Informal Science Education Summit 2010

Nearly 450 people from across the informal science education field gathered in Washington, D.C., March 3-5, for the ISE Summit 2010. The program included a keynote address by Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of NOVA scienceNOW, and presentations by officials from federal agencies and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. There were reports from CAISE Inquiry Groups and other NSF-funded projects that are addressing issues critical to society and to the ISE field. And there were opportunities for robust discussion and emergence of proposals for future collaborative work.

Extensive documentation by Cathy McEver of the Bureau of Common Sense captures the spirit and substance of the event. It is posted here as a resource for those who participated and others in the field. Additional resources (including some of the speakers' presentations and workshop materials) are available here. Instructions about printing the documents that follow are here (PDF,55KB).

Setting the Stage

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Opening Remarks—Wendy Pollock, Al DeSena
NSF Influence on Informal Science Education—David A. Ucko
Word from the White House—Tom Kalil
Informal Science Education: Who Are We, and How Did We Get Here?—Bruce V. Lewenstein

The Case for Informal Science Education

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Introduction—Al DeSena, John Falk
Infrastructure Inquiry Group—John Falk, Carlos Manjarrez
Policy Study Inquiry Group—Saskia Traill
Learning Inquiry Group—Kevin Crowley
Synthesis and Reflection—Sheila Grinell, Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, Rob Semper, Julie Johnson, Erik Peterson, Rick Borchelt, Wendy Wheeler, Kevin Crowley

Hot Topics in Informal Science Education

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Introduction—Al DeSena
Pathways to STEM careers—Jon Miller
Connecting the public with the research community—Dennis Schatz
ISE opportunities in civil engineering—Robert Reitherman and Denis Mulligan
Public engagement with science-based issues—Ellen McCallie
Public participation in scientific research—Rick Bonney
Older adults and informal science education—Kali Lightfoot
Collaborations between informal science education and K–12—Bronwyn Bevan
Inclusion, disabilities, and informal science learning—Christine Reich
Serious games—Robert Hone
Science learning through media creation—Sue Ellen McCann
Public attitudes toward climate science—Edward Maibach

How Federal Agencies Are Working with the ISE Community

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Informal Science and NOAA—Richard W. Spinrad
National Center for Research Resources, NIH—Barbara Alving
NASA and STEM Education—Joyce Leavitt Winterton
Q&A: Evaluation Across Federal Agencies

Roundtable Discussions

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