.