All Informal Education resources

Journal Article

Taking the Maker Experience From a Local Phenomenon to National Implementation

MAKESHOP at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is open for all to experience hands-on building and tinkering, and their initiative has spread nationwide. ...

By Chip Lindsey, Lisa Brahms, and Kathryn Koffler

Informal Education

Journal Article

Through My Window

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By Beth McGinnis-Cavanaugh, and Isabel Huff

Informal Education

Journal Article

Science Investigation and Developing Students’ Science-Process Skills Through Citizen Science

It’s 7:15 on a Friday morning and the ‘early birds’ have arrived. Eager students don their binoculars for Ms. Vigeland’s before-school birdwatching club. Ranging from fourth to eighth grade, these Hilltop Country Day School students...

By Jennifer Fee

Informal Education

Journal Article

Philly Scientists

The Philly Scientists project engages underserved youth in grades 5–8 and their educators in a curriculum that includes a mobile application with a digital badging reward system.    ...

By Rasheda Likely, Magdalene Moy, and Nancy Songer

Informal Education

Journal Article

Curiosity Machine

The Curiosity Machine Family Program at Iridescent Learning brings underserved families together over five weeks to do open-ended engineering design challenges with the help of scientists and engineers, who mentor the families as they build. &nb...

By Wallace Louie, Tara Chklovski, Maggie Jaris, and Audra Torres

Informal Education

Journal Article

Connecting Fossil Clubs With K–12 Teachers

FOSSILs4Teachers! is a professional development workshop that allows K–12 educators and museum paleontologists to collaborate on fossil resources and standards-aligned lesson plans about fossils.    ...

By Jeanette Pirlo, Bruce J. MacFadden, Eleanor E. Gardner, Victor J. Perez, and Denise Porcello

Informal Education

Journal Article

Engaging Learners in Authentic Science With Environmental Data

Citizen science has long been touted as a way to engage in-school and out-of-school learners in authentic science, but the opportunities have largely been limited to collecting data. FieldScope from BSCS Science Learning is changing that by offerin...

By Daniel C. Edelson, Audrey Mohan, and Sean O'Connor

Informal Education

NSTA Press Book

STEM Education Now More Than Ever

In response to “these unconventional and uncertain years,” veteran educator Rodger W. Bybee has written a book that’s as thought-provoking as it is constructive. Now more than ever, he writes, America needs reminders of both the themes that mad...

By Rodger Bybee

Elementary High School Informal Education Middle School STEM Curriculum NGSS Pedagogy Teaching Strategies Careers Equity New Science Teachers Preservice Science Education Professional Learning old Teacher Preparation Administrators

Journal Article

SciStarter

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By Jill Nugent, Lea Shell, and Darlene Cavalier

Informal Education

Journal Article

Numbers in Nature, Math on the Mountain

Data are the workhorses of the scientific endeavor and their use is rapidly evolving (Haendel, Vasilevsky, and Wirz 2012). Ask almost any scientist about their work, and the conversation will involve the data they collect and analyze. The use of da...

By Michael Giamellaro and Kari O'Connell

Informal Education

Journal Article

The Students Discover Project

In North Carolina, 39% of eighth-grade students report that they “never or hardly ever” design a science experiment, and another 29% of eighth grade students report doing hands-on science activities only once or twice a month (NCES 2011). The nor...

By Suzanne Branon, Sherry Booth Freeman, Lauren Bryant, LaTricia Townsend, and Malinda Faber

Informal Education