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Last fall, Culture Kettle (a new nonprofit that explores innovation in the cultural sector), the Program in Science, Technology & Society at MIT, and the MIT Museum convened a two-day workshop as part of their Evolving Culture of Science Engagement Initiative. The Initiative explores a new wave of public science engagement activity that is blurring ... Read more

A new report from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine entitled “Science Literacy: Concepts, Contexts, and Consequences” provides new insight into science literacy on a community level. “Historically, assessments of science literacy have focused on individuals, but we see now that communities can engage in science and produce scientific knowledge in a ... Read more

Richard Hudson of Twin Cities Public Television reports out on how 2014 AISL PI Meeting participants are using technology to support informal STEM learning. The use of digital media, particularly smartphones, continues its explosive growth, becoming an ever more important opportunity for STEM learning. A new report from comScore, a digital analytics firm, describes the ... Read more

Several reports released over the past month have data, perspectives and field-wide implications of interest for science education, communication and engagement. All three are now available on InformalScience.org. These include a report from the Center for Innovative Research on Cyberlearning (CIRCLCenter), the RAND Corporation, and the Pew Research Center. Cyberlearning Community Report: The State of Cyberlearning ... Read more

Research and Practice Collaboratory has launched a new website and we invite you to visit, sign up for the forthcoming newsletter, comment on useful resources, and send early feedback through the site’s contact link. The Research+Practice Collaboratory is an NSF-funded project funded to address the challenging gap between research and practice in STEM education across ... Read more

After three years of NSF-funded research on staff-facilitated family learning in museums, the REVEAL project team (http://www.informalscience.org/research-researching-value-educator-actions-learning-reveal) has released a new website with resources for museum educators, managers, and researchers: http://REVEAL.TERC.edu. The site is designed especially for those interested in museum educator professional development, family learning at interactive exhibits, and informal math education. All of the ... Read more

Come hang out with the Teen Science Cafe Network (TSCN) staff and other TSCN Members in this FREE webinar about marketing for your café program.  This webinar will provide you with marketing strategies and resources to reach new teen audiences for your Teen Science Café. Topics include creating a simple marketing plan, messaging to teen ... Read more

The scandal of the “biotechnology evangelist” erupted in Korea at the beginning of the new year: a commission from Seoul National University announced that it had proof that Dr Woo Suk Hwang, considered one of the world’s foremost experts on cloning by nucleus transfer, had manipulated the data concerning experiments in human cell cloning and the creation of eleven lines...

In 1988 and 1989, ASTC offered a seven-day institute for founders of new science centers, funded by the National Science Foundation. The impact of these institutes was profound, making the difference between success and failure for several, and helping many others clarify and strengthen their plans. Since then demand for technical assistance to new science centers has increased rather than...

This month, PLOS Biology published an article by Kalie Sacco, Jamie Bell, and John Falk of CAISE. PLOS Biology is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal published by the nonprofit organization PLOS. The article, “Informal Science Education: Lifelong, Life-Wide, Life-Deep”, describes the range of learning opportunities in out-of-school environments and how scientists can work with informal learning ... Read more

The Journal of Research in STEM Education is a new journal that will facilitate the sharing of new ideas among science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. In addition to original research articles, J-STEM will feature articles on innovative pedagogies developed by both formal and informal educators. This international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal ... Read more

This Knowledge Base article was written collaboratively with contributions from Molly Mandeltort, Claire Pillsbury and Jenny East. This article was migrated from a previous version of the Knowledge Base. The date stamp does not reflect the original publication date. Overview  New technology “affords new routes to interpretation, engagement and participation with an exhibit” (Jewitt 2012). New technologies that are ... Read more

Selected project descriptions from the Department of Education’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program are now available on InformalScience.org. The U.S. Department of Education’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, operated out of its research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), provides up to $1,050,000 in funding to small businesses and partners for research ... Read more

As part of the UK “Science for All” deliberations, the Science and the Media expert group have released Science and the Media: Securing the Future. This report outlines a number of actions and recommendations which, taken together, will: support the accurate reporting of science through a range of new training initiatives for journalists, press officers ... Read more

This article discusses a new visitor studies group in the UK designed to meet the growing demand for networking and support in the visitor studies field. The article describes how the "Visitor Studies Group" came to be and the value of membership to professionals in the UK....

This article describes a series of demonstration projects that use multiscalar gigapixel image technology to iteratively design, test, and study how visitors learn to observe more scientifically in museums, online, and through museum-based programming. We consider how the particular affordances of systems like these can move science communication and learning from didactic approaches centered on one-way communication toward technology platforms...

In this article, the author describes the process and result of a statewide effort in New York to develop an afterschool quality framework and assessment tool that can be used to guide program design, reflection, and assessment. One benefit of the tool is that it can be used by program stakeholders without the participation (i.e., the expense) of an external...

For more than 20 years, the Science Career Ladder Program at the New York Hall of Science has provided unique opportunities for middle school, high school, and college students to be trained and mentored as Explainers at the museum. The program is designed to encourage and support personal and professional development of these students, increasing their academic achievement, personal growth,...

The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) is seeking applicants for a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in informal STEM learning funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (grant no. 2329473). The ideal candidate is a researcher with prior experience in learning sciences, family learning, and/or informal STEM education who is interested in developing skills in collaborative ... Read more

  The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) is seeking a Research Manager to support the cross-departmental collaborations involved in NYSCI’s innovative research and development work. The Research Manager will work closely with the Director of Creative Pedagogy to plan, coordinate, and document the development, design, testing, and implementation of new NYSCI educational assets focused ... Read more

The intent of this network is to encourage volunteers to get involved with our annual horseshoe crab monitoring program on various reference beaches throughout New York’s Marine District. “Citizen Scientists” will work with trained site coordinators to help collect data on horseshoe crab spawning abundance, size, sex and tag returns around full and new moon evenings from May to July....

Overview In 2023 Kera Collective partnered with the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) to evaluate the Tang Academy for American Democracy (TAAD) program. TAAD aims to address 6th grade New York City learning standards by comparing the ancient Athenian model of democracy to democracy in the United States, as well as generate excitement about learning history. TAAD had been in operation for three...

This commentary explores the kinds of audiences who attend science festivals in the United States by examining data from nearly 10,000 attendees from 24 festivals. Findings are presented to describe festival audiences overall and in comparison to national census and polling data. Results are similar to those for other public science events, with the majority of attendees being well-educated and middle-class. Even so, approximately two thirds...

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In this brief announcement, Harris Shettel, Chair of the AAM Evaluation and Research Committee, discusses recent news about the Committee, including its approval by the AAM council as a Standing Professional Committee and relevant activities at the upcoming AAM program in New Orleans....