 RESOURCE FOCUSRelating Research to Practice is a free website containing summaries of recently published research on teaching and learning of science. The site is the result of a collaboration between the Exploratorium, King's College London, and the University of Washington.
The following links highlight the research produced by the CILS community:
CILS by the NumbersPeople in the CILS online community: 475
U.S. states represented by the CILS online community: 38
Resources currently in the database: 174
The number authored by CILS community members: 73 Stats last updated on January 30, 2007. Up-to-the-minute numbers may be found here. 2131231 |
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The Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS) was funded by the National Science Foundation in 2002. CILS conducts research on informal learning, the informal science education infrastructure, and the connections between in- and out-of-school science learning. CILS also provides training through graduate programs in developmental psychology and science education, professional development for informal educators, and conferences that bring together researchers and practitioners. CILS is a partnership of the Exploratorium, King's College London, and the University of California Santa Cruz.
CURRENT NEWS & EVENTS June 17, 2011
Making and Imagination Conversation
CILS hosted a one-day meeting to explore and discuss Making and
Tinerking as an approach to education that involves imagination, creativity,
and play. Our premise is that learning involves imagination and play, and
that tinkering and making (and hacking and crafting) appear to be particularly
fruitful and interesting ways to engage the imagination to support learning and
development. Lately, several important examples of Making and Tinkering have
emerged in the Bay Area including Tinkering School, Maker Faire, and The
Tinkering Studio at the Exploratorium. The core of the meeting will be a
series of small group discussions where featured speakers will present their
work and philosophy in order to start rich conversations among the
participants. The findings and ideas surfaced during the conversation
will be shared at a national meeting on learning and imagination, sponsored by
the Lincoln Center Institute in NY, which representatives from the US
Department of Education are expected to attend. The national meeting is
on imagination and Learning, our contribution will be to discuss Making in this
context.
Click here for more information. June 14, 2011
Announcing new website for ISE
There is a growing body of knowledge about teaching and learning in
informal learning environments such as museums, after-school programs, and home
settings. However most educational
research still takes place in classrooms, and much of it is not made easily
accessible to informal educators. A new website, Relating Research to Practice,
is a collaboration between CILS, King’s College London, and the University of
Washington, and is funded by NSF Grant # DRL-1049817. It seeks to make at least
some of this large body of knowledge about teaching and learning accessible to
informal educators. March 17-18, 2011
Learning About Learning Design Charette
How can science museums engage the visiting public with ideas about
learning and the role of science museums in supporting learning? What is
interesting and important for the public to engage with in terms of what we
know about learning, the teaching and learning of science, and the systems and
institutions of education, including museums?
Click here to
read more, including presentations available for download. March 3-4, 2011
Art as a Way of Knowing
Art as a Way of Knowing was a conference organized by the
Exploratorium and sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The
conference brought together an international group of artists, scientists,
museum curators, writers, educators, and other cross-pollinators to explore and
discuss the role of aesthetic inquiry in public interdisciplinary learning
environments. CILS sponsored a strand on learning and the arts.
Click
here for more information on the conference. Click here to download the conference report.
For News and Events Archive click here for 2009-2010 posts and here for older posts. |
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SPOTLIGHT
Museums Afterschool: Principles, Data, and Design (MAPDD)A group of expert STEM practitioners from science museums and
afterschool organizations participated in the action research project called MAPDD. Central to this study was the question, “What’s so informal about
informal science learning?” After video documentation, reflection, and
analysis, MAPDD participants eventually drafted a series of design principles
of successful STEM programs. Visit the MAPDD project page for more information.
Learning as Phenomena for Scientific Inquiry
The field of the learning sciences takes learning as its subject of scientific inquiry. How can museums directly engage the public with learning as phenomena? How can we apply methods of inquiry, interaction, and phenomena-based exhibits to this subject? Last spring the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS) at the Exploratorium held a meeting with about 30 scholars and designers to address this question.
Findings from the meeting can be found in a short report found below.
ASTC 2010Cutting Edge of Knowledge and Design
Saturday Oct 2 2-4:30. Current trends and findings in educational research and educational and exhibition design. Emerging science standards frameworks, learning progressions, climate change designs, and more. Speakers include: Andy Anderson (Michigan State), Lauri Halderman (AMNH), Leslie Herrenkohl (U Washington), Peggy Monohan (Exploratorium), Mikko Myllykoski (Heureka), Jonathan Osborne (Stanford), and Brian Reiser (Northwestern)
NARST 2010
Several AYS projects, along with LYREC, the Research & Evaluation Center headed by CILS and SRI, presented two sessions at this year's NARST Annual Conference in Philadelphia. To take a look at our sessions and abstracts click here
ECSITE 2010CILS presented two sessions at the ECSITE Annual Conference. Click here for a link to the final program.
AERA 2010The R&E Center presented Teachers’ Participation in Informal STEM Learning Environments: Towards Understanding the Impact of Different Framings on Outcomes at the upcoming AERA conference. Take a look below at our proposal: Recent PresentationsSee the list of conference presentations and sessions contributed by CILS faculty, researchers, students, and practitioners. Where possible, we include hotlinks to relevant papers or powerpoints located in our database:
Recent Presentations Archive |
