Conference: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Imagination in Informal STEM Environments

作为其整体战略的一部分，以加强在非正式环境中的学习，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划旨在推进新的方法，并以证据为基础的理解，在非正式环境中的STEM学习的设计和开发。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。该项目将考虑如何将想象力思维的研究以及想象力在STEM实践和STEM教育中的作用的观点系统地应用于支持博物馆环境中的STEM学习。 科学作为非想象力的共同概念是持久的，但跨学科的奖学金表明想象力的关键作用，无论是在STEM的实践和塑造学习者的看法自己作为STEM的一部分。此外，来自神经科学、心理学、儿童发展和教育领域的证据表明，可以培养和改善想象力，这些理解可以应用于博物馆体验的设计，以改善STEM成果。该项目由波士顿科学博物馆领导，以博物馆专业人员可操作的方式在想象力，STEM和教育实践的交叉点合成和生成知识。 活动包括：一个文献综述，一个文件审查，和伊势专业人员的调查; STEM专业人员（研究人员，从业人员，教育工作者和其他人）的亲自召集;和产品的开发和传播，旨在为未来的项目开发提供信息。该项目的目标是：1）促进关于非正式科学教育（伊势）领域以及伊势和其他领域之间的想象力思维的对话; 2）确定研究和开发的优先领域，可以在想象力，STEM和学习的交叉点上推进该领域的理解;和3）催化未来的研究和开发工作，可以推进该领域。其目的是在博物馆的研究和开发工作中整合想象力，STEM和学习的奖学金，以导致描述，测试和完善理论框架和具体策略的项目，以通过展览，项目，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响评审标准。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program 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. This project will consider how research on imaginative thinking, and perspectives on the role of imagination in STEM practice and STEM education, can be systematically applied to support STEM learning in museum contexts. Common conceptions of science as non-imaginative are persistent, but scholarship across disciplines suggests critical roles for imagination, both in the practice of STEM and in shaping learners' perceptions of themselves as part of STEM. Further, evidence from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, child development and education suggests ways that imagination can be fostered and improved, and that these understandings could be applied to the design of museum experiences in order to improve STEM outcomes. The activities of this project, led by the Museum of Science, Boston, both synthesize and generate knowledge at the intersections of imagination, STEM, and education practice in ways that are actionable for museum professionals. Activities include: a literature review, a document review, and a survey of ISE professionals; an in-person convening of STEM professionals (researchers, practitioners, educators and others); and the development and dissemination of products designed to inform future project development. The goals of the project are to: 1) prompt conversations about imaginative thinking across the Informal Science Education (ISE) field, and between ISE and other fields; 2) identify priority areas for research and development that can advance the field's understandings at the intersections of imagination, STEM, and learning; and 3) catalyze future research and development efforts that can advance the field. The intent is for the integration scholarship on imagination, STEM, and learning within museums' research and development efforts to lead to projects that describe, test, and refine theoretical frameworks and concrete strategies for supporting imaginative thinking among public audiences through exhibitions, programs, and other designed experiences.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.