What is informal science education?
Informal science education supports people of all ages and walks of life in exploring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Ten winners of the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition were announced today at a celebration of National Lab Day in Washington, D.C. Winners will share $1.7 million in funding to create games, mobile phone applications, virtual worlds, and social networks.
Among the winners is Conservation Connection, a project of the Field Museum that uses webcasting, video blogging, and social networking sites to connect young people from Fiji and from Chicago’s West Side to work together to protect Fijian coral reefs. Another winning project is Click! The Online Spy School, a Carnegie Science Center project that uses a web-based, augmented reality game to encourage girls' engagement in the sciences.
The competition is part of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's digital media and learning initiative designed to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.
National Lab Day is a national initiative to help "bring discovery-based science experiences to students in grades K-12."