Resources
CAISE Newsletters
The CAISE newsletter, issued in electronic format, includes NSF-funded project Spotlights, reports on CAISE Inquiry Groups and NSF-sponsored ISE conferences and workshops, articles by members of the Visitor Studies Association, and updates from NSF. [ View all CAISE newsletters ]
CAISE Inquiry Group Reports
CAISE Inquiry Group reports are intended to strengthen and connect the ISE community by catalyzing conversations across the field around issues and topics of common concern.
Articles from the Visitor Studies Association
An ongoing series of articles that synthesize findings from research and evaluation, provide evidence of the contributions of informal science education, and provide information and guidance to ISE practitioners in carrying out their work. [ View all related articles ]
- Paying More Attention to Paying Attention
- Integrating Developmental and Free-Choice Learning Frameworks to Investigate Conceptual Change in Visitor Understanding
- Creating a Learning Environment that Fosters Parent-Child Interactions: A Case Study from the Animal Secrets Exhibition Project
- Border Crossings in Informal Science Education: DragonflyTV’s Experiment in Museum-Media Collaboration
More about evaluation
Tools and resources for evaluating project impacts.
Reports from NSF-funded conferences and workshops
- Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge, June 2008, NSF Task Force on Cyberlearning
- Citizen Science Toolkit Conference, June 2007, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y.
- Out-of-School Time STEM: Building Experience, Building Bridges, October 2009
- Informal Science Education Summit 2010
- Communication on the Cutting Edge: Lessons from the Nanoscale
- Strengthening Informal Science Education in the Latino Community, March 2009
More about informal science education
Reports, conferences, and resources developed with support from the National Science Foundation's Informal Science Education program.
- Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments (National Research Council, 2010) | read online, free
- Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places & Pursuits (National Research Council, 2009) | read online, free
- 2008 CAISE Landscape Study Report (PDF 27pgs, 224kb) | Executive Summary (PDF 2pgs, 28kb)
- Impacts of a Visit to a Zoo or Aquarium
Working with National Science Foundation support
NSF's Informal Science Education program supports innovation in "anywhere, anytime, lifelong learning," through investments in research, development, infrastructure, and capacity-building for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning outside formal school settings. The NSF ISE program is one of several grant programs in NSF's Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL).
For FAQs about the current solicitation, check here.
Stories from the field
Evidence for the value of ISE comes from rigorous research, careful case studies—and sometimes, anecdotes. Anecdotes can steer us toward promising new fields for inquiry, help shape research and evaluation questions, and provide memorable illustrations of research findings. [ View all related articles ]