Practitioner Workshop for Deploying SciStarter Affiliate Tools To Support Strategic STEM Learning

该研讨会由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深入学习的理解。该项目将举办为期两天的研讨会，聚集公民科学项目领导人，以解决公民科学研究和基础设施方面的障碍：无法全面研究参与多个项目的志愿者的运动，参与，坚持和学习成果。在过去的几年里，人们对公民科学项目的认识和兴趣都有了巨大的增长。该项目将解决一个日益扩大的差距，阻止三个现在流行的类别（应用程序，政府网站上托管的项目和基于事件的项目）的项目采用通过SciStarter.com创建和提供的数字化工具。该研讨会将使公民科学项目领导人聚集在一起，加深对他们采用Scistarter开发的数字化工具的需求的理解，这将产生更全面的数据，以支持跨项目和平台参与公民科学的志愿者的非正式科学学习成果的研究。参与者的亲自和在线贡献将指导资源和教程的开发，以扩大采用。SciStarter是数百个公民科学项目的存储库。通过之前的NSF支持，SciStarter开发了数字联盟工具，项目负责人在自己的网站上使用这些工具来进行分析（从用户在线活动中收集的统计数据），以帮助项目更容易地招募和协调志愿者，帮助志愿者跟踪他们在项目和平台上的贡献，并帮助研究人员全面研究项目和平台上的运动和学习成果。拟议的研讨会将促进最初没有考虑到的三类项目之间的迭代和采用这些工具，这些项目在过去一年中数量急剧增加：1）基于应用程序的项目，2）在政府网站上托管的项目，以及3）基于事件的项目。通过在这些项目中共同设计和实施这些工具的迭代版本，该项目将填补研究方面的重要空白，使人们能够更丰富、更全面地了解志愿者参与模式，并发现机会，建立一个更强大的公民科学从业者社区，他们合作加强志愿者学习社区。 该项目将最终改善该领域的研究，并改善公民科学项目的管理，以促进STEM学习。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This workshop is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. The project will conduct a two-day workshop that will gather citizen science project leaders to address barriers in citizen science research and infrastructure: The inability to holistically study the movement, engagement, persistence and learning outcomes among volunteers engaged in multiple projects. The past few years have been a time of tremendous growth in awareness of and interest in citizen science projects. The project will address an increasing gap preventing projects in three now-popular categories (apps, projects hosted on government websites, and event-based projects) from adopting the digital tools created and available through SciStarter.com. The workshop will bring citizen science project leaders together to deepen an understanding of their needs regarding the adoption of digital tools, developed by Scistarter, which will result in more comprehensive data in support of research in informal science learning outcomes of volunteers engaged in citizen science across projects and platforms. The in-person and online contributions from participants will guide the development of resources and tutorials to scale adoption.SciStarter is a repository of hundreds of citizen science projects. Through previous NSF support, SciStarter developed digital affiliate tools which project leaders use on their own websites to enable analytics (statistics gathered from user activity online) to help projects more easily recruit and coordinator volunteers, help volunteers track their contributions across projects and platforms, and help researchers holistically study the movement and learning outcomes across projects and platforms. The proposed workshop will facilitate iteration and adoption of the tools among three classes of projects, not originally accounted for, which have dramatically increased in numbers during the past year: 1) app-based projects, 2) projects hosted on government websites, and 3) event-based projects.. By co-designing and implementing iterative versions of the tools among these projects, the project will address important gaps in research, enable a richer, more comprehensive understanding of volunteer engagement patterns, and discover opportunities to build a stronger community of citizen science practitioners who collaborate to enhance volunteer learning communities. The project will culminate in improved research in this field and improved management of citizen science projects for appropriate recruitment and retention that fosters STEM learning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.