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The National Science Foundation is seeking qualified candidates for program officer/director positions.   The Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) within the Education and Human Resources Directorate (EHR) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces five nation-wide searches for Program Officers (i.e., Directors.) Program Directors in DRL have an unparalleled ... Read more

On March 18, 2020 the National Science Foundation released the blog Seven NSF-supported STEM resources that are perfect for at-home learning. In addition to those projects, NSF has funded a wide range of innovative informal STEM education work across a variety of settings, resulting in online learning opportunities and resources that are informed by research, evaluation and best practices. CAISE has curated ... Read more

For the United States to capitalize on the investments made in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, the Nation requires intentional education pathways that will meet microelectronics workforce needs in the near- and long-term. Come participate in this NSF-organized virtual workshop that brings together members of different communities involved in microelectronics education to discuss ... Read more

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Grants Conference is designed to give new faculty, researchers, and administrators key insights into a wide range of current issues at NSF. NSF staff will provide up-to-date information about policies and procedures, specific funding opportunities and answer attendee questions.  Highlights include:  New programs and initiatives Proposal preparation   NSF’s merit review ... Read more

The U.S. Department of Education, in partnership with EXPLR, will co-present the first-ever National STEM Festival to celebrate student achievements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This festival is dedicated to showcasing innovative student solutions to urgent global challenges. Learn more.

This post was co-written by Michael Brody, Christine Rogers Stanton, and Art Bangert, Department of Education, College of Education, Health and Human Development, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA; Shane Doyle, Native American Studies Program; and Cliff Montagne, Department of Land Resources and Environmental Science, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA; and Natalia Yurkova, Gorno-Altaisk ... Read more

The Nature-Based Early Learning Conference brings professionals together to explore and promote nature-based learning for young children. Attendees include teachers, program administrators, higher education faculty, researchers, education consultants, landscape designers, and others who are committed to or interested in bringing nature, outdoor learning, and environmental education to young children’s education. The program focuses on nature-based ... Read more

Spending time in nature is essential for cognitive development. Nature play stimulates creativity and problem solving skills integral to executive function development. Children who play and spend time in nature have increased concentration and cognitive skills, including mitigation of ADHD/ADD symptoms. Findings from Research & Evaluation Spontaneous, open-ended, play in natural surroundings offer unrivaled opportunities ... Read more

Over the past decade, there has been increased interest in the details and depth of visitors’ experiences in informal educational settings. National Science Foundation (NSF) and other agencies have funded research projects studying visitors in museums, zoos, aquaria and parks. Evaluation studies, as well, now more often examine visitor behavior and attitudes, rather than just ... Read more

Each year, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) funds projects that explore the connections between science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and the humanities. We recently coordinated with the NEH to make these project descriptions searchable on InformalScience.org. The newly cataloged projects, funded through the Division of Public Programs, are multidisciplinary and often address ... Read more

We recently added a number of articles from the current issue of Afterschool Matters to the informalscience.org collection. Afterschool Matters is a peer-reviewed publication of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST). The journal serves professionals who are developing, managing, and/or researching programs for youth that take place during the out-of-school time hours. Here’s a ... Read more

The newest NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) solicitation is now available. The Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to and evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning opportunities for the public in informal environments; provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; advance innovative research ... Read more

The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) convened a one-day “Edit-a-Thon” on May 25, 2016 as a follow up to the Research Meeting on Making and Learning meeting held at the Children’s Museum of  Pittsburgh on May 23 & 24.  Building on the momentum and generative discussions at the maker research meeting, participants ... Read more

Since 2010, partners at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out of School Environments (UPCLOSE), Science Museum of Minnesota, and Visitor Studies Association, with support from the National Science Foundation, have been collaborating on the Building Informal Science Education (BISE) project. The team aims to review existing evaluation reports catalogued on informalscience.org to ... Read more

MIT Press recently published a new book on assessment in informal learning environments. Produced with support from the MacArthur Foundation, Documenting and Assessing Learning in Informal & Media-Rich Environments provides a new model called the Outcomes-by-Levels Model for Documentation and Assessment. The model identifies as least ten types of outcomes that can be assessed at ... Read more

The Citizen Science Association has launched a new open-access, peer-reviewed journal published by Ubiquity Press. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice focuses on advancing the field of citizen science by providing a venue for citizen science practitioners and researchers to share best practices in conceiving, developing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining projects that facilitate public participation in ... Read more

Nearly two-thirds of the adult population in the United States own a smartphone (Pew Research, 2015) and three-quarters of smartphone owners regularly use location-based apps on their devices (Pew Research, 2013). Given the ubiquity of smartphones and how familiar it is to use location-based apps, it is not surprising that museums would be eager to ... Read more

The InformalScience.org calendar lists conferences, workshops, meetings, and other professional development opportunities in the informal science education field. Some conferences added this month include: World Congress of Science and Factual Producers (WCSFP) Annual Conference in Montreal, Quebec Euroscience Open Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark 2014 Cyberlearning Summit in Madison, Wisconsin STEM Education and Our Planet: Making ... Read more

The U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has announced a new opportunity for library students, as well as those already in the profession. The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program provides opportunities for early career research in libraries, as well as the professional development of librarians and library staff. Applications are due September ... Read more

Developing an evaluation report can be challenging. Happily, there are dedicated evaluation professionals who use their expertise to help the community produce the best reporting that they can. EvaluATE is the evaluation support center for the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program. The center produces tools for the ATE community to help guide people through ... Read more

InformalScience.org recently launched a newly updated evaluation page designed to make evaluation resources more accessible to informal STEM learning professionals. The new page visually highlights resources to help both veterans and those new to the community develop evaluation plans and proposals, iteratively inform projects, and disseminate evaluation findings. The new evaluation tab will help you: ... Read more

The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement (NCSCE) is requesting proposals for Partnership Champions: SENCER-ISE and Professional Development Through Mentoring to Enhance Learning Environments. Partnership Champions is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS; MG-10-15-0071-15) and is an extension of the existing SENCER-ISE (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities- Informal Science Education) project, which ... Read more

Whether the goal is to identify and describe trends and variation in populations, create new measures of key phenomena, or describe samples in studies aimed at identifying causal effects, description plays a critical role in the scientific process, particularly in education research. Descriptive analysis identifies patterns in data to answer questions about who, what, where, ... Read more

NSF has released a new solicitation for proposals for the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program. Full proposals are due September 5, 2017 at 5 p.m. in the submitter’s localtime. To learn more about this funding opportunity, view the complete solicitation on the NSF website. The Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers ... Read more

Science Learning+ will provide up to $14.4 million to support research into how learning happens outside the classroom, exploring the most effective practices and building the evidence base in this area. The aims are: (1) to learn more about, evaluate, and maximize the impact of informal learning experiences, and (2) to improve understanding of how ... Read more