In progress
Topics
Since the release of Learning Science in Informal Environments: Peoples, Places, Pursuits (NRC, 2009), opportunities for STEM learning in informal environments have greatly expanded and now serve as an essential part of the STEM education landscape. In parallel, research on all aspects of STEM learning has progressed. Given this, the time is ripe for taking stock of the past 15 years of work with an eye toward future directions and needs of the field. This study will provide a clear picture of what the field of informal STEM learning looks like today and where it has the potential to grow.
Description
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will conduct a consensus study designed to take stock of the evidence base on STEM learning in informal environments and identify trends in research and practice across the range of informal STEM learning experiences and environments that compose the field of lifelong STEM learning. Based on peer-reviewed and grey literature, commissioned papers, input from public sessions, and committee deliberations, an ad hoc expert committee appointed by the National Academies will write a consensus report that will identify high priority next steps for research and practice. Specifically, the committee will:
- Characterize the state of informal STEM learning, including who participates and who supports learning in informal environments, as well as the nature of programming and learning opportunities for people across the lifespan (with a focus on the United States);
- Describe where the field has seen the most growth over the past decade in research and practice, and identify the infrastructures and organizational/institutional practices (including venues, practices and tools) that have emerged in that time;
- Discuss how understandings of learning have evolved over time and describe the range of learning goals relevant to STEM learning in informal environments;
- Identify evidence-based strategies that can be used to expand the reach and effectiveness of informal STEM learning, and point to relevant challenges and opportunities; and
- Develop recommendations for policy, practice, and research for enhancing the reach and contributions of informal STEM learning experiences.
Contributors
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Comment on Provisional Committee Appointments
Viewers may communicate with the National Academies at any time over the project's duration. In addition, formal comments on the provisional appointments to a committee of the National Academies are solicited during the 20-calendar day period following the posting of the membership and, as described below, these comments will be considered before committee membership is finalized. We welcome your comments (Use the Feedback link below). Please note that the appointments made to this committee are provisional, and changes may be made. No appointment shall be considered final until we have evaluated relevant information bearing on the committee's composition and balance. This information will include the confidential written disclosures to The National Academies by each member-designate concerning potential sources of bias and conflict of interest pertaining to his or her service on the committee; information from discussion of the committee's composition and balance that is conducted in closed session at its first event and again whenever its membership changes; and any public comments that we have received on the membership during the 20-calendar day formal public comment period. If additional members are appointed to this committee, an additional 20-calendar day formal public comment period will be allowed. It is through this process that we determine whether the committee contains the requisite expertise to address its task and whether the points of views of individual members are adequately balanced such that the committee as a whole can address its charge objectively.
Sponsors
National Science Foundation
Staff
Tiffany E. Taylor
Lead
Heidi Schweingruber
Lead
Lucy Oliveros
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