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Presenting the Capacity Building for Youth Civic Leadership for Issues in Science and Society (CYCLIST) toolkit! Here on the CYCLIST leadership team, it is our hope that this toolkit will help educators incorporate civic engagement into their programming. CYCLIST’S leadership organizations include the New England Aquarium, The Wild Center, and Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE). Partner organizations include the Mote...

The Building Capacity of Co‐Created public Engagement with Science (CCPES) project was led by the Museum of Science, Boston with partners from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and Museum of Life and Science. The project was designed to have a strategic impact on how ISE institutions create products through co-creation and choose topics of STEM engagement by gathering...

Since the 1950s, under congressional mandate, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) - through its National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) and predecessor agencies - has produced regularly updated measures of research and development expenditures, employment and training in science and engineering, and other indicators of the state of U.S. science and technology. A more recent focus has...

For the past two decades, researchers and educators have been interested in integrating engineering into K-12 learning experiences. More recently, computational thinking (CT) has gained increased attention in K-12 engineering education. Computational thinking is broader than programming and coding. Some describe computational thinking as crucial to engineering problem solving and critical to engineering habits of mind like systems thinking. However,...

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...

In this article, Beat Hachler, co-director of Stapferhaus Lenzburg, discusses his institution's unique exhibit design approach, which uses unconventional strategies to "represent the present." In particular, Hachler describes the techniques used in "A Matter of Faith: An Exhibition for Believers and Non-Believers" and its impact on visitors and museum staff. ...

The first outside broadcast ever made by the British Broadcasting Company from a natural location was the Nightingale broadcast of 19 May 1924, in which the world-famous virtuoso cellist Beatrice Harrison performed a ‘duet’ with nightingales in her garden. The broadcast was made possible by the Marconi-Sykes magnetophone, an improved microphone developed for the early BBC. This paper explores the...

Carbon Networks addresses the disconnect between scientific evidence and the public’s understanding of the impacts of ocean acidification and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The project will develop and implement professional development for informal and formal educators in the use of authentic ocean and atmospheric data to create meaningful place-based education narratives and activities about these impacts. It will bring...

The University of Massachusetts Lowell conducted 1.5-day conference in the fall of 2011, titled "Learning on the Go: Using Out-of-Home Media to Communicate Climate Science." The conference, held at the Lowell Inn and Conference Center, brought together approximately 125 professionals and students in climate science, communications, out-of-home media, social science, informal and formal science education, and educational psychology with the...

Poster on NSF grant DRL-1049317 ("Carbon Smarts Conference: Learning Climate Change Science Anywhere Anytime") presented at the 2012 ISE PI Meeting....

This is a practitioner guide sharing the findings. The Cardboard Collaborative is the product of 10 years of work at the Science Museum of Minnesota and part of a larger collaboration with local community organizations to center BIPOC family priorities and experiences. This guide is intended to share what they have learned and support others to create their own cardboard maker...

Imagine a space filled with cardboard and endless possibilities where early engineering and creativity thrive. An inclusive makerspace that builds on design principles that work for a diversity of visitors and more museums. We’ve imagined that space over the past 10+ years, testing and iterating to make it a reality. Our iteration continues, and this guide shares some of the...

What does belonging look like in cultural institutions? This webinar, presented by the American Alliance of Museums’ Committee on Audience Research & Evaluation, shares how two projects worked to understand belonging – across a diversity of institutions and visitor perspectives. The session explores the models of belonging that have guided their work – the overlaps and ... Read more

As new technologies continue to dominate the world, access to and participation in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), and computing has become a critical focus of education research, practice, and policy. This issue is exceptionally relevant for American Indians, who remain underrepresented as only 0.2% of the STEM workforce, even though they make up 2% of the U.S. population. In...

This CAREER proposal focuses on the development of teachers' identities, which are operationalized as beliefs and practices, behaviors, and pedagogical knowledge. The PI uses a qualitative approach, occurring over two phases, to investigate the impact of formal-informal collaborations on identity development over time. The study is grounded in an ecological theoretical approach that incorporates a view of informal learning settings...

This project responds to the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) solicitation (NSF 17-537) and is sponsored by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program at the National Science Foundation. CAREER: Talking Science: Early STEM Identity Formation Through Everyday Science Talk (Talking Science) addresses the critical issue of the development of children's identification with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields...

A recent report by the Association for Computing Machinery estimates that by decade's end, half of all STEM jobs in the United States will be in computing. Yet, the participation of women and underrepresented groups in post-secondary computer science programs remains discouragingly and persistently low. One of the most important findings from research in computer science education is the degree...

This five-year CAREER grant will investigate how to design an after-school mathematics space within a school setting that can challenge and expand both students' and teachers' conceptions of what doing mathematics means and teach them to see participation in the discipline in increasingly nuanced and expansive ways. Informal learning contexts can encourage engagement by allowing students opportunities to choose their...

The digital revolution has transformed how young people discover and pursue their interests; how they communicate with and learn from other people; and how they encounter and learn about the world around them. How can we identify best practices for incorporating new media technologies into learning environments in a way that resonates with youth, including their interests, goals, and the...

The proposed CAREER study uses a comprehensive mixed-methods design to develop measures of motivational beliefs and family supports for Spanish and English speaking Mexican-origin youth in high school physical science. The research examines a three-part model which may provide a deeper understanding of how Mexican families support youth through their general education strategies, beliefs about physical science, and science specific...

This CAREER proposal focuses on the development of teachers' identities, which are operationalized as beliefs and practices, behaviors, and pedagogical knowledge. The PI uses a qualitative approach, occurring over two phases, to investigate the impact of formal-informal collaborations on identity development over time. The study is grounded in an ecological theoretical approach that incorporates a view of informal learning settings...

Informal STEM education spaces like museums can intentionally serve surrounding communities and support sustainable and accessible engagement. Building from this base, the project takes a stance that the intersection of the museum, home/family life and the youth’s internal practices and disciplinary sense of self are rooted in history and culture. Thus, this CAREER work builds on the following principles: Black...

Informal learning environments such as museums, libraries, and community organizations are important settings that provide innovative learning experiences to develop young people's interests and skills with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and computing. Yet despite the increasing educational opportunities, there are barriers to meaningful participation for all youth. Research suggests that attention to the structural conditions of learning environments...

Education stakeholders from advocates to developers are increasingly recognizing the potential of science games in advancing student academic motivation for and interest in science and science careers. To maximize this potential, the project will use science games (e.g. Land Science, River City, and EcoMUVE), shown to be enjoyable to students and proven to promote student learning in science at the...

Developing solutions to large-scale collective problems -- such as resilience to environmental challenges -- requires scientifically literate communities. However, the predominant conception of scientific literacy has focused on individuals, and there is not consensus as to what community level scientific literacy is or how to measure it. Thus, a 2016 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, “Science Literacy:...