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Since 2017, CAISE has compiled an annual Year in Informal STEM Education slide deck, with generous contributions from practitioners, researchers, and evaluators working in informal STEM learning and science communication settings. This year, in place of that resource, this blog recaps some highlights capturing what CAISE learned, generated and tracked in 2021. News, View, and ... Read more

The Museum of Science, Boston and Boston University received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement a pilot program mentoring high school students in science research, communication, and education practices, through the lens of experimental psychology research. In this conference session, presenters shared strategies employed by the project team to shift the program to a virtual format...

CAISE hosted the 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program Awardee Meeting October 19-21, 2021 virtually. The meeting theme was Developing and Sustaining Equitable, Knowledge-Building Partnerships. A biennial event since 2008, the meeting is a convening of projects funded by the NSF AISL program the purpose of which is for the ... Read more

October 19th Theme: Working With Community 12:00-12:15pm NSF and CAISE Welcome 12:20-1:20pm Engaged Community Partnerships: Opportunities and Challenges in Multiple Contexts (Plenary) 1:30-2:15pm Critical Conversations Roundtables 2:45-3:45pm Concurrent Sessions 4:00-5:00pm Project Showcase October 20th Theme: Research and Knowledge Building 12:00-1:00pm Rethinking rigor: Considering racism and colonialism in ISE research and evaluation approaches (Plenary) 1:15-2:00pm Critical ... Read more

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. What do you think? How do you connect with youth audiences? What assumptions do you have about how identity relates to exhibit engagement? How do factors that shape your identity impact your life? Has this shifted over time? ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. This project is a retrospective study to explore the long-term impact of STEM programming. The study follows up with participants to ask questions like "Where are they now? What mattered? What difference did it make? and What’s next?" ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. This project presents a framework of outcome progressions developed through a virtual convening. ...

This project aims to formally define what a sense of belonging means in the science & natural history museum context as a way to measure inclusivity efforts. We think that most of the experiences that make up a museum visit have a relatively neutral effect on visitor sense of belonging. However, visitors may experience moments that make them feel distinctly...

This project's goals are to: Enable participants to contribute to any or all stages of the scientific process and enhance their learning using an online citizen science platform and live bird cams. Generate new scientific knowledge about wildlife. Advance the understanding of effective project design for co-created online citizen-science projects at a national scale. This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee...

This poster was presented at the 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Awardee Meeting. The goal of this two-year project is to examine systemic issues within learning spaces and provide educators with anti-racist approaches that validate and uplift Black learners. Through a combination of media, educator and role model professional development, and intentional outreach, Black SciGirls will create more...

This project's goal is to advance the field by providing resources that empower STEM educators to design and deliver high-quality connected learning experiences based on relevant research and incorporating evidence-based practices. This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. ...

Our project focuses on iterative improvements to a cardboard-focused maker exhibition to engage more families in engineering practices. This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Collaborative robots – cobots – are designed to work with humans, not replace them. What learning affordances are created in educational games when learners program robots to assist them in a game instead of being the game? What game designs work best? ...

The pilot and feasibility study will develop instructional workshops for an adult population of quilters to introduce them to computational thinking. By leveraging pre-existing social structures, skill sets, and engagement in quilting, the researchers hope to help participants develop computer science and computational thinking knowledge and skills. This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. ...

The goal of our project is to develop strategies that effectively engage autistic adolescents in informal STEM learning opportunities that promote the self-efficacy and interest in STEM careers that will empower them to seek out career opportunities in STEM fields. The research aims are to: 1. Identify evidence-based strategies to engage autistic youth in informal STEM learning opportunities that are well matched...

Through an NSF-funded literature review, professional survey, and virtual convening, the Museum of Science, Boston is systematically documenting intersections between imagination, STEM and learning to create research-based resources for positioning and attending to imaginative ways of thinking in informal STEM learning environments. This poster shares an overview of our research methods and preliminary findings (as of Sept 2021).  This poster was...

With support from rural communities and their libraries in the Four Corners Region in the Southwestern U.S., We are Water creates a place to meet and share stories about water, and explore and learn about water together. Designed for rural, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, stories, community voices and multiple ways of knowing are highlighted and woven throughout the exhibit and...

Research-practice partnerships between filmmakers and social scientists can help: Produce effective and engaging documentaries on complex science + society issues Fill gaps in social science research on the impact of films, and how films can reach traditionally missed audiences This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Free-choice learning occurs when individuals make choices about what, where, how, and who they participate with in their self-motivated learning activities. This project explores how different people, living in the same geographic region, make plants and gardening a part of their lives. We explore how adult community members choose to participate...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Today’s young people have a personal stake in their ability to function with data. Future job prospects might hinge on their ability to participate in the new data economy. But equally, young people are themselves the subjects of data. The datafication of young people’s lives leads to profound questions about...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Dinosaurs of Antarctica is a giant screen film and outreach project that documents the work of NSF-funded researchers on expeditions to Shackleton Glacier during the 2017-2018 field season. This immersive film and companion television special will bring the past to life and engage the public, and particularly students in middle...

This is a poster summarizing our AISL project: PES@LTERs. ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Project Harvest is a co-created citizen science project that investigates the quality of household environments in Arizona communities neighboring active or legacy mining and/or toxic release. Project Harvest is a response to the community-driven questions, “Are there pollutants in harvested rainwater? Can I use the harvested rainwater for my garden?" ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. The project scales up an award-winning coaching model: Informal educators come together in small groups to share videos of their own interactions with youth A coach helps them share feedback based on their use of key skills (e.g. how to ask youth purposeful questions). ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Since 2006, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) through the Center for Integrating Research and Learning (CIRL) has offered a SciGirls Summer Camp to introduce middle school girls to various fields of science. Code: SciGirls was created in 2017 to increase the engagement in computer science studies and career...