Identity and Agency in Informal Science Education Through the Lens of Equity and Social Justice

Learning and becoming are understood as emergent from participation in practices at the intersection of formal and informal science education. What learners value, engage in, and transform is understood as entangled with who they have been, think they are, and yet aim to become, calling for an intersectional lens to any analysis of learning and identity in science. Who one is and can become in science, given recognition by others as a science person, is political and a product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism, to name two key dimensions, which are not additive but instead form a symbiotic relationship. Intersectionality foregrounds the structural, political, and representational of an oppressive system at work and is a lens essential to an equity- and social justice–driven conceptualization of science education at the intersection of formal and informal educational venues. Critical transdisciplinarity facilitates the unpacking of what science is and what kind of science a science person engages in, and it can move studies beyond paralyzing ideologies and meritocracies that undermine full participation in science by youth of color, for instance. Engagement with intersectionality, critical transdisciplinarity, and the political can make rightful presence a shared goal to work toward among science educators and researchers, a much-needed commitment in the informal science education field. Community-based educational spaces (CBES) challenge deficit discourses of youth and, instead, aim to build on youths’ funds of knowledge and identities through empowering practices. Identity work is approached through a grounding in practice theory, which calls for a focus on the figuring of worlds, lives, and identities. Becoming somebody in science is presented as a creative act by youth, who challenge what science is and who can become somebody in science. Actions by youth can make evident desirable identities that result in the “thickening” of their affinities with science, a process also charged by emotions. That is, intersectionality can be experienced as emotionally taxing, while agency and transformation by youth may result in positive emotions. A mobile view of learning and identity in science, captured by the notion of wayfinding, calls to attention hybridity, intersectionality, and critical transdisciplinarity. That grounding can move the study of learning and becoming in science beyond a binary vision of formal and informal science education while also making it political. A deeper commitment and engagement with social justice work in studies of learning and identity in CBES, a process well captured by the notion of rightful presence, could become a common goal to work toward in the vast field of science education, both formal and informal.

Follow the Fossils

The ability for people to connect, learn, and communicate about science has been enhanced through the Internet, specifically through social media platforms. Facebook and Twitter are well-studied, while Instagram is understudied. This Element provides insight into using Instagram as a science education platform by pioneering a set of calculated metrics, using a paleontology-focused account as a case study. Framed by the theory of affinity spaces, the authors conducted year-long analyses of 455 posts and 139 stories that were created as part of an informal science learning project. They found that team activity updates and posts outside of their other categories perform better than their defined categories. For Instagram stories, the data show that fewer slides per story hold viewers' attention longer, and stories using the poll tool garnered the most interaction. This Element provides a baseline to assess the success of Instagram content for science communicators and natural science institutions.

Authentic STEM research, practices of science, and interest development in an informal science education program

Background Two critical challenges in science education are how to engage students in the practices of science and how to develop and sustain interest. The goal of this study was to examine the extent to which high school youth, the majority of whom are members of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in STEM, learn the skills and practices of science and in turn develop interest in conducting scientific research as part of their career pursuits. To accomplish this goal, we applied Hidi and Renninger’s well-tested theoretical framework for studying interest development in the context of a museum-based, informal science education (ISE) program. We used a mixed methods approach, incorporating both survey and interview data, to address three research questions: (1) As youth engage in authentic science research, do they develop perceived competence in mastering the skills and practices of science? (2) Do participants increase, maintain, or decrease interest in science research as a result of this experience? (3) How does participation in scientific practices manifest in non-program contexts? Results Our study yielded three main results. First, we found that participants developed competence in mastering several of the skills and practices of science. Strikingly, there was significant improvement in self-reported level of competency for 15 specific research skills. Second, we found that participants maintained their interest in scientific research over time. Our post-survey results revealed that one hundred percent of students were either excited about or expressed deep interest in scientific research. Based on a Phases of Interest Development Rubric developed for this study, most participants exhibited emerging individual interest. Finally, participants exhibited significant increases in the frequency in which they engaged in scientific practices outside of the program. Conclusions Our findings suggest that participation in authentic research in an ISE context affords youth critical opportunities for gaining mastery of several of the skills and practices of science, which in turn reinforces, and in some cases increases participants’ interest in scientific research beyond the span of the program.

STEM escape rooms for public engagement

Escape rooms are a relatively new cultural phenomenon, attracting a wide range of audiences to test their puzzle-solving skills. While this format has been trialled in an educational context, there has been little exploration of it as a tool for engagement. We ran a STEM-based escape room, open to the public, over five days at a science centre in Malta. This was an exploratory exercise to determine whether escape rooms could be successful in an informal science engagement context. Over seventy players attempted the game and completed our evaluation. Our results suggest that escape rooms can be used in engagement contexts as they provide a positive experience that encourages future interactions with science. They may also draw audiences not normally interested in science and help them engage with scientific content in a more accessible manner. Interestingly, players were able to persist in engaging with content they found difficult while still finding it enjoyable, which has implications for the science communication of complex topics. Finally, players perceived that they were able to learn science through the escape room, which may increase their self-efficacy.

SCENE: A novel model for engaging underserved and under-represented audiences in informal science learning activities

Inequitable access to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) has been explored by multiple studies which have shown that some publics are underserved by existing informal educational and cultural provision, and under-represented in related study choices and careers. Informal science learning (ISL) and public engagement with research activities (such as science festivals) tend to attract audiences which are largely white, middle class and already engaged with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). This article describes the development of an engagement approach and model through a story-based festival (SMASHfestUK) which was specifically designed to attract new and diverse audiences, including Black and mixed-heritage families, and families living with socio-economic disadvantage. The festival was delivered on five annual occasions, each co-designed with a wide selection of stakeholders, including audiences, researchers, performers, institutions and organizations, and considered as an iterative prototype.

Informal Science Pedagogical Innovation to Promote Understanding of Technology Application in Fluids Mechanics

This study attempts to support the preparation, setup and implementation of innovation for informal science learning that help students with technology application in physics topic. There are 349 students were selected as the sample of this study, in two STEM activities during International Scout STEM Camporee. Following the module developed for informal learning activity, the data collection focus using a survey focus on the learning opportunities created by the module for technology application. Teaching technology application in formal setting is known challenging due to syllabus con-straints. Here, fluid mechanics is a branch of physics knowledge that relates directly with the technology application. The innovation in the informal sci-ence learning module has a specific focus on the technology application of fluid mechanic. Post and pre-test were conducted. The post-test was con-ducted to investigate prior understanding of fundamental fluid mechanic concepts during the designing stage with the students’ ability to make infer-ence. Descriptive analysis and Pearson correlation were used as the data analysis methods. The finding shows that most of the students did have an initial idea of science concepts such as buoyancy, density, weight of mini Titanic, and Archimedes’ principle. However, their ability to make inference and observation is weakly correlated and not significant. This findings show that students are capable to produce observations and inferences when technology application is brought into discussion during informal science learning. As a conclusion, for informal science learning, it is important for educators to consider the outcomes for students’ learning because the opportunities for students to tap into their prior knowledge from self-determination can be easily achieved within this setting. This study proposes important measures during informal science learning environment to maximize the learning opportunities.

Media Personae as Informal Science Communicators on Social Media: An Explorative Study on the Potential of Para-Social Opinion Leadership

It is a paradox that science helps us understand the world today better than ever before, while at the same time, science is under siege as misinformation and ‚alternative facts‘ are spread in social media’s filter bubbles and echo chambers. This paper presents an explorative key case study on media personae as potential science communicators on social media. By integrating the concept of para-social opinion leadership into the model of media personae as informal science communicators on social media, the paper explores how media personae can act as opinion leaders and advocate the understanding and communication of science in an informal and creative way.