JoinAll Informal Education resources
Journal Article
Defining and Measuring STEM Identity and Interest in STEM Learning
A growing number of educators are focused on increasing students’ interest in and developing their identity in relation to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as an intended outcome of their out-of-school activities and programs. ...
By Jamie Bell, Kevin Crowley, Martin Storksdieck, John Besley, Matthew A. Cannady, Amy Grack Nelson, Tina Phillips, Kelly Riedinger, and Melissa Ballard
Blog Post
Out-of-School Time (OST) organizations play a vital role in our education system by providing youth with ways of discovering and exploring the world of STEM that complement the learning they experience during the school day. But OST programs often fa...
By Dr. Irene Porro
Blog Post
The Wade Institute for Science Education has long valued the power of informal institutions to create precisely the kind of student-led inquiry-based learning and real-world problem solving envisaged by the three-dimensional learning of NGSS. Through...
By Angela Damery
Blog Post
Helping Educators Develop Young Ocean Problem-Solvers
Myrtle, the green sea turtle. Photo credit: W. Chappell Informal science centers are in perfect alignment to provide rich NGSS supports using three-dimensional learning and real-world connections....
By Corrine Steever
Journal Article
Fostering a STEAM Mindset Across Learning Settings
Developing a growth mindset has been identified as a key strategy for increasing youth achievement, motivation, and resiliency (Rattan et al. 2015). At its core, growth mindset describes the idea that one’s abilities can change through using new ...
By Laura D. Carsten Conner, Blakely K. Tsurusaki, Carrie Tzou, Perrin Teal Sullivan, Mareca Guthrie, and Stephen M. Pompea
Journal Article
Changing Mindsets Through Educator Training
MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation, is a new museum in Santa Barbara, California, designed to engage visitors of all ages in constructing understanding of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) topics through active engage...
By Ron Skinner, Danielle B. Harlow, and Kaia Joye Wesolowski
Journal Article
Using the ChangeMaker Mindsets™ to Enhance STEM Experiences
A ChangeMaker is anyone who chooses to take creative action to solve a problem for impact. The ChangeMaker Mindsets™ help youth navigate ambiguity and reframe thinking toward problem-solving. As students embrace and use the ChangeMaker Mind...
By Amanda Kopischke and Angela Anderson
Journal Article
What STEM Mindset Is … and Why Everyone Should Have One
A STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) mindset encompasses many things, and perhaps does not mean the same thing to every person. Many believe, however, that it combines general attributes that are independent of an individual’s acad...
By Beth Murphy
NSTA Press Book
It's Still Debatable! Using Socioscientific Issues to Develop Scientific Literacy, K–5
It’s Still Debatable! encourages scientific literacy by showing you how to teach the content and thinking skills K–5 students need to explore real-world questions like these: • Is football too dangerous for kids? • Do we need zoos? �...
By Sami Kahn
NSTA Press Book
Making Sense of Science and Religion: Strategies for the Classroom and Beyond
The authors of Making Sense of Science and Religion believe that addressing interactions between science and religion is part of all science educators’ collective job—and that this is the book that will help you facilitate discussion when the top...
By Joseph W. Shane, Lee Meadows, Ronald S. Hermann, Ian C. Binns
Journal Article
Evaluating Nature Museum Field Trip Workshops, an Out-of-School STEM Education Program
Out-of-school learning opportunities for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) represent an important context in which students learn about and do STEM. Studies have shown that in- and out-of-school experiences work syn...
By Caroline Freitag, and Melissa Siska
Journal Article
Saturday Seminars for Urban Scholars Program
The K–16 academic journey to a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is often described as having serious barriers, such as uninspired teaching, an unwelcome environment, and poor math and science preparation that lea...
By Michele W. McColgan, Robert J. Colesante, Albert G. Andrade, and Kenneth Robin
Journal Article
Learning Design Experiments (LDEs), which take their name from design experiments in the learning sciences (Brown 1992), support educational innovation and progressive refinement of learning experiences by taking an evidence-centered design perspec...
By Peter Wardrip, Lisa Brahms, and Annie McNamara