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The Wildlife Conservation Society and Good Shepherd Services (a youth development and education agency) are implementing and evaluating a school-to-career model program that consists of afterschool and weekend programming for high school students at four New York City area zoos and an aquarium, followed by post-participation tracking, support, and mentoring. The goal is to promote affective, cognitive and behavioral outcomes...

To reach its full potential in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the United States must continue to recruit, prepare and maintain a diverse STEM workforce. Much work has been done in this regard. Yet, underrepresentation in STEM fields persists and is especially pronounced for Hispanic STEM professionals. The Hispanic community is the youngest and fastest growing racial/ethnic group in...

Through programs (including small group conversations, citizen conferences, and public forums) an interactive exhibition, and two research studies that address issues that are fundamental to establishing museums as places of public dialogue and deliberation, this project engages the general public, policymakers, and caregivers in deliberations around the latest early childhood development (ECD) research. It also builds on an increased understanding...

The Pacific Science Center, in collaboration and with support from the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium, proposes a three-year program to develop and test a model for delivering mid-scale, astronomy and space-themed exhibits and programming in a shopping center environment, especially in rural locations. The program targets an audience that does not have easy access to a science center or...

Despite the rapid expansion of citizen-based monitoring, data from these programs remain underutilized by natural resource managers, perhaps due to quality and comparability issues. We present the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program as a case study of an initiative successfully meeting long-term monitoring needs of federal, state, tribal, and local natural resource managers, and informing public policy. To maximize potential for...

CoCoRaHS or the Community Collaborative Rain and Hail Study builds on previously funded NSF research on precipitation patterns in the western portion of the US. This award will expand the current citizen science efforts to include those living in the Great Plains including Eastern Colorado, Western Nebraska, Northwest Kansas and Southeast Wyoming. Participants gain experience in data collection and analysis...

As a matter of policy, 21st Century Community Learning Centers rely heavily on community organizations to provide a variety of instructional programs. In this way, 21st Century sites tap the depth and breadth of knowledge available in their communities to provide non-traditional learning experiences that can better meet young participants’ need for engagement and relevance than can a simple extension...

Afterschool continues to be promoted as a complementary setting to school for strengthening science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education (for example, Krishnamurthi, Bevan, Rinehart, & Coulon, 2013). This is a reasonable idea: 10.2 million children and youth in the U.S. participate in structured afterschool programs (Afterschool Alliance, 2014), and the flexibility of afterschool settings allows for innovative approaches to...

Science On a Sphere (SOS) at Fiske Planetarium will raise awareness and understanding of Earth system science for over 30,000 visitors per year, using student docents and newly-developed, tested pedagogy. SOS will enhance Fiske's ability to engage 3,000 university students and 30,000 K-12 students and members of the public. A student docent program will transform the traditionally passive experience of...

This 20-page PDF booklet provides an introduction to informal science education and to science museum practice for nano and materials science researchers. It advises researchers on ways to collaborate with science museums to increase the impact of their education outreach activities, and includes a rich bibliography....

The Board on Science Education at the National Research Council of the National Academies will develop practitioner-focused resources based on a synthesis study on Learning Science in Informal Environments (LSIE), a comprehensive review of educational research funded through a previous NSF award. Project deliverables will consist of a publication, video and digitized web resources designed to guide the application of...

The achievement gap begins well before children enter kindergarten. Research has shown that children who start school having missed critical early learning opportunities are already at risk for academic failure. This project seeks to narrow this gap by finding new avenues for bringing early science experiences to preschool children (ages 3-5), particularly those living in communities with few resources. Bringing...

PEEP Family Science is a collaboration among the WGBH Education and Children’s Media teams, Education Development Center (EDC) researchers and staff, and parents participating in programs with two home visiting organizations: AVANCE in Texas and HIPPY in Arkansas. The project aims to foster joint media engagement and hands-on science exploration among diverse, low-income 3- to 5-year-old children and their parents...

In this article, Robin Groesbeck, Traveling & Temporary Exhibitions Director at The Field Museum, Chicago, details the complex process of examining and packing the objects for "Splendors of China's Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong," the largest exhibit ever to leave the Forbidden City. The project was in collaboration with The Palace Museum, Beijing. ...

Summative evaluation of the Worldviews Network, a NOAA-funded project comprised of institutions trying to create an innovative approach for engaging the public with topics of human induced global change. The project's approach sought to 1) leverage the power of immersive environments within informal science institutions (ISIs), such as planetariums and portable domes, by 2) incorporating visualizations of scientific data sets...

The Chabot Observatory and Science Center (COSC) in Oakland California will develop and present Bringing the Universe Down to Earth: Demystifying the Process that shapes the Solar System. This exhibition will utilize thirteen interactive works by Ned Kahn, a nationally recognized artist. The exhibition will consist of twenty-six exhibits: two per theme, one for Chabot, and one for the traveling...

"From Earth to the Universe" (FETTU) is a collection of astronomical images that showcase some of the most popular, current views of our Universe. The images, representing the wide variety of astronomical objects known to exist, have so far been exhibited in about 500 locations throughout the world as part of the International Year of Astronomy. In the United States,...

“From Earth to the Universe” (FETTU) is a collection of astronomical images that showcase some of the most popular, current views of our Universe. The images, representing the wide variety of astronomical objects known to exist, have so far been exhibited in about 500 locations throughout the world as part of the International Year of Astronomy. In the United States,...

The theory of “science capital” is increasingly showing up in formal and informal science education. Both face the common challenge of what is often called a “theory/practice divide”: academic theory not seeming relevant to the day-to-day needs and practices of educators. This brief shares what happened when practitioners and researchers working with the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) at the...

Tinkering creates a bridging point between a learner’s personal interests and experiences and a broad range of possible learning outcomes. It offers valuable opportunities to engage all students in STEM and fosters a more inclusive STEM education. In this way, it is very much aligned with a Science Capital Teaching Approach: fundamentally, it is a highly personalised pedagogy, which allows...

Bringing Up Girls in Science (BUGS) was an afterschool program for 4th and 5th grade girls that provided authentic learning experiences in environmental science as well as valuable female mentoring opportunities in an effort to increase participants' academic achievement in science. BUGS participants demonstrated significantly greater amounts of gain in science knowledge as measured by the Iowa Test of Basic...

BRITE Girls Online STEM Practices: Building Relevance and Identity to Transform Experiences is a Research in Service to Practice National Science Foundation Grant led by Florida State University, in partnership with the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) and Smart Girls HQ. The project examines the STEM identity development of girls via the implementation of an online ... Read more

Despite decades of policies and programs meant to increase the representation of girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), girls and women of color still represent a much smaller percent of the STEM workforce than they do in the US population. This lack of representation is preventing the US STEM workforce from reaching its true potential. Intersecting...

Brite’s Virtual STEM Role Model Camp is an online, interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program created especially for youth entering 7th-10th grade. Brite is designed to spark curiosity, foster creativity, and build an online community all while having FUN doing STEM projects and meeting STEM professionals from a variety of fields. The theme ... Read more

University of Washington researchers and their collaborators are evaluating the impacts and effectiveness of a citizen science program called COASST (Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team) that engages 600 trained non-scientists in collecting data on beached birds found on more than 300 beaches from the north coast of California to Alaska. The goals of the COASST program are to expand...