Science Cafes: Modeling and Assessing a Structured Adult Informal Science Education Program

超过K-12和高等教育水平的成人教育是非常重要的，因为这个公民群体通常是当地社区的政策和决策者，也是影响国家的州和联邦问题的决策者。此外，他们有责任为后代提供无数选择的建议。本项目将计划、执行和推广四次年度公开讲座活动，并与专业教育评估专家合作，为科学咖啡馆的结构化非正式学习环境中的成人学习者开发合适的评估工具。这些计划中的活动将用于测试和完善一种评估工具，使这项工作广泛地提供给非正式的科学实践者和研究人员。此外，该项目是一个试点项目，旨在集中使用科学咖啡来满足弗吉尼亚州里士满独特公民的学习需求。该项目致力于包括代表性不足的公民，包括残疾退伍军人。评估和研究工作将验证教育机制，使科学培训在未来能够更有效。作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）项目资助了用于各种环境的研究和创新资源。这个项目是一个合作项目，包括弗吉尼亚联邦大学（VCU）、Rockman等（一家评估公司）、科学酒吧RVA（科学酒吧RVA是一个长期运行并屡获提名的弗吉尼亚州里士满科学咖啡馆）、卡弗社区合作伙伴关系、东区家庭资源中心、弗吉尼亚联邦大学残疾人合作伙伴关系、弗吉尼亚联邦大学康复咨询部门、弗吉尼亚联邦大学医疗中心和其他各种各样的弗吉尼亚联邦大学部门。调查人员将进行一系列的科学调查，以确定教育弗吉尼亚州里士满市不同公民的动机、兴趣和最佳做法。研究的目的是严格分析参与者的特征，并确定每个人有效学习的最佳实践。此外，严格的评估将确定最佳和最有效的学习实践的有效性，使项目能够派生出可适应的模型。研究者的假设是，参与者的知识基础来源于K-12课堂上的传统学习。因此，在这项工作中，研究者希望通过STS （Science, Technology, and Society）的内容来增加参与者的知识库，提高知识和知识获取的深度和广度。研究范围将包括基于由认知、观察和解释组成的三角形的三个顶点的评估，所有这些都集中在科学的本质、科学与日常生活的相关性以及决策行为上。

Adult education beyond K-12 and postsecondary levels is very important as this citizenry group is often the policy and decision makers in local communities, as well as for state and federal issues that impact the Nation. Moreover, they are responsible for advising their progeny on a myriad of choices. This project will plan, execute, and promote four annual public lecture events, working with a professional educational evaluation expert to develop an appropriate assessment tool for adult learners in the structured informal learning environment of a science café. These planned events will be used to test and refine an assessment tool for making this work widely available to the community of informal science practitioners and researchers. Further, this project is a pilot for epitomizing the use of science cafés to address the learning needs of unique citizens of Richmond, Virginia. The project is committed to including under-represented citizens including Veterans with disabilities. The evaluation and research efforts will validate the education mechanisms so science cafés can be more effective in the future. As a part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds research and innovative resources for use in a variety of settings.This project is a collaboration that includes Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Rockman et al (an evaluation firm), Science Pub RVA (Science Pub RVA is a long-running and award-nominated Richmond, VA science café), Carver Community Partnership, East District Family Resource Center, VCU Partnership for People with Disabilities, VCU Department of Rehabilitation Counseling, VCU Medical Center, and a variety of other VCU departments. The investigators will conduct a series of science cafés to determine motivation, interests, and best practices for educating the diverse citizens of Richmond, Virginia. The objective of the research is to rigorously analyze the characteristics of participants and cohesively determine the best practices for the effective learning for each person. Further, rigorous evaluation will determine validity of the best and most effective learning practices enabling the project to derive an adaptable model. The investigators' hypothesis is that the participant's knowledge base is derived from the traditional learning which occurred in the K-12 classroom. Thus, in this work, the investigators hope to add to the participant's knowledge base with STS (Science, Technology, and Society) content and enhance the depth and breadth of knowledge and knowledge acquisition. The research scope will embrace an assessment that is based on the three vertices of a triangle composed of cognition, observation, and interpretation, all of which converge on the nature of science, the relevance of science to everyday life, and decision-making behaviors.