caise

It’s been called an “invisible infrastructure”—the rich diversity of places and pursuits that ignite our curiosity and support lifelong learning about science. To help build a collective portrait of this informal science education infrastructure, CAISE has launched a community story-gathering project, led by John Falk of Oregon State University. You're invited to interview your friends, neighbors, and associates about how they've developed interests in science and technology, broadly defined, and the ways they've pursued those interests over time. It could be dinosaurs or chickens, auto mechanics or space flight, health issues of all kinds—the full range of what's sometimes been called everyday science and technology. As the NRC report Learning Science in Informal Settings suggests, we can also think of this "infrastructure" in ecological terms, and the stories we're hearing tell of encounters over time with learning resources in a wide variety of "niches."

By January, we hope to have a rich collection of stories, which the CAISE Infrastructure Inquiry Group will analyze and report on at the March ISE Summit and through the CAISE Newsletter.

You can find the interview guidelines in the Programs section of the CAISE website (here). To discuss the process and what you're learning, join the CAISE Forum (use the word "informal" to enroll once you've set up an account).

To all those who've already begun to contribute, thank you!