Reimagining Equity: An Informal STEM Learning Equity Resource Center

Terc Inc, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

REVISE (Realizing Excellence and Vitality through Informal STEM Education) is a resource center for the informal STEM learning and STEM communication community. The resource center will be led by a team of principal investigators and staff from TERC and Digital Promise. The center’s primary stakeholders are the broad breadth of professionals who work to advance informal STEM learning experiences and environments, including but not limited to practitioners, researchers, curriculum developers, media producers, and evaluators. REVISE’s goals are to advance and support the professional field of informal STEM learning and STEM communication by (1) broadening participation in these fields, (2) deepening links between research and practice, and (3) supporting capacity building for professionals in the field. REVISE will maintain and expand a digital infrastructure to support innovation and sharing across the field. This work builds on existing communication channels for dissemination to the larger field, through a variety of convenings and forums and via their designed website, www.informalscience.org. The Center will also organize and host the biennial AISL Awardee Meeting. Through its combined efforts, the Center will raise the visibility and impact of informal STEM learning and STEM communication research and practice and its contributions to the overall STEM endeavor. This project 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 everyone multiple pathways for accessing and engaging in STEM learning 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.