1. Leigh Peake
  2. Chief Education Officer
  3. Learning Ecosystems Northeast
  4. https://www.learningecosystemsnortheast.org/
  5. Gulf of Maine Research Institute
  1. Jackie DeLisi
  2. https://www.edc.org/staff/jacqueline-delisi
  3. Senior Research Scientist
  4. Learning Ecosystems Northeast
  5. https://www.learningecosystemsnortheast.org/
  6. Education Development Center (EDC)
  1. Lisa Phelps
  2. State Program Administrator, 4-H
  3. Learning Ecosystems Northeast
  4. https://www.learningecosystemsnortheast.org/
  5. University of Maine
  1. Marijke Visser
  2. Section Supervisor
  3. Learning Ecosystems Northeast
  4. https://www.learningecosystemsnortheast.org/
  5. Maine State Library
  1. Christine Voyer
  2. https://gmri.org/our-approach/staff/christine-voyer/
  3. Senior Program Manager
  4. Learning Ecosystems Northeast
  5. https://www.learningecosystemsnortheast.org/
  6. Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Public Discussion

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  • Icon for: Leigh Peake

    Leigh Peake

    Lead Presenter
    Chief Education Officer
    May 9, 2022 | 07:54 p.m.

    Welcome to our video! Every year the Showcase gathers such an interesting array of visitors that we're excited to see what we will learn from you.

    Learning Ecosystems Northeast is, essentially, an experiment in expanding youth STEM learning pathways by focusing on the educators (teachers, librarians, informal educators) who work with those youth. At its root is the belief that connecting educators will manifest as more connected learning for youth. 

    We are eager to have discussions about how others are using the "learning ecosystems" framework to inform the design and execution of your work, as well as (or maybe particularly) the places where existing models and research are failing you. We're also eager to talk about the gnarly problems of practice that emerge when we try to work across, and create learning pathways across, learning contexts. 

    Our presenter team includes project members working in formal classrooms, in out-of-school environments like 4-H, and in libraries as well as members of our external evaluation team. So while we're interested in talking about connecting learning across contexts, we're also ready to talk about the unique challenges of particular learning environments. Finally, we would love to share examples where we think supporting learning across the school/out-of-school boundary can lower the challenges for all in creating vibrant STEM experiences for youth.

     
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    Jasmine Maldonado
    Lisa Phelps
  • Icon for: Jasmine Maldonado

    Jasmine Maldonado

    Director of Science Coaching
    May 16, 2022 | 07:51 p.m.

    Incredible project! Resonates a lot. In NYC we have a similar program where we bring together formal middle school teachers with informal community based educators to co-train, co-plan, and co-teach afterschool STEM at their sites. Both worlds learn from each other and it's incredible the impact they can have on each other and their students. However, we did see some challenges along the way: staff turnover, time to meet at the schools, material budget, student enrollment, etc. Did you find similar issues presenting themselves for your project?

  • Icon for: Marijke Visser

    Marijke Visser

    Co-Presenter
    Section Supervisor
    May 10, 2022 | 08:37 a.m.

    Good morning! I'm the library voice (along with my colleagues at the Maine State Library and the local library staff who are part of the connected learning ecosystems across Maine) What excites me the most about this showcase is the opportunity to see what other educators and researchers are doing to engage youth in dynamic and authentic learning opportunities. This is my first 'trip" to the showcase and I can already tell I should be blocking time off on my calendar to take the time to visit as many videos as I can this week :)

    For those of you curious about what libraries are doing to broaden participation and reach kids who might not otherwise have m/any opportunities to explore STEM concepts in ways that resonate and excite them to want to keep exploring- pull up a chair and let's talk!

    One of the things that excites me the most about being part of the Learning Systems Northeast project is the focus on cross pollinating educator types so we can catch kids wherever they are. What are your experiences working/collaborating with educators from different sectors? Do you have an example of how this kind of collaboration has led to impactful youth programming?

     

     

     
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    Jasmine Maldonado
    Lisa Phelps
    Leigh Peake
  • Icon for: Lisa Phelps

    Lisa Phelps

    Co-Presenter
    State Program Administrator, 4-H
    May 10, 2022 | 09:20 a.m.

    We have definitely enjoyed partnering with the Maine State libraries with this project.  We have been training librarians as volunteers to deliver positive youth development experiences.  A win for everyone for sure.  Looking forward to growing this partnership!

  • Icon for: Lisa Phelps

    Lisa Phelps

    Co-Presenter
    State Program Administrator, 4-H
    May 10, 2022 | 09:01 a.m.

    Hi everyone! Hope you enjoy our video. I am the state program leader for the 4-H program in Maine.  4-H is the youth development program of the University of Maine and is housed within University of Maine Cooperative Extension. We are excited to be a part of this project and appreciate that we can bring our work with informal learning to the table of this project. In 4-H we also rely heavily on volunteers and that is another area of experience we bring to this project. It has been extremely valuable to get to know the other partners with this project and learn from each other. Through the project and the learning ecosystems new partnerships have developed which will create more opportunities for youth to engage in hands on learning focused on STEM both in and out of school. In 4-H our motto is to make the best better! I really believe that speaks to the work of this project. We are all working together to make a difference!

     
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    Leigh Peake
  • Icon for: Amy Alznauer

    Amy Alznauer

    Facilitator
    Lecturer
    May 10, 2022 | 10:27 a.m.

    Good morning everyone!

    This is such an ambitious and inspiring project. The goal, as you beautifully put it, is to bring about that moment (or many moments) when students “all of the sudden wake up” and become engaged. I really love the indirect approach – instead of going straight to the student you weave a net that can catch those children (again beautifully put!) who are at risk of “falling out of STEM.” And I love that this net is intentionally designed to knit together in and out-of-school adult educators. In your opening post, Leigh you suggest that you have some examples ready to share. I would absolutely love to hear how a particular project succeeded in weaving a net and also how this net actually functioned in practice – if you saw the fruits of what you call slow and patient work. Did you see students suddenly waking up? Again, I’d relish hearing an example or two. And finally, do you have plans to measure the impact of this work over time?

    I also would love to hear from you, Marijke. Libraries have so much potential to reach kids, especially since kids often feel more agency in a library (they don’t have to be there, they can wander the stacks, they can ask questions and find what they need, etc.). Might you offer a way that you have worked with in-school educators and informal educators to fashion this net? And have you had the opportunity to witness students becoming engaged? In what ways is the library a unique and essential part of this collaboration?

     I’m very much looking forward to this discussion! And I'm just now seeing your post Lisa, so I'll respond to that later! 

  • Icon for: Marijke Visser

    Marijke Visser

    Co-Presenter
    Section Supervisor
    May 10, 2022 | 12:45 p.m.

    Hello Amy- I appreciate your observations about libraries and I think they are spot on. Libraries are definitely places that often catch kids who are not otherwise excited about learning- in the traditional sense- or for whom school just doesn't meet their needs. Libraries are a choice that kids can make which is all by itself both freeing and empowering since often kids don't have a lot of agency to make choices. Libraries are also free to the user and fees for programs can be a big barrier for participation. Parents have confidence it's a safe space. Kids too know the library to be a welcoming place where no judgement is passed and there are encouraging adults who can help you explore whatever it is you are passionate about. 

    Having a place like that can be a very valuable contribution to the kind of learning this project is hoping to foster. I often think about learning through libraries as low stakes learning (no tests) where there are many entry points, you are met at the level you're at. For many libraries a "win" is sparking an interest or idea in the kids that come in and I think a critical component of this project, right? How can educators across a kid's experiences  provide that spark and fan it.

    We would like to see more collaboration between classroom teachers and public library staff. It happens in pockets and often depends on the initiative of one side or the other. That said, library staff often go to the school to do programs and offer info about library programs. I'd also point you to the school librarian whose job it is to work across disciplines and collaborate with teachers. 

    One thing we know that leads to success in collaborations is when library staff have full support from admin to take the time to develop the types of learning opportunities that are emerging form the CLEs (and more generally). It takes time away from the desk; time to go out in to the community and make connections, find kids where they are. 

    Here's a video from a different project that might give you some indication of the difference libraries can make for kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFBZz9_TVXc

     
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    Sarah Kirn
  • Icon for: Amy Alznauer

    Amy Alznauer

    Facilitator
    Lecturer
    May 10, 2022 | 02:41 p.m.

    Wow - your comments are so inspiring! I loved the additional video too. Everything you said about libraries squares with my feeling about them. Libraries are like nature - you need to get kids into them young so that the feel, smell, look of the library (just like the feel, smell, look of trees and mountains and rivers) will haunt their imaginations for a lifetime and keep them coming back for more. 

    And I second your call for full support from admin for these types of projects and collaborations!

  • Icon for: Christine Voyer

    Christine Voyer

    Co-Presenter
    Senior Program Manager
    May 10, 2022 | 10:52 a.m.

    Thanks for joining the conversation and engaging in this learning and experiment with us. My role in this project is to lead and support the GMRI team members who are focused on generating resources and designing learning experiences that help the educators and educator networks bring climate and data learning back to their youth. I would love to learn from others about the kinds of resources they are designing and developing to support deep learning about climate change and data in and between formal and informal learning spaces. What kinds of learning experiences have been successful? Where have you had challenges? What resources have been most helpful to the educators and facilitators of learning and what kinds of professional learning supports contributed to that success? Let's chat!

     
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    Lisa Phelps
  • Icon for: Sarah Sparks

    Sarah Sparks

    May 10, 2022 | 12:38 p.m.

    It was great to see and hear from educators in this video! What tips and strategies has this project discovered that fosters educators coming together?I'm also curious what experiences others external to this project might have to add to the conversation from their experiences.

     
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    Lisa Phelps
  • Icon for: Christine Voyer

    Christine Voyer

    Co-Presenter
    Senior Program Manager
    May 10, 2022 | 02:43 p.m.

    Hi Sarah, I think you'll agree that educators each choose to join this communities for different reasons, and in general educators crave more time to learn together and from one another. Hearing that a professional community is worth being a part of from a trusted colleague might be what gets them in the door or it might be because they have enjoyed working with one of the project partners in the past, but I think it's the conversations with colleagues and the ideas and resources that are shared that keep them coming back. What are your thoughts?

  • Icon for: Molly Auclair

    Molly Auclair

    May 11, 2022 | 03:02 p.m.

    I agree 100% with Christine about people joining for different reasons, joining because they heard about it from a friend or colleague, and that new ideas and resources engage people over time. I'll add that I think having a community that is flexible and understanding to life as it happens keeps people coming back. Having direction and agendas, clarity around expectations, but being willing to pivot if communities need a different focus on any given day. I am lucky enough to work really closely with many of the Maine-based educator communities with Learning Ecosystems Northeast and would love to hear from others about your learning communities and what drives, connects, and sustains them.

     
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    Christine Voyer
  • Icon for: Sarah Sparks

    Sarah Sparks

    May 12, 2022 | 08:54 a.m.

    Molly and Christine, I agree with everything you said. I think that sense of being part of a group, with common interest of improving STEM experiences for young people is the overarching goal and hook. What keeps people coming back, I think, is not only the flexibility that Molly alluded to, but also recognizing everyone in the group brings different skills and experiences to contribute.Christine is also correct, it's that personal invitation that is often the first step. I think sometimes educators, especially informal and often elementary, feel pressure too 'know it all' and can be intimidated joining a conversation that they might not be an expert in.  Having a culture where it's ok to learn, and share, fosters that sense of a welcoming community. 

     
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    Christine Voyer
  • Icon for: John Ristvey

    John Ristvey

    Researcher
    May 10, 2022 | 04:56 p.m.

    Hi all,

    What a great video/project. I love the metaphor of a net regarding STEM learning ecosystems. Over the last six months our project has begun to facilitate discussions around STEM ecosystems in a rural mountain community in Colorado. I was struck by the comment in the video that you have to "go slow to go fast." This is so true when it comes to trust building especially when some providers may perceive competition with each other.

    Regarding Sarah's question, we have worked to involve many voices from the community and co-designed/facilitated these meetings with community partners. We have also asked the question about express their interests in working together and how each partner can benefit. We began our community STEM ecosystem meet-ups by jointly developing community STEM asset maps of STEM opportunities throughout the county. From there we hope to identify multiple STEM pathways for youth that can contribute to career awareness and readiness for youth interested in STEM careers or careers that use STEM. Since our effort is relatively new, I'm curious about how STEM ecosystems have evolved over time? How do you encourage welcome new voices to the table? 

    Thanks again for sharing your project and this engaging conversation.

     
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    Lisa Phelps
  • Icon for: Leigh Peake

    Leigh Peake

    Lead Presenter
    Chief Education Officer
    May 11, 2022 | 10:14 a.m.

    I'm familiar with your project, John, and I know that while you focused on the career pathways piece you have plenty to share about community and ecosystem development so I'm glad you're in this dialogue. 

    We also started with some asset mapping and, honestly, it raised challenges for us around the idea of completely open interest pathways since many interests just couldn't be sustained/supported with local resources and expertise. I'm sure you've experienced this as well working in rural regions. We therefore made the choice to START our communities centered on development of STEM learning experiences through a focus on local climate change impacts. That helped anchor educator conversations and their co-design of experiences -- it gave them a place to start. And of course we hope these same peer communities will, over time, expand to other areas of STEM.

    As for evolution over time, some of these peer communities have a core group that's been together since 2016. I would say a key lesson is the essential role of local leadership of some kind. We compensate Lead Educators (combo of formal and informal) for each ecosystem, but I know the RAIN group in Arizona has a "leadership council" structure (and hopefully Kal Mannis is in the video hall somewhere and will add his $0.02). Even though leadership has changed over time, the structure of having combined local leadership and central leadership provided by the project has created a lot of stability. It has also added an element of self-direction for each community, traveling their own paths to a common vision. 

    As for welcoming new voices, we've had few issues with the "welcoming" part, but recruiting new folks happens largely through word-of-mouth though the project team also does targeted outreach. The pandemic and general exhaustion definitely slowed recruitment. 

  • Icon for: Andee Rubin

    Andee Rubin

    Facilitator
    Senior Scientist
    May 10, 2022 | 11:23 p.m.

    Hi friends - it's so nice to catch up on what you're doing in Maine.  I really appreciate your "net" working - both the work itself and the resulting net.  As Amy is, I'm eager to hear some specific examples of ways that your collaboration has resulted in a student discovering her love of science or persisting in a STEM-related field.  In one of the teacher's comments, she mentions "doing science outside" as having the potential to "change a kid completely."  How important do you think these hands-on aspects of doing science are in catching kids who might be falling through the cracks.

    I'm also curious how you keep track of individual kids across these wonderful, varied contexts.  What are the communication 'tendrils" of the net you're building?

    Finally, like one of the other commentators, I resonate with your noting that it's important to "go slow to go fast."  Building trusting relationships among educators is clearly a key part of your work.  Other than "going slow," do you have any specific advice on that process?

    Thanks for the inspiration and for your good, deep work.

     
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    Lisa Phelps
  • Icon for: Lisa Phelps

    Lisa Phelps

    Co-Presenter
    State Program Administrator, 4-H
    May 11, 2022 | 07:49 a.m.

    Andee I think hands on learning opportunities do have the opportunity to catch kids who may be falling through the cracks. It can create that spark that can potentially excite a youth about learning in ways that more traditional ways of learning do not. With regards to building trusting relationships we have been intentional about building time into our monthly project team meetings to get to know others better as people and to learn more about their organizations/their work.

  • Icon for: Marijke Visser

    Marijke Visser

    Co-Presenter
    Section Supervisor
    May 11, 2022 | 11:55 a.m.

    +1 to building relationships. One aspect to this project that I am very excited about is the opportunity for library staff to connect with other educators in their region. Many public libraries in Maine are run by 1-3 staff or 1 paid staff and volunteers so the staff are doing all the jobs to run a library and doing programming. It can feel challenging to think about "being alone" especially for many of our library staff who are themselves not super comfortable with STEM concepts (and in this case climate science). Having a peer network where you can riff off ideas/resources goes a long way to building STEM confidence if you're a person who has not had much experience and if you're further on your STEM journey, you are encouraged to take things further in a safe and supportive environment. 

    I've also seen staff in small, often rural libraries not consider themselves as educators Having a space where they can actually recognize that yes, in fact, they are educators and are contributing a valuable piece to youth learning is incredibly validating and I think leads to more capacity to build out engaging and impactful programs.

    Taking the time to build up those relationships is important and something I hope this project models for library staff across the state. 

     
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    Amy Alznauer
  • Icon for: Jackie DeLisi

    Jackie DeLisi

    Co-Presenter
    Senior Research Scientist
    May 12, 2022 | 12:29 p.m.

    Hi Andee, great question about tracking kids across varied contexts. Our evaluation team is thinking about this very question. We don't yet have an answer, but I'm hoping we can make progress on this front in the coming year as we learn more about the experiences that the connected ecosystems enable and who the youth are that participate. One goal of the ecosystems is that educators could expand youth's awareness of opportunities across their region. The team and the CLEs are working toward this and as they do we'll learn more about how we might track individuals across the ecosystem. I'd be happy to hear any thoughts or suggestions on this topic. 

  • Icon for: Leigh Peake

    Leigh Peake

    Lead Presenter
    Chief Education Officer
    May 11, 2022 | 09:37 a.m.

    You always ask great questions, Andee! To the question from both you and Amy, we have examples of kinds of collaborations among educators that are creating new kinds of experiences for kids. We don't yet have data regarding the "holy grail" of, as you say, "a student discovering her love of science or persisting in a STEM-related field." One example of a kind of thing that's happening that didn't previously: One local land trust had never previously had a relationship with the schools in its cachement area. Because of relationships built through the ecosystem meet-ups, their education director met experts running a vernal pool citizen science program and partnered with them to recruit and then support teachers who engaged in the investigation on land trust lands with trust experts there to respond to student questions. The trust also arranged for others to offer relevant professional learning experiences for teachers before/after the field trips. The trust has now built into its annual calendar an assumption of partnering with teachers 3x/year to do outdoor investigations aligned with the curriculum and are fundraising to make that possible. This is not hugely innovative -- it's simply that it wouldn't have happened without creating a consistent, inviting space and time for educators to form a supportive peer community for trying new things.

     
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    Amy Alznauer
  • Icon for: Leigh Peake

    Leigh Peake

    Lead Presenter
    Chief Education Officer
    May 11, 2022 | 09:43 a.m.

    Andee: To your question about "go slow" and trust I would quote my friend Elena Sparrow who runs a companion NASA project in Alaska: "The relationship IS the deliverable, it IS the work." And we've been blessed with program officers at NASA who totally get that and provide patient financial support that recognizes we'll get farther in the end and create more positive, impactful positive outputs by starting with trust building. 

     
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    Amy Alznauer
  • Icon for: Leigh Peake

    Leigh Peake

    Lead Presenter
    Chief Education Officer
    May 11, 2022 | 09:47 a.m.

    Finally Andee, to your question about tracking students -- we aren't and it's hard! We do have the potential to create a statewide digital "field notebook" and are currently in a discovery process around that, imagining that if many/most learning experiences were documented in some way in the field notebook, then it becomes an amazing research tool for seeing kids' pathways. The Digital Youth Network in Chicago (Nichole Pinkard & others) and their L3 platform also has this potential I think. But maybe I'm not getting at what you're asking?

  • Icon for: Andee Rubin

    Andee Rubin

    Facilitator
    Senior Scientist
    May 11, 2022 | 09:58 a.m.

    Thank you, Leigh, for your thoughtful responses.  You're lucky to have financial support that understands the importance of relationship-building.  When I did some work in Alaska in the 1980's, that was, indeed, the basis of our impact (although we also had some very cool computer tools to offer!)  As for the "tracking" question - I'm curious how we could figure out what opportunities to offer to students once they've gotten initially "hooked" by a science experience.  Especially in a rural state like Maine, I imagine that some students don't know where to look for their next engaging experience, so I was thinking of a system that might make such recommendations.  I have a vague memory that the REACH Center that MMSA was working on a while ago was trying to create such a resource that would help students continue to find opportunities to engage in science.

     

     
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    Leigh Peake
  • Icon for: Leigh Peake

    Leigh Peake

    Lead Presenter
    Chief Education Officer
    May 11, 2022 | 10:35 a.m.

    Yes for sure -- MMSA's STEM Ambassador project reported so many lessons that informed our work (and I hope Sue Allen is lurking in the video hall and will jump in). One key lesson was that the work of brokering youth interest pathways really needs to sit with the people who are already working with youth, rather than in a separate role (see Allen, S., Kastelein, K., Mokros, J., Atkinson, J., & Byrd, S. (2019). STEM Guides: professional brokers in rural STEM ecosystems. International Journal of Science Education Part B. DOI: 10.1080/21548455.2019.1700317). That lesson was central to our design decision to focus on connecting educators already working in local regions. A lot has been written about brokering (see for example Ching, D., Santo, R., Hoadley, C., and Peppler, K. (2016). Not just a blip in someone’s life: integrating brokering practices into out-of-school programming as a means of supporting and expanding youth futures. On the Horizon, 24(3), 296 – 312) and we hope to explore the terrain of helping educators "of all stripes" (as one of our video educators says) build skill at this, starting with simply a) having relationships with other educators who serve the same kids you don; and b) having a venue through which to learn about the kinds of things they are offering. We shall see how it goes!

  • Icon for: Andee Rubin

    Andee Rubin

    Facilitator
    Senior Scientist
    May 11, 2022 | 11:36 a.m.

    Thanks, Leigh, for that response and the helpful references, too!  I look forward to hearing how this work progresses.

  • Icon for: Amy Alznauer

    Amy Alznauer

    Facilitator
    Lecturer
    May 12, 2022 | 12:21 p.m.

    Great conversation here, Andee and Leigh! I looked up the Chicago Digital Youth Project (since I live and teach in Chicago) http://digitalyouthnetwork.org/. I didn't see what you were referring to, Leigh, as their digital field notebook capacity (would love a link for that or to other folks who have such a platform), but I did notice this: http://digitalyouthnetwork.org/home/tools/xdisc/ - which actually looks like it addresses what you were calling for Andee (a way for kids to access further experiences that might capitalize on that moment of getting hooked) - but this does it in a city as opposed to a rural setting. 

     
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    Leigh Peake
  • Icon for: Lisa Phelps

    Lisa Phelps

    Co-Presenter
    State Program Administrator, 4-H
    May 12, 2022 | 12:25 p.m.

    Amy thanks for sharing the link to digital youth network I will check it out.

  • Icon for: Leigh Peake

    Leigh Peake

    Lead Presenter
    Chief Education Officer
    May 13, 2022 | 07:48 a.m.

    Amy, yes, pretty sure what I knew as L3 is now: http://digitalyouthnetwork.org/home/tools/iremix/

     

  • Icon for: Marijke Visser

    Marijke Visser

    Co-Presenter
    Section Supervisor
    May 13, 2022 | 08:39 a.m.

    Good morning all- Some of hte posts about understanding what the impact of this project is on youth learning and their excitement about STEM/climate science touches on a longstanding issue that libraries grapple with- how do we assess the learning that happens in a library (and other informal learning spaces)? One of the things that we claim about leering through libraries is that it's low stakes and inviting to youth who might otherwise be turned off from STEM for the very fact that we don't assess learning. In general the focus in the library is to expose youth to different experiences and provide scaffolding for them to pursue their interests. We hope the exposure leads to sustained interest but it's a challenge to "prove" that is does which, is often what a funder wants to know...

    The "Impact Libraries" project through the University of Maryland looks at assessing computational thinking skill development through library programs and one of hte assessment tools that measure positive experiences of youth and also their perceptions of future career/learning possibilities. While focused on CT, the tools could be adapted to other learning topics. https://impact.ischool.umd.edu/ 

  • Icon for: Doris Chin

    Doris Chin

    Researcher
    May 13, 2022 | 08:02 p.m.

    What an excellent point, Marijke, about the challenge of "proving" impact.  It's an issue all of us in informal learning must constantly wrestle with! 

    CAISE (Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education) has a nice blog article on best practices here: Assessment Practices in Informal Science

    And they have been curating a repository of assessment instruments that you can search by discipline, audience, etc.

     
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    Marijke Visser
  • Icon for: Brian Smith

    Brian Smith

    Facilitator
    Professor/Associate Dean of Research
    May 15, 2022 | 01:41 p.m.


    It's great to see work like yours that tries to build equitable partnerships between researchers and educators. I particularly like the idea of these groups joining together to create a net that tries to catch at-risk youth to help them gain STEM interests and identities.

    Leigh, I saw you quote a colleague who said, "The relationship IS the deliverable, it IS the work." I've had the pleasure to learn from the work Breanne Litts is conducting with the Northwestern Band of the Shone Nation (see here). That team convinced me how important these relationships are to developing meaningful research in communities. I understand why you need to "go slow" to build quality relationships that respect the goals of all parties. I want to ask how you make your relationships work, but I know it isn't easy to articulate. Have you thought about trying to "formalize" your relationship-building process or at least document it in some way to share with others?

    It's also great that you recognize learning as something that happens in and outside of schools. Are there ways that youth can start an investigation in one place, say a school, and take it into another, maybe a library? I guess I'm asking how different players in the net work together to coordinate the NASA (and other) investigations.

     

     

  • Icon for: Marijke Visser

    Marijke Visser

    Co-Presenter
    Section Supervisor
    May 16, 2022 | 10:36 a.m.

    Good morning Brian-

    Such an interesting idea about documenting the relationship building process so that researchers might have a "best practice" resource. I find myself wondering if it's actually a very short checklist starting with something like

    • recognize that all communities are unique and have a right to self-determine when, how, and whether to participate in a project/learning opportunity
    • wait to be invited in to the community and when you are (if you are) operate on their time and follow their lead
    • understand and accept that sometimes you will not be invited in and/or information/resources/experiences will not be given to you and/or your information/resources/experiences may not be wanted 

    You are right that it is hard to articulate as relationships start and progress differently depending on who is in the room but I think when educators (library staff in my case) approach relationship building with patience but also flexibility in that expectations and even project design should be malleable to account for the ebb and flow of the relationship building process, they are starting in a good place.  

  • Icon for: Josephine Louie

    Josephine Louie

    Researcher
    May 16, 2022 | 03:12 p.m.

    Hi Leigh and all,

    What a great project and set of educator support efforts across informal and formal education sectors! I'm curious: When you bring educators from schools, libraries, and organizations like 4H together, what does the professional learning/networking look like? For example, are educators working on developing learning activities together, examining student work together, planning implementation together? In research-practice partnerships where people from different disciplines and contexts come together, much work is often needed to create a shared language and set of goals to keep the work moving forward together. How have you approached these challenges, especially over multiple years (since 2016 - that's impressive!), in face of inevitable turnover within your network?

  • Icon for: Lisa Phelps

    Lisa Phelps

    Co-Presenter
    State Program Administrator, 4-H
    May 16, 2022 | 03:22 p.m.

    Hi Josephine,

    Thanks for your feedback and questions. I work with our 4-H program in Maine and this has been a great project for use to be involved with. I would say one of the challenges that we continually work through is balancing the needs of both formal and informal educators with this project. What has been powerful is the learning that occurs from all of the educators with this project and a realization that the some of the needs can be different but all are valuable. I believe the time dedicated to building the relationships has really helped this project and a genuine willingness of wanting to learn more about each of our organizations to potentially help create more opportunities to partner. 

     
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    Christine Voyer
  • Cindy Char

    Researcher
    May 17, 2022 | 03:46 p.m.

    Leigh (and Andee and Brian) - Fabulous work, and wonderful exchange and discussion here.  As someone also invested in engaging students in rural communities, I very much appreciate the conversation here.