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Despite considerable efforts in recent years to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) interest and participation among youth, STEM interest during adolescence continues to decline. Recently, researchers, educators, and policymakers have used a learning ecology perspective to better understand the development and persistence of youth interest in STEM topics or activities. This study examined the dynamics of the STEM interest and participation pathways of three youth in an under-resourced, urban community. These three cases offer insights into how youth with a strong interest in a STEM topic or activity perceived the resources that were available to them in a STEM learning ecosystem and highlight the affordances and constraints each faced in pursuit of their interests. We interviewed each youth 4-5 times during their middle school and high school years (ages 11-14). The analysis reinforces the unique nature of youth interest pathways, but also common factors that contributed to each of these pathways. The ability of youth to navigate the ecosystem depended on the availability and accessibility of both in- and out-of-school learning resources related to their interest, and the support they received from significant adults in their lives in terms of both social, cultural, and financial capital. This study offers important insights into how STEM learning ecosystems might best be structured to enable more youth to develop strong, enduring interests in STEM.

In this paper, we use dimensions of the construct "science identity" as an analytic lens to tap into the motivation and learning of science center visits. This exploratory empirical study was based on a large international dataset drawn from 10 science centers in countries across Europe, Asia, and North America, to investigate the self-selecting, moderating, and self-reinforcing roles that scientific identity plays in science center visits and effects. We used path analysis to investigate the relationships among three aspects: (a) science identity, (b) science center visit, and (c) effects in knowledge, interest, and participation, while controlling the social categories of age, gender, educational level, and income. The findings showed that visiting a science center correlated with positive effects in adults' knowledge, participation and interest in science and technology. Dimensions of science identity appeared to play a "self-reinforcing" role in visitors' self-reports of effects at all 10 science centers and played a "moderating" role in visit-effect relationships for 2 out of the 10 science centers. There was no evidence that dimensions of science identity played a significant "self-selecting role in determining who does or does not visit a science center.

This international investigation was designed to determine if, and under what circumstances experiences at science centers, significantly correlated with a range of adult general public science and technology literacy measures. Given the complex and cumulative nature of science and technology learning, and the highly variable and free-choice nature of science center experiences, an epidemiological research approach was used. Quantitative surveys were administered to 6,089 adults living in 17 communities located in 13 countries; all with active science centers. Data collection and analysis protocols ensured a representative sampling based on age, education, and income from each of the 17 participating communities. Results showed that individuals who used science centers had significantly higher understanding, interest and curiosity, participation in free-choice leisure activities, and identity relative to science and technology than did individuals who did not visit; even when potential self-selection biases such as income, education level, and prior interest were taken into consideration. These findings significantly strengthen the argument that the presence of one or more healthy and active science centers within a community, region, or country represents a vital investment for fostering and maintaining a scientifically and technologically informed, engaged, and literate public.

Increasing evidence suggests that individuals develop their understanding of science concepts in and out of school, using varied community resources and networks. Thus in contrast to historic research approaches that focus exclusively on single organizations and/or educational events, the current paper presents exploratory research in which we utilized specific community ecology analytical tools and approaches to describe and analyze the U.K. science education community as a whole. Data suggest that overall the U.K. science education community is highly interconnected, and collaborative within individual sectors and moderately interconnected and collaborative between sectors; schools and to a lesser degree universities were outliers to this pattern. An important conclusion was that management to maximize the effectiveness of science education the U.K. science education community would involve support for continued diversification of the number of science education entities in the system and encouragement of reciprocally collaborative, synergistic relationships. We posit that systemic research enables a broader, more comprehensive view of a system's strengths and weaknesses, offering useful insights into the structure and functioning of science education activities; insights that could help researchers, practitioners, and policy makers improve the overall quality of science education delivery for all.

Investigates a museum exhibition design assumption that visitors develop conceptual understanding of a science topic after utilizing a cluster of conceptually related exhibits which lack explicit concept labeling. Also investigated whether visitor concept development could be enhanced through the addition of explicit labeling of the intended conceptual message. (Author/DKM)

Discusses the learning potentials of science museums. Examines studies that relate to visitor use and learning. Contrasts learning in museums with most school-based learning, particularly with regard to the museum's emphasis on the use of objects as the focus on learning. (TW)

Validity of using time and behavior as predictors of learning was tested by collecting detailed visitor behavior and time expenditure while interacting with a participatory museum exhibit. Data from 12- and 13-year-olds (N=63: 32 males, 31 females) support the feasibility of using these predictors. Learning was measured using a 14-item test. (Author/JN)

The article discusses researchers J.H. Falk and L.D. Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning which is a device for organizing the complexities of learning within free-choice settings. The Contextual Model of Learning is not a model in its truest sense; it does not purport to make predictions other than that learning is always a complex phenomenon situated within a series of contexts. More appropriately, the model can be thought of as a framework. The view of learning embodied in this framework is that learning can be conceptualized as a contextually driven effort to make meaning in order to survive and prosper within the world; an effort that is best viewed as a continuous, never-ending dialogue between the individual and his or her physical and sociocultural environment. The Contextual Model of Learning portrays this contextually driven dialogue as the process/product of the interactions between an individual's personal, sociocultural and physical contexts over time. None of these three contexts are ever stable or constant; all are changing across the lifetime of the individual. The article also presents a study which sets out to gain a deeper understanding into the nature of museum learning. The Contextual Model of Learning provided a useful framework for beginning to unravel the complexities of learning from a science center.

Examines the role of parents in structuring children scientific reasoning and in facilitating the construction of scientific theories. Foundational domains of scientific theories; Focus on scientific thinking at a zoetrope; Changes on the speed of animation.

The article presents the result of a study citing the effects of outdoor field trips on learning. Previous studies suggested that field trips and other non-classroom activities can enhance the students' learning process. It was also revealed that outdoor teaching can provide better cognitive and affective advantages to the learners. Based on structured observation, it is observed that beginner subjects are very stimulating and focused on active independent task activity, while familiar subjects concentrated on the task. Hence, further research will enable to improve the utilization of field trips as an educational tool.