2008 Informal Science Education Summit

ISE PI Summit 2008

Increasing the Impact and Communicating the Value of Informal Science Education

July 25–26, 2008
At the request of the National Science Foundation (NSF), CAISE organized a meeting for NSF Informal Science Education (ISE) Program principal investigators (PIs), July 25–26, 2008 in Washington, D.C. The ISE PI Summit 2008 provided PIs of recent and active NSF ISE grants the opportunity to discuss the state of ISE with other leaders in the field and to get updates on the latest directions in NSF funding. ISE PI Summit 2008 was held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel and the nearby National Zoo.

Documentation

Program

• ISE PI Summit 2008 program (pdf, 34 pp.) (participant information removed)
• ISE PI Summit 2008 agenda

Participants

There were 251 attendees, of which 176 were representatives of NSF ISE funded projects. In addition to NSF, seven other federal agencies (CPB, DOE, IMLS, NASA, NIH, NOAA, NPS, Smithsonian) that support informal science education were also represented. Participant names are linked to member profiles on InformalScience.org.

• Participants List

Projects

There were 190 projects represented at the ISE PI Summit 2008. Projects are linked to project pages on InformalScience.org.

• Projects List

Plenary Sessions

Plenary sessions at the ISE PI Summit 2008 provided an opportunity for the community of NSF ISE PIs and other leaders to think about major issues that cut across the informal science education field.

• Featured Speakers: Cora Marrett, Assistant Director of EHR, and Joan Ferrini-Mundy, DRL Division Director
• ISE Town Hall Meeting with ISE Program Officers
• CAISE and Its Work
• Frameworks for Evaluating the Impacts of Informal Science Education Projects

Workshops

Representatives of VSA, NSF, and Westat delivered interactive workshops at the ISE PI Summit 2008. Workshop sessions were designed to increase participants' evaluation expertise, share knowledge about visitor studies/informal learning research, and provide technical assistance related to administering NSF-funded grants.

• Visitor Studies 101: Evaluating Impact
• Beyond Counting Hits: Strategies for Evaluating ISE Websites
• Financial Practices and Reporting: Strategies and Tools to Support Good Business Practice
• Methods and Instruments: How about Tools?
• Evaluation 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started
• Ethical and Practical Solutions for Evaluation Studies
• "Big Ideas" for ISE Projects
• Working with the ISE Project Monitoring System

Discussion Groups

Discussion group sessions provided an opportunity for participants across the ISE field to discuss, share, and innovate with respect to (1) current and upcoming projects as well as (2) how to move the ISE field forward. Topics, suggested by PIs, included:

• More Time, More Money, More Freedom: The Three Secrets to Successful Collaboration Across Institutions and Industries
• Integrating Traditional Ways of Knowing with Western Science
• Public Engagement with Science: An Emerging Role for ISE?
• Environmental Literacy: Taking Action through ISE
• Religion and Science: Beyond the Evolution-Creationism Wars
• Public Participation in Research: Citizen Science and Beyond
• Portraying Science as a Human Endeavor
• Learning Across Formal and Informal Settings: How Do We Connect?
• Sustaining Access to ISE for People with Disabilities
• Bringing New Visualization Technologies into ISE Institutions
• Knowing When and How to Scaffold Learning: A Dialogue about Teaching and Learning Using Digital Data
• Taking ISE to the Next Level: What Happens After the Sound Bite?
• Assessing the Impacts of Online Professional Communities for Informal Science Education
• Working with Your Program Officer

Framework for Evaluating the Impacts of Informal Science Education Projects

Framework for Evaluating the Impacts of Informal Science Education Projects was the centerpiece of the sessions on the second day of the ISE PI Summit. Download the Framework for Evaluating the Impacts of Informal Science Education Projects (pdf, 117 pp.)

Morning Plenary Session

• Introduction to the Framework - Alan Friedman
• Putting the Framework into Practice - Sue Allen, Gary Silverstein, and Lynn Dierking
• ISE Project Monitoring System - Gary Silverstein

Afternoon Discussion Groups

• Mass Media
• Youth & Community Programs
• Exhibitions
• Learning Technologies
• Collaborations
• Multiple Deliverables
• Methods
• Advocacy

Pre-Summit Information

• Preliminary Schedule, Hotel, and Registration Information
• Travel Information
• Session Types
• ISE PI Survey Report