Over the last several decades, there has been a marked increase in the amount of science outreach to the public with little attention paid to how scientists who conduct outreach perceive learning and how that applies to their outreach activities. This increase in outreach efforts is linked to the National...
In recent years, state governments in the U.S. have promoted improvements to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education as a means to stimulate future economic growth and increase economic mobility into careers with higher earnings. Oregon’s STEM Initiative includes the creation and development of strategic public-private partnerships which aim...
The STEM Research Center at Oregon State University was invited by Guerilla Science and Pratt Institute to evaluate the professional development experiences for two cohorts of science and art professionals. Each professional development experience consisted of a three-day workshop and field experience in August and September 2019. We used workshop...
This report shows results from the developmental evaluation of phases B-D of the Lucy Student Pipeline Accelerator and Competency Enabler (L’SPACE) Program. The STEM Research Center at Oregon State University led an external evaluation for the program. This evaluation focuses on program development and success by analyzing student outcomes and...
The Tablets in Classrooms (TIC) program was initiated by the Corvallis School District (CSD) during the 2012-13 school year. TIC provides teachers and students in elementary and middle grades with Apple iPads as new pedagogical tools for teaching and learning. The school district contracted with Oregon State University’s Center for...
Protective Action Decision Making is used to protect communities from adverse events and hazards. Models such as PADM (Lindell & Perry 2012) describe individual behaviors but have not robustly examined the information requirements in the solicitation process. The literature further indicates gaps in understanding the individual impacts of specific factors...
Outdoor adventure education (OAE) has long held on to the assumption that learning is transferred to participants’ lives (e.g., Gass, 1985). Recent scholars have contested this assumption, noting that learning transfer may not be a complete lens through which learning is viewed. Transformative learning theory (e.g., Mezirow, 1991) has been...
Vertical transports of plankton, momentum, heat, and turbulence are modeled. A novel integration of high resolution turbulence and biophysical modeling is used to show the influence of a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability on the vertical migration of simple gyrotactic organisms. A viscous limit on mixing driven by shear turbulence is proposed. Large...
Many citizen science (CS) programs aim to grow and sustain a pool of enthusiastic participants who consistently contribute their efforts to a specific scientific endeavor. Consequently, much research has explored CS participants’ motivations and their relationship to participant recruitment and retention. However, much of this research has focused on actively...
On April 7, 2014 the Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning and the Office of the Associate Provost for Academic Success and Engagement1 launched the Undergraduate Success Initiative with an invitational workshop entitled Redefining Undergraduate Success. A small planning team convened a group of 32 faculty and administrators with...
Creative projects at the interface of science and art can be appealing to both science-interested and art-interested audiences. They therefore present a unique opportunity to connect with cultural and learning identities of a wide range of people, and to preach beyond the already-interested and science-engaged “choir” that make up a...
Portal to the Public (PoP) has been operated with considerable funding from the National Science Foundation since 2007 under the leadership of the Pacific Science Center (PSC). The program uses a particular model to train and support science-based professionals (“scientists”) in outreach and engagement activities, based on the premise that...
This report includes the evaluation findings from a survey of the alumni of the L'SPACE program. Results from the alumni survey show the program has significantly impacted its participants and prepared them to be effective in the workforce. The alumni had overwhelmingly positive responses about the program and offered insights...
This report describes key findings from the classroom implementation study of the Curiosity Machine (CM) design challenges during the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters at Barack Obama School of Leadership and STEM (BOS) and Michelle Obama School of Technology and Arts (MOS) in Illinois. The study was designed to...
Explorer At Large (XAL) is an education initiative designed to encourage students and their families to be curious and develop an identity as an explorer. XAL delivers a holistic ecosystem of learning opportunities that model curiosity and exploration skills and consists of the following four primary components: 1) freely distributed...
With funding from the Bezos Family Foundation, Battelle, the Columbus Foundation, and the Harold C. Schott Foundation, Explorer at Large (XAL) partnered with the PAST Foundation and Oregon State University (OSU) for a pilot implementation of their videos and instructional materials in Central Ohio schools.
XAL is a new initiative...
The main research goal for this study was to describe how investment into the Hubs has influenced local STEM communities; that is, how STEM Hubs have begun to create opportunities for partnerships, collaboration, connected programing, improved program development or delivery, or improved communication within and outside the STEM teaching and...
The main research goal for this study was to describe how investment into the Hubs has influenced local STEM communities; that is, how STEM Hubs have begun to create opportunities for partnerships, collaboration, connected programing, improved program development or delivery, or improved communication within and outside the STEM teaching and...
The Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning was invited by the Oregon State University Extension Service 4-H Youth Development and the Portland Metro STEM Partnership to evaluate Year 2 of the STEM Beyond School (SBS) project. The STEM Beyond School project seeks to improve underserved youth’s access to and...
An Evaluation Report for the Oregon Department of Education.
In collaboration with classroom teachers and WRAP personnel we developed and implemented a survey to collect baseline data on the science and arts teaching practices for ALL elementary teachers. This included “regular” classroom teachers (those teachers with an assigned physical classroom...