Chapter 1 of this book
describes the creation of this book in order to promote informal science
education. As well as informing us of the importance of informal science
education and its design to engage and increase understanding science,
technology, engineering and mathematics, (STEM). Also information is provided
highlighting the major role that the Informal Science Education (ISE) program
at the National Science that Foundation (NSF) have worked to develop project
evaluations over the last decade or so. Also we find that the types of programs
have been expanding. Informal education now is taking place at museums, through
media, and various types of locations throughout communities. This can make it
difficult to create an assessment. Also it takes into consideration the fact
that often there’s a diverse audience which makes isolated assessment to be
difficult. Also another factor is the fact that informal education can
encompass not just K – 12 but also adults and even the elderly. Also we looked
at several categories to consider in creating an assessment. These are;
awareness, knowledge or understanding (of); engagement or interest (again);
attitude (towards); behavior (related to); skills (based on); other. I
personally found this very helpful for thinking about creating the assessments
as well as information about front-end, formative, remedial, and summative
evaluation in guiding the projects. The second chapter giving more information
about these above-mentioned types of assessments gives us information about how
to read this book. I very much appreciate the fact that it also informed us
that each of the chapters in the part II are written to be stand-alone
therefore be prepared for little bitter reputation. I thought that was nice.
Therefore it’s let us know that this book was designed for us to find the section
applies to our project and we can use that in order for us to create our
evaluations for our projects. I also got a kick out of the section titled “How
to Read This Book” which is followed by a section titled “What This Book Is Not”,
followed by this section “Who Wrote This Book?”, Looking at the list of authors
was impressive. I thought this was humorous although it actually was very
valid. The last chapter is titled “Evidence and Categories of ISE Impacts”
beginning with one of my favorite Lewis Carroll quotes, “If you don’t know
where you’re going, any road will get you there.” This section gives a very
good way to approach, a backwards research design approach which gives us for
important questions to ask: What audience impact will this project facilitate?
What approach/type of project will best enable us to accomplish these goals and
why do we feel that this is the best approach to take? How will we know whether
the activities of the project accomplished these intended goals and objectives
and with what evidence will we support the assessments that they did? How will
we ensure that unanticipated outcomes are also documented?
References:
Friedman, A. (Ed.). (2008) Framework for evaluating impacts of informal
science education
projects
[On-line]. (Available at: http://insci.org/resources/Eval_Framework.pdf)
Cameron:
ReplyDeleteI too liked the way the book is designed. I especially liked the way it is designed by telling the reader just what it is one is reading and just what it is the book is about.
Also it tells the reader just how reading it will help in:
1. Understanding informal science projects and education.
2. What this framework will do for the person trying to do this type of project?
3. How to design it?
4. What are impact categories (Table 3-1, p. 21)?
5. The template provided per the potential impacts of ones project (Table 3-2, p. 23)?
6. How to evaluate its impact on one’s target audience?
7. How to evaluate its impact on the field itself?
8. What to look for and how to design an evaluative schema one may be seeking to adopt (e.g., “Front-end, Formative Remedial, and Summative Evaluations?
9. How will one know whether the activities of the project accomplished their intended goals and objectives, and
10.With what evidence will (one) support the assertion that they did?
Good Job!
Ruben Estrada
Cameron, I agree that the book is an excellent resource to assist in the design informal of science projects. It really lays out all that we need to know for the overall design. As you mentioned, the parameters of the evaluation are very broad and must be to cover all different types of programs that can be implemented. I also found it interesting that each section of each chapter had a different author. I believe your summary of the information presented was thorough and well presented.
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job expressing what the first several chapters entail. I think it is wonderful how the National Science Foundation created the Informal Science Education Program to help guide research, design, and educate teachers on how to incorporate and evaluate projects. Since informal science can include learning science at home and outside the classroom, I wonder if they have any guides for parents on how they can incorporate science learning at home? I know it may not be realistic for some, but I am sure that there are some families that would benefit from it. For example, family vacations occur all the time all over the nation (globally even). What extra steps could a parent take in planning this trips to make it more engaging learning experiences that "just viewing the sites."
ReplyDeleteHi. Melissa,
DeleteI think you question is very interesting. To my knowledge, I haven't seen one book just for parents yet. It might be a good idea to suggest NSF to write a book about it. :-)
I know some suggestions for field trip planners include to have per-curriculum to prepare students to visit a museum, on site curriculum to use the resources in the museum, and post-curriculum to help student review what they have learned in the field trip. This might be one strategy parents can use when they plan for a family vacation. Like doing some research beforehand, so kids can have more knowledge about what they are going to see/experience. After the vacation, kids might do some relevant activities (e.g., watch relevant videos, books) to enhance what they have experienced.
Cameron,
ReplyDeleteIt is a very comprehensible summary! Good work! I just wonder if you gained some insights from the readings that will benefit/support your project? e.g., what evaluation strategies you might use? what category impact you plan to have?
As I know, your project is a field trip which will include different ages of participants. Are you going to measure impacts for all ages? or just for one particular age? I look forward to hearing more about your project!