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Monica Arkin and Isai Garcia-Baza, both senior research assistants at Child Trends, co-wrote this blog. Individuals with higher levels of formal education are likely to be more knowledgeable about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). They are also more likely to hold favorable attitudes toward STEM research, such as believing that it benefits society and having confidence in the scientific community. ... Read more

At LibLearnX, library professionals at all levels can take part in a conference experience that will provide ultimate learning benefits. Attendees will participate in hands-on workshops, bite-size sessions, and other formats designed to match preferred learning styles with an emphasis on experiential learning. Be inspired and motivated by thought-leaders, authors, and subject matter experts, and celebrate ... Read more

For decades, libraries throughout the U.S. have been evolving to become unique venues for informal science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, hosting programs and exhibits that inspire children and adults alike, and supporting them in their lifelong learning. For example, as the role of the modern library has transformed from a repository of physical ... Read more

Sometimes you can listen to the universe and it speaks, if only you know how to listen. – William Katzman, Program Leader, Science Education Center, LIGO Livingston The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) announced a groundbreaking discovery this week–for the first time, scientists have been able to directly observe and measure gravitational waves resulting from ... Read more

    The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) has scheduled the 2019 NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program Principal Investigators’ meeting to directly precede the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in DC next year. The PI meeting will take place February 11-13 and AAAS commences their ... Read more

The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) has scheduled the 2019 NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program Principal Investigators’ meeting to directly precede the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in DC next year. The PI meeting will take place February 11-13 and AAAS commences their meeting with ... Read more

The NSF 24-122: NSF 75th Anniversary: NSF STEM Day Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) has been released. The DCL encourages the submission of supplemental funding requests to engage the public in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programming and activities that showcase existing exhibits, films, maker experiences and other public science communication efforts funded by the ... Read more

The Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) presents a Webinar/Community Forum “Love and Healing in Children’s Museums” on Friday, June 24, 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. EDT.   As children’s museum professionals, we have an opportunity to support families and children experiencing trauma and stress through our exhibitions and programming, and to foster long-term social-emotional learning (SEL), kindness, ... Read more

To produce a public exhibition to study how children use evidence to construct scientific explanations, the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose (CDM), in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) Department of Psychology and the University of California, Berkeley Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), launched Lupe’s Story, a Full Scale Development project funded ... Read more

This Knowledge Base article was written collaboratively with contributions from Rachel Hellenga, Aaron Price, Kevin Crowley and Peter Wardrip. This article was migrated from a previous version of the Knowledge Base. The date stamp does not reflect the original publication date. Overview  ​Making has been defined as a process of designing and building objects or artefacts, physical or virtual, ... Read more

This Knowledge Base article was written collaboratively with contributions from Rachel Hellenga, Aaron Price, Kevin Crowley and Peter Wardrip. This article was migrated from a previous version of the Knowledge Base. The date stamp does not reflect the original publication date. Overview  ​Making has been defined as a process of designing and building objects or artefacts, physical ... Read more

Climate change is a global challenge that requires collective action from diverse communities, technical teams, journalists, as well as environmental program, policy and design professionals. However, many global climate initiatives are not accessible to persons with disabilities, leading to exclusion and marginalization. The Victor Pineda Foundation / World Enabled and their partners are pleased to ... Read more

A guild developed by the National Informal STEM Education Network

This Spotlight is co-authored by Angela Calabrese Barton, Michigan State University, PI and Edna Tan, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, co-PI I was really proud [about making my light up football] ‘cause it just made me feel good about myself so I could, like, acknowledge people what I could do. – Samuel, 12 years ... Read more

Last October, the New York Hall of Science and Maker Education Initiative convened more than 150 informal educators, funders, learning researchers, policymakers, and leaders in the informal community for this third in a series of symposia. Building on the previous conferences, Making Meaning [M2] took a critical look at how to describe and document the ... Read more

The White House is celebrating a “Week of Making” from June 12th-18th, launching this weekend with the inaugural National Maker Faire. Making and tinkering activities are an active process of building, designing, and innovating with tools and materials to produce shareable artifacts. The InformalScience.org collection features many resources for informal STEM professionals developing, evaluating and ... Read more

Contextualizing Science Learning and Motivation in Rural and Indigenous Adolescents through Mapping Sustainable Practices (The MSP Project) is based at the University of New Hampshire and funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program (DRL-1223703).  This interdisciplinary research project will explore and address the disconnect that many indigenous and majority adolescents ... Read more

This Knowledge Base article was written collaboratively with contributions from Steven Greenstein and Andee Rubin. This article was migrated from a previous version of the Knowledge Base. The date stamp does not reflect the original publication date. Overview  The proliferation of spaces for digital design and production has generated new opportunities to teach and learn new mathematical ... Read more

Andee Rubin, Senior Scientist at TERC, has done research and development in the fields of mathematics education, educational technology, and informal learning for over 30 years.  She is particularly interested in how mathematical reasoning can be fostered in informal environments by a combination of thoughtful design and expert facilitation. Scott Pattison, Ph.D., is a researcher ... Read more

This article was co-authored by Scott Pattison, Institute for Learning Innovation, and Andee Rubin and Tracey Wright, TERC. Mathematics is foundational to all fields of science, technology, and engineering (NCTM, 2000; NRC, 2012) and has been shown repeatedly to be a gatekeeper for long-term engagement with STEM topics and careers (e.g., Dika & D’Amico, 2016; ... Read more

Additional authors: Eve Klein As boundary professionals working in informal, free-choice learning environments, our work relies on partnerships. True partnerships, focused on co-creating rather than being merely transactional in nature, are difficult to build and maintain in the best of times. The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted many of our long-standing practices and poses a significant ... Read more

Compiled by Jamie Bell and Kevin Crowley Just prior to this year’s National Week of Making (6/17- 6/23), a group of researchers and practitioners who are interested in the study of making as learning met at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh on May 23 & 24 2016. The convening was funded by the American Educational ... Read more

How do evaluators of informal science projects use follow-up data collection methods to examine behavioral impacts? I explored this question while serving as an evaluation intern at the Science Museum of Minnesota in the fall of 2013. My project drew on the evaluation reports uploaded to InformalScience.org and the coding framework developed and implemented through ... Read more

The Diving Deeper, Looking Forward session topics at the 2014 AISL PI Meeting emerged from a pre-meeting survey of AISL-funded Principal Investigators; discussions with PIs and others who have participated in CAISE convenings over the past two years; and input from CAISE staff, co-PIs, and NSF Program Officers. These sessions were intended to stimulate discussions ... Read more

This article was migrated from a previous version of the Knowledge Base. The date stamp does not reflect the original publication date. Overview  To measure participation in an informal, online learning environment, what evidence do we look for? Which environments do we include and exclude? Do we agree on what learning is? What counts as ... Read more