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In this article, we describe a large-scale data collection effort about the environmental learning field in Maine. This approach utilized a stakeholder engagement process which included over 600 project managers, educators, and school administrators from both formal and informal education settings. Our focus on collecting data about specific environmental learning projects allowed us to analyze alignment with a selection of best practices in environmental education drawn from NAAEE's K-12 Guidelines for Excellence. We highlight the characteristics of "high-mastery" projects – those most aligned with the targeted best practices in environmental education – and describe implications for supporting growth of the environmental learning field in Maine moving forward and equitable access to quality programming for youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of citizen science is one of the fastest growing sectors in informal education, specifically because of the new opportunities that are now available within today's digitized and networked world. This paper describes a unique co-created citizen science project, WeatherBlur, which brought fishermen, elementary students, and teachers from island and coastal communities together with research scientists via an online platform to share, analyze, and interpret data about the local impact of climate change. The project was designed utilizing a sociocultural learning approach that integrated communities of practice, knowledge building, funds of knowledge, and place-based education theory. The study aimed to understand how scientists, community members, and students interact to promote learning and collaboration within an online learning community. In addition, the study addressed the impact of the program on elementary student learning outcomes in earth science and graph interpretation. Data analyses suggest that the model implemented provided a high level of interactivity across all ages and groups, and increased students' understanding of earth science and skills in graph interpretation. Findings are used to describe the utility of using citizen science projects in K-5 schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online learning communities for citizen science have been growing in number and scale in recent years. The WeatherBlur project was designed to apply knowledge-building theory to a non-hierarchical online citizen science community for students in grades three to eight, their teachers, and scientists. This case study explores one investigation to determine the kinds of interactions that encouraged online knowledge-building and the individuals who served as the key drivers for the investigation. Posts from the project's discussion board were analyzed via a discourse analysis. The results indicated that students, teachers, and scientists initiated online discourse at similar rates, affirming the project's non-hierarchical design. Two knowledge-building constructs were used to initiate dialogue, including comments that added to the quantity and then quality of information in the conversation and those that included some conceptual advancement. Photos were also used more often to initiate rather than respond to conversation. By comparison, ongoing conversation was sustained by comments that enhanced the quality of information shared. Using activity log data, the results from a social network analysis indicated high variation in posting frequency, high probability of reciprocity, and dense core-periphery structure. Both the discourse analysis and social network analysis revealed multiple ways for individuals to become core to the network and thus primary drivers for the investigation. The findings are discussed in relation to knowledge-building in online citizen science communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Non-Hierarchical Online Learning Community (NHOLC) conceptual framework was designed to leverage the understanding of sociocultural learning theory and community informatics to inform design principles for citizen science online learning communities that inspire online collaboration and local environmental action. The study presented here applies the NHOLC framework, using a Q-Sort methodology, to three online learning communities for citizens that were successful in fostering online collaboration and environmental actions. The findings of this paper provide tangible design principles that can be used to develop or revise online learning communities for citizen science instead of reinventing the wheel for each newly emerging project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can sociocultural learning theory inform design principles for citizen science online learning communities to inspire local environmental action? The purpose of this article is to identify themes in sociocultural learning theory that could inform the use and development of highly collaborative online learning communities that utilize community informatics tools for citizen science to enable on-the-ground environmental actions. Applying previously established sociocultural theories provides an opportunity to build on what's already known about how people learn and collaborate. Finally, this article explains how communities of practice theory, knowledge building theory, and place-based education theory can be woven together to create the basis for development of a conceptual framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes Energy for ME and Going Green! Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World, two Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education programs with the common goal of improving students' attitudes about scientific careers. The authors represent two project teams, each with funding from the National Science Foundation's ITEST program. Using different approaches and technology, both projects challenged students to use electricity monitoring system data to create action plans for conserving energy in their homes and communities. The impact of each project on students' career interests was assessed via a multi-method evaluation that included the Career Interest Questionnaire (CIQ), a measure that was validated within the context of ITEST projects and has since become one of the instruments used most commonly across the ITEST community. This article explores the extent to which the CIQ can be used to document the effects of technology-enhanced STEM educational experiences on students' career attitudes and intentions in different environments. The results indicate that the CIQ, and the Intent subscale in particular, served as significant predictors of students' self-reported STEM career aspirations across project context. Results from each project also demonstrated content gains by students and demonstrated the impact of project participation and gender on student outcomes. The authors conclude that the CIQ is a useful tool for providing empirical evidence to document the impact of technology-enhanced science education programs, particularly with regard to Intent to purse a STEM career. The need for additional cross-project comparison studies is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study was conducted within the context of a place-based education project that was implemented with primary school students in the USA. The authors and participating teachers created a performance assessment of standards-aligned tasks to examine 6–10-year-old students’ graph interpretation skills as part of an exploratory research project. Fifty-five students participated in a performance assessment interview at the beginning and end of a place-based investigation. Two forms of the assessment were created and counterbalanced within class at pre and post.In situscoring was conducted such that responses were scored as correct versus incorrect during the assessment's administration. Criterion validity analysis demonstrated an age-level progression in student scores. Tests of discriminant validity showed that the instrument detected variability in interpretation skills across each of three graph types (line, bar, dot plot). Convergent validity was established by correlatingin situscores with those from the Graph Interpretation Scoring Rubric. Students’ proficiency with interpreting different types of graphs matched expectations based on age and the standards-based progression of graphs across primary school grades. The assessment tasks were also effective at detecting pre–post gains in students’ interpretation of line graphs and dot plots after the place-based project. The results of the case study are discussed in relation to the common challenges associated with performance assessment. Implications are presented in relation to the need for authentic and performance-based instructional and assessment tasks to respond to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A correction to the article "Measuring Student Career Interest within the Context of Technology-Enhanced STEM Projects: a Cross-Project Comparison Study Based on the Career Interest Questionnaire" that was published in the November 8, 2016 issue is presented.

This paper will explore the Energy for ME program, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation, which worked across formal and informal K-12 environments to bridge the gap between society, science, and the environment. Specifically, this article documents how Energy for ME integrates three experiential education pedagogies (place-based education, inquiry, and project-based learning) in combination with real-world electricity data in order to impact energy consumption within participating communities. Energy for ME schools and communities have saved over $135,000 in homeowner electricity costs, 900,000 lbs of carbon, and 1,000,000 kWh of energy) in electricity costs over the 3 years of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]