Informal Science Education Research Articles

Remote and Hands-on: Informal Environmental Health Science Education in a Socially Distant World.

The Covid-19 pandemic has created significant challenges for informal health science education, which traditionally involves face-to-face programming. We describe the adaptation of hands-on environmental health science kits for online and socially distanced informal education with diverse audiences. These hands-on science kits were traditionally used for in-person, whole group instruction. Because the kits include all the materials needed to complete the activities, they provide hands-on science experiences without the need for a science lab facility. We developed a logistics plan for online use of the kits, taking into account the use of technology, kit distribution, virtual instruction, and audience engagement. We also developed Covid-safe practices for in-person instruction that supported social distancing while engaging learners in hands-on science. The strategic adaptation and creative implementation of these kits allowed us to engage our community's youth in environmental health learning during the isolated and uncertain times of the pandemic. Lessons learned from this experience may inform future efforts to provide remote, interactive informal science education to respond to diverse learners' needs.

Impact of Youth and Adult Informal Science Educators on Youth Learning at Exhibits

The impact of educators in informal science learning sites (ISLS) remains understudied from the perspective of youth visitors. Less is known about whether engagement with educators differs based on the age and gender of both visitor and educator. Here, visitors (5–17 years old) to six ISLS in the United States and United Kingdom (n = 488, female n = 244) were surveyed following an interaction with either a youth (14–18 -years old) or adult educator (19+ years old). For participants who reported lower interest in the exhibit, more educator engagement was related to greater self-reported learning. Younger children and adolescents reported more engagement with an adult educator, whereas engagement in middle childhood did not differ based on educator age. Participants in middle childhood showed a trend toward answering more conceptual knowledge questions correctly following an interaction with a youth educator. Together, these findings emphasize the promise of tailoring educator experiences to visitor demographics.

Co-Designing for Equity in Informal Science Learning: A Proof-of-Concept Study of Design Principles

Informal science learning has great potential to engage diverse learners, but faces issues of persistent inequities. While systemic change is needed to address these issues at a structural level, there is also a need for practical tools to support the organisations and the educators who are working to engage audiences in informal science that is authentic, culturally responsive, interest driven and learner centered. This article presents a collection of design principles, generated through a design approach which actively involved informal science learners, practitioners and researchers from nineteen countries as contributors. We present the design approach adopted, and suggest that participatory design methods could play a role in supporting equity efforts in informal science learning since several of the educators involved in the process decided to adopt participatory methods in their own practice. We also present an overview of the design principles generated through this process, and discuss the application of an early draft of these in an authentic informal science education programme. By adopting and adapting these principles and approaches in their practices, educators can work towards creating equitable and transformative informal science learning environments and experiences.

Science engagement as insight into the science identity work nurtured in community‐based science clubs

AbstractIn this article, we explore how children of late elementary to middle school age, from low‐income communities in an East‐Central metropolitan area of Canada, described their interests in and attitudes toward science in an out‐of‐school science club program. We used the children's descriptions of emotional engagement to gain insights into the identity work being carried out in the science club. Our analysis was based on survey responses from 202 children enrolled for at least one academic year in the science club program at 21 different club sites and focus group commentary from a subset of 45 children attending 14 of the clubs. We added context to the children's perspectives by including commentary from semistructured interviews with nine science club staffers and insights from field notes made after club promotional events. Analysis revealed the enthusiasm of children and/or their families for science education prior to engaging with the clubs. The children's anticipation that club science would reflect their school‐based science experiences was quickly dispelled by the hands‐on nature of club activities and the positive relationships built with club staffers. Of concern was the finding that staff and children frequently reinforced a rigid dichotomy between school and club science. This distinction meant that, although children described themselves as improving their performance in school science, they often found it difficult to relate the fun enacted during club sessions to the learning that is required during school science classes. This finding is problematic given the club's focus on keeping children's options in formal and informal science education open for as long as possible. The paper concludes by using the insights provided by children and club staffers to propose ways of enhancing the club/school/home science connection to better support transfer of the positive outcomes of the club‐based science identity work.

The Value of Identifying a Gap in a Reflective Professional Development Program for Informal Science Educators in a Zoo

Zoos are important informal learning environments. We conducted an external reflective professional development program for a zoo’s informal science educators to understand the process and implications of this program. Six educators engaged in an 8-stage program that included self-observation of videos and discussions with colleagues. Educators' ability to change their educational processes was based on their ability to identify a gap between their declared goals and actual practices, or a gap between their explicit and implicit beliefs. The most impactful aspects of this professional development program were video observations, discussion with colleagues, and the researcher's guidance and scaffolding during video observations with educators.

Creating cultural refugia to transform the boundaries of science.

This paper is a reflection on Bobby Habig, Preeti Gupta, and Jennifer Adams’ article Disrupting deficit narratives in informal science education: Amplifying community cultural wealth theory to youth learning and engagement. The article examines the significance of community cultural capital and the need for informal STEM institutions to engage more deliberately with the knowledge and lived experiences that youth bring to programs they participate in. In my response, I question whether the informal science institution of study had changed in response to these young people. As a ‘science insider,’ I explore how research experiences in informal science education institutions such as museums are tightly bounded by and connected with ancient European scientific practices that limit a deep embrace of community cultural wealth. If the aim is for youth to develop their science identities, then these informal science education institutions need to question what kind of science people they are asking youth to become. I consider how informal science education institutions might remake themselves as cultural refugia, where interrogation of the dominant Eurocentric norms of what science is can be challenged and transformed.

Demonstrating Concepts in Catalysis, Renewable Energy, and Chemical Safety with the Catalytic Oxidation of Hydrogen

A versatile and portable apparatus was developed to demonstrate exciting visual displays of catalytic phenomena that introduce basic concepts in catalysis, renewable energy, and chemical safety, in order to pique scientific curiosity in a variety of audiences including middle and high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, and the general public. The demonstration uses the platinum-catalyzed oxidation of hydrogen by oxygen as a model reaction to illustrate concepts in thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, and electrochemistry. The apparatus was designed to contain inherent safety features and the versatility to adopt several configurations to perform a wide range of experiments in classroom settings, informal science education activities, and public outreach events. Soap bubbles are used to confine small, controlled volumes (<35 cm3) of hydrogen/oxygen gas mixtures and probe the reactivity of bulk and nanoparticle forms of platinum to illustrate how high metal surface areas increase catalytic reaction rates. In parallel, a hydrogen/oxygen proton-exchange fuel cell is used to demonstrate how chemical energy released from the exergonic hydrogen oxidation reaction can be converted into electricity by using a platinum-containing electrocatalyst. With adjustments of the operating configuration and the experimental conditions of the apparatus, the demonstrations can be tailored toward target demographics of varying scientific proficiency to emphasize specific learning objectives for topics in reaction chemistry and engineering. Potential hazards and important safety precautions are addressed.

Measuring the long-term effects of informal science education experiences: challenges and potential solutions

Despite the fact that most science learning takes place outside of school, little is known about how engagement in informal science learning (ISL) experiences affects learners’ knowledge, skill development, interest, or identities over long periods of time. Although substantial ISL research has documented short-term outcomes such as the learning that takes place during a science center visit, research suggests that the genuine benefits of informal experiences are long-term transformations in learners as they pursue a “cascade” of experiences subsequent to the initial educational event. However, a number of major methodological challenges have limited longitudinal research projects investigating the long-term effects of ISL experiences. In this paper we identify and address four key issues surrounding the critical but challenging area of how to study and measure the long-term effects or impacts of ISL experiences: attribution, attrition, data collection, and analytic approaches. Our objective is to provide guidance to ISL researchers wishing to engage in long-term investigations of learner outcomes and to begin a dialogue about how best to address the numerous challenges involved in this work.

The role of non-state providers in informal science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education: a Malaysian perspective

ABSTRACT The role of non-state providers in the provision of education has been expanding globally. However, there is a dearth of literature on the role of non-state providers in informal education, especially when delivered alongside formal education in schools predominantly under government purview. Using a mixture of methods designed with surveys and interviews involving 32 non-state providers of informal STEM education in Malaysia, this study provides new empirical material to understand the role of non-state providers in informal STEM education. Non-state providers play a complementary role to the government’s provision of formal STEM education through the informal variant, motivated by concerns of posterity and national development. At the same time, instances of political competition and bureaucratic barriers are at odds with the government’s aspirations for partnership with non-state providers in order to raise students’ interest in STEM.

Disrupting deficit narratives in informal science education: applying community cultural wealth theory to youth learning and engagement

Informal learning organizations such as museums, zoos, aquaria, gardens, and community-based organizations are often positioned as having programming that fill a void that may exist in the lives of youth participants. Often these institutions do not recognize the assets that youth gain from their own homes and communities and bring to bear in these programs and that contribute to their success and persistence in STEM and academics. In this paper, we problematize the prevailing deficit-oriented approach to STEM enrichment programs for youth who are underrepresented in STEM. Drawing from Tara Yosso’s theory of community cultural wealth, we describe the STEM identity and trajectories of three individuals as they navigated a long-term, museum-based, informal science learning program. Using Yosso’s framework, we describe the capital that youth brought into the program and the ways that they leveraged this capital as they moved from middle to high school, and into their postsecondary studies and early careers in the sciences. Furthermore, we describe how their existing capital intertwined with capital they gained from the museum program in ways that fostered persistence and achievement in science.

Examining student environmental science agency across school science contexts

AbstractTo address the limited time and support for elementary science, science instruction is sometimes distributed among classroom teachers, science specialists, and informal science educators, creating a complex school science culture. We investigate how student agency may be enabled and constrained when school science learning happens simultaneously across multiple school contexts. Using a social practice theory lens, we examine how three third‐grade students with a strong interest in science attempt to pursue their own interest‐driven inquiries across the classroom, school garden, and science lab and how the culture and resources of those contexts may enable or constrain students' understanding and use of environmental science in their lives and communities, or environmental science agency (ESA). Drawing on observations, videos, and interview data, we found that the particular culture of the different science learning settings appeared to enable or constrain students' ESA. The classroom teacher allowed for narrow forms of participation in science practice, and both she and the students reinforced these norms, which seemed to constrain ESA across all three settings. The science teacher allowed for broader forms of student participation, which appeared to support student ESA in the science lab. Students drew on flexible activity structures as well as access to scientific tools, living organisms, and citizen science resources to take actions to pursue their own inquiries. We found ESA for students in the garden was supported by garden resources but narrow forms of participation reinforced by the classroom teacher, garden teacher, and students transferred to the garden context. While this study explored student agency over 2 months, these findings have broader application because students receiving conflicting messages about who one can be in science can have implications for possible futures they might imagine for themselves.

Informal science educators engaging preschool-age audiences in science practices

ABSTRACT Informal science educators’ goals for preschool-age audiences (ages 3–5 years) shape how they design opportunities for children and families to learn science. However, little research has explored the opportunities provided by informal science educators for preschool-age children to engage in science practices. We invited 12 informal science educators across multiple informal science venues (including nature parks, planetaria, and science centers) in the U.S. to be interviewed and observed facilitating programs with a preschool-age audience at their venue. Using thematic analysis, we found that while four out of twelve educators in our study provided opportunities for young children to engage in science practices, the remaining programs provide only intermittent (four educators) or no opportunities (four educators) for young visitors to do science as an active, social engagement with science phenomena in the natural world. The extent to which educators designed and engaged preschool-age children in science practices was reflected in their own beliefs about how young children do science. These findings can help researchers and practitioners develop professional development to support the informal science education community to build capacity towards deepening young visitors’ engagement with science as an evidence-based enterprise.

The organization of informal pathways into STEM: designing towards equity

ABSTRACT The goal of inclusive design to promote participation of marginalised groups in science is ubiquitous across informal science education, and in the growing field of citizen science. Yet the aspiration of equality in the sciences continues to be met with challenges. Despite decades of educational research studying the barriers of participation in science, progress has not yet reached expectation. In this paper we apply an ethnographic approach to examine outcomes of a diversification effort of a citizen science programme in a museum-based genetics lab. We analyse data from interviews, artifacts and observations with participants from the programme inside the lab. We share findings about how being intentional while designing towards equity resulted in a more diverse and accessible programme while giving the participants the opportunity to build knowledge of, and skills in, genetics in an inclusive space. This paper concludes with findings on barriers to participation among individuals from underrepresented communities, and how relationships with diverse leaders can facilitate boundary crossings, foster positive identities in sciences and beget a new generation of diverse scientists.

Distance Learning in Museums: A Review of the Literature

Distance learning has become an important tool in many fields of education. Museums, like other educational institutions, have been offering distance learning programs to their audiences for more than 30 years. This scoping study examined the published literature related to distance learning programs in museums to inform future research in this field. Searches were conducted in three academic databases in addition to journal hand searches. This resulted in 954 unique citations associated with distance learning in museums. Of these, 17 articles met the criteria for inclusion in the study. Forwards and backwards searches resulted in the addition of two books. A search of the research hosted by the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education resulted in one additional study for a total of 20 manuscripts. Upon analysis, four major themes were identified. These included benefits and barriers related to distance learning programs in museums, partnerships, and educators’ changing roles as they relate to distance learning programs. Each of these themes is described and areas for future research are identified. Future work should move beyond the predominately evaluative case studies and pursue larger questions about how future research might support museums as they continue to design and implement online programming. This may include exploring best practices in museum-based distance learning and how to develop effective professional development opportunities for the educators engaged in these programs. Such research will enhance museum-based distance learning programs so that they can continue to support global learners.

International comparisons of school-level geoscience education– the UNESCO/IGEO expert opinion survey

ABSTRACT An international survey of geoscience education has been carried out jointly by UNESCO and the International Geoscience Education Organisation (IGEO) to address the question of ‘How does school-level Earth science education compare across the globe? The survey gathered data from experts in 51 countries, comprising more than half the global population. Most countries (75%) had national standards covering Earth science but these were not followed or are absent in more than half the countries surveyed. Only around 25% of the countries with standardised assessments have Earth science-specific questions. Most teachers of Earth science are non-specialist teachers, whilst support of these teachers through courses and professional development is generally low, with very little financial support provided. Earth science teaching materials are reported to be generally of moderate to poor quality. However, there is good support globally for informal Earth science education and there are enthusiastic groups of educators attempting to address the rather bleak formal education situation. Strategies being used include the publication of an international syllabus with free-to-download supporting textbooks, websites of high-quality interactive teaching materials, national champions promoting interactive geoscience education, and global support for these initiatives.

Uplatnenie QR kódov vo vyučovaní biológie

The paper describes one of the progressive forms of innovation of the educational process through the implementation of a QR code on worksheets in biology. QR code as a new technology is already accepted and fully used in biology. A part of mobile education (m-learning) is also the application of innovative methods and tools that develop students' key competencies. Emphasis is placed on the real work of students, the use of digital technologies, Internet literacy, the strengthening of interdisciplinary relationships and the elements of informal science education. The educational application of QR codes increases the attractiveness and demostrativeness of Biology lessons.

“Space Plague”: an investigation into immersive theatre and narrative transportation effects in informal pandemic science education

Stories are fundamental to human history, culture and development. Immersive theatre has created a landscape where participants have agency within stories, and within this landscape the concept of narrative transportation provides a framework where change within stories creates change in real life. “Space Plague” is a co-designed, fully immersive theatrical experience for young people and families about a fictional pandemic. It was developed using community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) employing a novel model for engaging underserved and under-represented audiences, “SCENE”. Results confirmed that indications of narrative transportation effects were achieved, demonstrating enhanced learning and understanding alongside changing attitudes and indicated positive change when negotiating the COVID-19 crisis.

Practical Rubrics for Informal Science Education Studies: (1) a STEM Research Design Rubric for Assessing Study Design and a (2) STEM Impact Rubric for Measuring Evidence of Impact

Informal learning institutions, such as museums, science centers, and community-based organizations, play a critical role in providing opportunities for students to engage in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities during out-of-school time hours. In recent years, thousands of studies, evaluations, and conference proceedings have been published measuring the impact that these programs have had on their participants. However, because studies of informal science education (ISE) programs vary considerably in how they are designed and in the quality of their designs, it is often quite difficult to assess their impact on participants. Knowing whether the outcomes reported by these studies are supported with sufficient evidence is important not only for maximizing participant impact, but also because there are considerable economic and human resources invested to support informal learning initiatives. To address this problem, I used the theories of impact analysis and triangulation as a framework for developing user-friendly rubrics for assessing quality of research designs and evidence of impact. I used two main sources, research-based recommendations from STEM governing bodies and feedback from a focus group, to identify criteria indicative of high-quality STEM research and study design. Accordingly, I developed three STEM Research Design Rubrics, one for quantitative studies, one for qualitative studies, and another for mixed methods studies, that can be used by ISE researchers, practitioners, and evaluators to assess research design quality. Likewise, I developed three STEM Impact Rubrics, one for quantitative studies, one for qualitative studies, and another for mixed methods studies, that can be used by ISE researchers, practitioners, and evaluators to assess evidence of outcomes. The rubrics developed in this study are practical tools that can be used by ISE researchers, practitioners, and evaluators to improve the field of informal science learning by increasing the quality of study design and for discerning whether studies or program evaluations are providing sufficient evidence of impact.

VILNIAUS MAMUTO PĖDSAKAIS: Į PAGALBĄ MOKYTOJUI NEFORMALIAM GAMTAMOKSLINIAM UGDYMUI NUOTOLINIU BŪDU

Due to the rampant COVID-19 virus, informal science education is becoming particularly complicated due to the uncertain situation in general education in schools. Thanks to the organizers of the project of the science festival "Spaceship Earth", who have planned part of their events in advance in the virtual space, we can offer teachers a virtual excursion to the temporary exhibition of the Geological Museum of Vilnius University as part of remote informal science education. You can find the virtual tour here: http://www.geol.gf.vu.lt/lt/muziejus or: https://youtu.be/pstNVf7Gcyc The purpose of this article is: to provide the material used to create the guide's story; to advise on how this virtual trip can be used in science education lessons to spread knowledge of geological science, its importance for understanding the world, natural climate change, and the evolution of flora and fauna; help to develop the ability to hear relevant and important information; help in the integration of information provided during the virtual trip into biology, anatomy, nature, chemistry, world cognition, geography and other subjects. We hope that this virtual tour will be acceptable for teachers doing both formal and informal science education. The article provides additional information and suggests possible tasks. Keywords: geology museum, remote informal science education, Vilnius University.

Developing Political Activity as if the World is on Fire

This piece examines the formulation of political activity among science teachers during a time of rising global movements. Situated amidst continuous calls for educational reform, specifically for science teaching and learning (Bang et. al, 2012; Carter, 2005), this work forwards an argument to explicitly cultivate the political activity of teachers as a means to engage a justice-centered science (Morales-Doyle & Gutstein, 2019; Strong, 2017). The development of teacher identity (Avraamidou, 2016) in connection with the political economy of schools and society is examined through a concept of personhood (Stetsenko, 2012), positing that social change and activism is formative and integral to human nature. Using grounded theory approach, we analyzed educators’ responses from dialogic interviews regarding science education in the context of a large, urban district, and situate teacher articulations and positionality regarding informal and formal science education. These articulations elucidate forms of political engagement in the context of a socio-political history of colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism (Mutegi, 2011). This piece presents a heuristic in order to widen a view of science teacher articulations and enactments - calling attention to the time and support necessary to develop a transformative activist stance (Stetsenko, 2011).