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1 – 10 of over 42000Betsy Tretola, Eloise Coupey and Laurie Meamber
Middle school participants in the USA attending an on-campus university informal science program indicate an increase in interest toward careers and disciplines in STEM or STEAM…
Abstract
Purpose
Middle school participants in the USA attending an on-campus university informal science program indicate an increase in interest toward careers and disciplines in STEM or STEAM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics and the arts). Parents or guardians confirm the change. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants attended “inquiry-based” lectures by scientists and “hands-on” activities conducted by volunteers on campus at a public university over four months, four Saturdays. Participants completed surveys before each lecture and guardians completed surveys afterwards.
Findings
Interest increased significantly according to paired samples t-tests for each STEM discipline for students who reported low interest on the initial pre-lecture survey. There was a significant linear improvement in interests in engineering using a repeated measures general linear model. Guardians or parents reported that they observed a higher interest in STEM disciplines resulting in more technical-related interaction among peers and within the family.
Social implications
Findings support STEM with arts “out-of-school” programs sponsored by museums, corporations, government, higher education and others. Inclusion of the “hands-on” activities, some with arts content, to the science and technical learning appears to spark enthusiasm.
Originality/value
The value is multidisciplinary. The theory of reasoned action from social psychology, sociology, along with related research in science education and the arts are synthesized. Informal extracurricular experiences sustained and improved interests in the disciplines and careers on which the formal educational career pipeline can build.
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Leanne Bowler, Irene Lopatovska and Mark S. Rosin
The purpose of this study is to explore teen-adult dialogic interactions during the co-design of data literacy activities in order to determine the nature of teen thinking, their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore teen-adult dialogic interactions during the co-design of data literacy activities in order to determine the nature of teen thinking, their emotions, level of engagement, and the power of relationships between teens and adults in the context of data literacy. This study conceives of co-design as a learning space for data literacy. It investigates the teen–adult dialogic interactions and what these interactions say about the nature of teen thinking, their emotions, level of engagement and the power relationships between teens and adults.
Design/methodology/approach
The study conceives of co-design as a learning space for teens. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC-22), a natural language processing (NLP) software tool, was used to examine the linguistic measures of Analytic Thinking, Clout, Authenticity, and Emotional Tone using transcriptions of recorded Data Labs with teens and adults. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC-22), a natural language processing (NLP) software tool, was used to examine the linguistic measures of Analytic Thinking, Clout, Authenticity and Emotional Tone using transcriptions of recorded Data Labs with teens and adults.
Findings
LIWC-22 scores on the linguistic measures Analytic Thinking, Clout, Authenticity and Emotional Tone indicate that teens had a high level of friendly engagement, a relatively low sense of power compared with the adult co-designers, medium levels of spontaneity and honesty and the prevalence of positive emotions during the co-design sessions.
Practical implications
This study provides a concrete example of how to apply NLP in the context of data literacy in the public library, mapping the LIWC-22 findings to STEM-focused informal learning. It adds to the understanding of assessment/measurement tools and methods for designing data literacy education, stimulating further research and discussion on the ways to empower youth to engage more actively in informal learning about data.
Originality/value
This study applies a novel approach for exploring teen engagement within a co-design project tasked with the creation of youth-oriented data literacy activities.
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Tingting Chung, Stephanie Wilsey, Alexandra Mykita, Elaine Lesgold and Jennifer Bourne
Mobile technologies, such as QR codes, play a particularly important role in scaffolding the child user’s active learning in informal environments. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Mobile technologies, such as QR codes, play a particularly important role in scaffolding the child user’s active learning in informal environments. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of QR code scanning on two informal learning outcomes: increased interest and greater knowledge understanding.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 91 children and their families participated in the study as part of the iQ Zoo Project. Children in both the smartphone group and the control group completed were assessed qualitatively and quantitatively before and then after their zoo visits.
Findings
Qualitative findings suggest that most children’s interest in learning about animals was sustained as a result of the experience. Quantitative results reveal that QR code scanning was effective in promoting knowledge gains, especially on subjects that are challenging for the informal learner. Findings were comparable across the younger (5–8) and older (9–12) age groups.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical support for the value and usefulness of mobile technologies such as QR code scanning for children's learning in informal environments.
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Dimitra Christidou, Sofia Papavlasopoulou and Michail Giannakos
Governments and organizations worldwide are concerned over the declining number of young people choosing to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)…
Abstract
Purpose
Governments and organizations worldwide are concerned over the declining number of young people choosing to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), especially after the age of 16. Research has foregrounded that students with positive attitudes toward science are more likely to find it relevant and aspire to a science career. This study aims to understand the factors shaping students’ attitudes as these are pivotal in promoting science learning.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the framework of science capital to understand what shapes young people’s engagement with or resistance to science. The authors conducted four Computational Thinking making-based workshops with 106 children aged 15–16 years, of which 58 filled in a questionnaire and 22 were interviewed. Statistical and content analyses were performed respectively.
Findings
The results indicate that children who are more exposed to science-related activities and contexts are more likely to have higher self-efficacy, and that those with higher prior coding experience scored higher in their self-efficacy and science capital. Six themes emerged from the content analysis, highlighting the diverse factors shaping students’ attitudes, such as teaching methods, stereotypes and the degree of difficulty encountered while engaging with science in and out of school.
Originality/value
By combining qualitative and quantitative methods with the use of science capital, the authors found a number of aspects of the school experience that shape students’ attitudes to science learning in and out of school, as well as their science career aspirations.
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Danielle Mihram and G. Arthur Mihram
The purpose of this paper is to report on six Symposia offered at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held 16‐20 February…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on six Symposia offered at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held 16‐20 February 2012, in Vancouver, Canada. The theme of this 178th Meeting was: “Flattening the world: building a global knowledge society.”
Design/methodology/approach
This report includes summaries of the salient points in each panelist's presentation for the selected Symposia, and it provides internet links to further support the content of the presenters' comments.
Findings
The AAAS 2012 Annual Meeting aimed at exploring a broad range of recent discoveries and looming global challenges. The program focused on the current complex, interconnected challenges of the twenty‐first century and on pathways to global solutions through international, multidisciplinary efforts.
Originality/value
This report provides insights on the current research themes such as interdisciplinary collaboration, community‐engaged scholarship, global outreach by sharing science and research data with the public, building collaboratories for research on a global scale, and reducing international knowledge isolation of the “Global South” (the nations of Africa, Central and Latin America, and most of Asia).
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This article offers an in-depth exploration of university communications practice by describing and analysing a publicity and recruitment campaign, called ‘Challenge Everything’…
Abstract
Purpose
This article offers an in-depth exploration of university communications practice by describing and analysing a publicity and recruitment campaign, called ‘Challenge Everything’, carried out by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2018. By providing insight into internal sense-making around the campaign it contributes to literatures in science communication and communication management.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative research uses semi-structured interviews and informal organisational ethnography, mobilising concepts of sense-making and auto-communication to guide analysis. The focus is on how organisation members made sense of the Challenge Everything campaign.
Findings
The analysis focuses on four key themes within organisational sense-making about the campaign: the openness of the campaign meant that it was readily picked up on and personalised by university staff; its meaning was always contextual, shaped by organisation members' roles, interests, and concerns; its controversy seems to primarily derive from questions of representation, and specifically whether organisation members recognised within it their own experiences of university culture; and its development points to the rise of new forms of expertise within university organisation, and the contestation of these.
Research limitations/implications
The research offers only a partial snapshot of one instance of university communications. However, in demonstrating how public campaigns also operate as auto-communication it has important implications for strategic communication within complex organisations such as universities.
Originality/value
The research has particular value in offering an in-depth qualitative study of university marketing practices and the effects these have within an organisation.
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Heather Toomey Zimmerman, Katharine Ellen Grills, Zachary McKinley and Soo Hyeon Kim
The researchers conducted a collective case study to investigate how families engaged in making activities related to aerospace engineering in six pop-up makerspace programs held…
Abstract
Purpose
The researchers conducted a collective case study to investigate how families engaged in making activities related to aerospace engineering in six pop-up makerspace programs held in libraries and one museum. The purpose of this paper is to support families’ engagement in design tasks and engineering thinking, three types of discussion prompts were used during each workshop. The orienting design conjecture was that discussion prompts would allow parents to lead productive conversations to support engineering-making activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Within a collective case study approach, 20 consented families (22 adults, 25 children) engaged in making practices related to making a lunar rover with a scientific instrument panel. Data included cases of families’ talk and actions, as documented through video (22 h) and photographs of their engineering designs. An interpretivist, qualitative video-based analysis was conducted by creating individual narrative accounts of each family (including transcript excerpts and images).
Findings
Parents used the question prompts in ways that were integral to supporting youths’ participation in the engineering activities. Children often did not answer the astronomer’s questions directly; instead, the parents revoiced the prompts before the children’s engagement. Family prompts supported reflecting upon prior experiences, defining the design problem and maintaining the activity flow.
Originality/value
Designing discussion prompts, within a broader project-based learning pedagogy, supports family engagement in engineering design practices in out-of-school pop-up makerspace settings. The work suggests that parents play a crucial role in engineering workshops for youths aged 5 to 10 years old by revoicing prompts to keep families’ design work and sensemaking talk (connecting prior and new ideas) flowing throughout a makerspace workshop.
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Rebecca Hite, Jessica Spott, Levi Johnson and Lane Sobehrad
Community-engaged partnerships have the ability to combine expertise and resources to enhance the local STEM learning ecosystem, by engaging the actors in communities that can…
Abstract
Purpose
Community-engaged partnerships have the ability to combine expertise and resources to enhance the local STEM learning ecosystem, by engaging the actors in communities that can enhance students' experiences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Texas Tech University (TTU) and Lubbock Independent School District (LISD) have partnered to coordinate an annual STEM Challenge to encourage STEM learning and interest among local middle grade students. Each summer, teams of (three to four) students from ten LISD middle schools participate in a week-long engineering design challenge, facilitated by TTU undergraduate mentors and their teachers, structured by the Engineering Design Process (EDP).
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative (survey) and qualitative (open-ended responses) data from two years of student glider and hovercraft projects offer insight into how 66 students developed STEM knowledge and leveraged 21st-century skills to accomplish a shared aim (design challenge).
Findings
Findings suggest growth in students' 21st-century skills, most among underrepresented (racial, ethnic and gender minority) groups. Data from year one (2018) informed year two (2019) in both programming and the research, including enhanced training for mentors and a deeper exploration of students' experiences during each stage of the EDP during the STEM challenge.
Originality/value
Significant and salient findings are discussed along with recommendations for both programmatic and methodological improvements for year three (2020). This study provides insight into how to structure similar community-engaged partnerships in enhancing the community STEM ecosystem through collaborative STEM experiences for diverse, younger learners.
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Kylie Peppler, Anna Keune, Maggie Dahn, Dorothy Bennett and Susan M. Letourneau
Science museums provide a context for developing and testing engineering activities that support visitors in creating personally meaningful objects. This study aims to propose…
Abstract
Purpose
Science museums provide a context for developing and testing engineering activities that support visitors in creating personally meaningful objects. This study aims to propose that narrative design elements in such engineering activities can foster empathy to support engineering engagement among girls ages 7–14.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking a constructionist approach to engineering design, the authors present results from an observational study (n = 202 girls) of engineering activities across three museums that were designed to foster girls’ engineering engagement by integrating narrative elements aimed to foster empathy in activities. Using quantitative counts from observation protocols, the authors conducted statistical analyses to explore relationships between narrative, engineering and empathy.
Findings
Linear regression demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between empathy and increased numbers of engineering practices within museum activities. Additionally, this led us to explore the impacts the potential narrative design elements may have on designing for empathy – multiple linear regressions found both narrative and empathy to be independently associated with engineering practices. Overall, the authors found that using narrative to design activities to elicit empathy resulted in girls demonstrating more engineering practices.
Originality/value
The authors offer design ideas to foster aspects of empathy, including user-centered design, perspective-taking, familiarity and desire to help.
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Jessie Nixon, Erica Halverson, Andy Stoiber and Andy Garbacz
The purpose of this study is to understand how learners describe their experiences with short-term, introductory maker experiences and to test a method for assessing learners’…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand how learners describe their experiences with short-term, introductory maker experiences and to test a method for assessing learners’ experiences authentic to short-term learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected written responses from participants at a two-day event, STEM Center Learning Days. Through an analysis of 707 unique instances of learner responses to participation in drop-in maker activities, they examined how participants describe their short-term learning experiences.
Findings
The authors found that although some activities appear to onlookers to create passive experiences for learners, these seemingly passive moments have a significant impact on learners. In addition, some learners described themselves as working in tandem with tools to make something work and other learners viewed the tools as working autonomously. They found that the assessment method allowed them to gain an understanding of how learners describe their experiences offering important implications for understanding short-term learning events.
Originality/value
The findings provide researchers studying short-term learning in its natural setting a new method to understand how learners make sense of their individual experience. Further, designers of short-term learning experiences may gain insights into their unique activities and indications of where additional guidance and scaffolds will improve small learning moments.
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