Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL)

Selected Projects Include

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  Photo courtesy of KQED QUEST via CC licensing.

  KQED

  REA has a long history of partnering with KQED, the PBS affiliate in Northern California, on diverse research and evaluation projects involving teacher professional development, organizational development, environmental education, public science communication, and science journalism. Specific projects include evaluation of KQED Teach (an online professional development tool for teachers), a two-year organizational development study, and two NSF-funded projects applying social science research methods to investigate best practices for engaging millennial audiences in science content, and improving science media production and journalism practices.

  Report: QUEST Summative Evaluation Report
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  Photo courtesy of Julia Li.

  Peg + Cat: Adventures in Learning

  Peg + Cat is a math-based PBS television program for preschoolers, supplemented by online games, digital storybooks, and apps. We conducted formative and summative evaluation of Peg + Cat interactive media and themed science camp activities, developed by Fred Rogers Productions (formerly The Fred Rogers Company) and Carnegie Science Center as part of an NSF-funded AISL project. We examined pre-schoolers’, families’, and educators’ experiences using project resources, as well as pre-schoolers’ social-emotional and learning outcomes via observations, focus groups, interviews, and a quasi-experimental design that incorporated pre-post surveys and content assessments.
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  Photograph courtesy of Jared Kelly via creative commons licensing.

  RadioLab

  Radiolab’s “What Curiosity Sounds Like: Discovering, Challenging, and Sharing Scientific Ideas” project, funded by the NSF Advancing Informal Science Learning (AISL) program, explored new ways to actively engage both lay and professional audiences and foster meaningful communication between scientists and the general public. As the external evaluator for the project, REA examined participants’ experiences and explored project outcomes through a series of surveys and interviews.

  Report: Radiolab. What Curiosity Sounds Like
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  Photo courtesy of crowdandcloud.org

  The Crowd & the Cloud

  The Crowd & The Cloud, a three-year project developed by Passport To Knowledge and funded by the NSF, used multimedia to engage different audiences around citizen science and crowdsourcing. The project team created four episodes of a broadcast television series, which appeared on the WORLD channel and PBS stations, an interactive website, and a robust social media presence in an attempt to reach three target audiences: the general public, scientists, and citizen scientists. REA conducted an external evaluation of The Crowd & The Cloud’s broadcast series via online surveys and in-person focus groups, and The Crowd & The Cloud’s website and social media via online analytics, surveys, and focus groups.
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  Photo courtesy of joaquin uy via CC licensing.

  YR Media

  Since 2006, REA has served as the independent evaluator on YR Media’s education initiatives to engage under-represented youth in informal STEM learning through interest-driven inquiry that combines journalism, design, data, and code. Building on YR Media and MIT App Inventor’s longstanding collaboration to democratize youth media production, the Innovative Approaches to Informal Education in Artificial Intelligence project, funded by NSF-AISL, aims to improve public understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) among young creators and their audiences through youth-led journalism about AI, digital media powered by AI, and open educational resources about how AI works and its role in society. REA conducted the project’s independent evaluation, which included project team interviews, participant observations, focus groups with youth producers, online youth surveys, and audience testing to capture outcomes and lessons learned about effectively engaging youth in learning about AI.

  Report: Youth Radio Innovation Lab Final Evaluation Report