Tag Archives: research-to-practice

Heather to chair AERA’s Informal Learning Environments Research group for 2019-20

Posted on July 24, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Heather is chairing AERA’s Informal Learning Environments Research group for 2019-2020. The group is dedicated to furthering educational research in informal learning environments and to promote a community practice interested in establishing and maintaining a better understanding of learning in multiple out-of-school time environments. Members are researchers and practitioners focusing on equity, inclusion, and access to learning in libraries, museums, community-based organizations, hobbies, outdoor education, and everyday settings.

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Informal Learning Environments Research
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Our purpose is to further educational research in informal learning environments and to promote a community practice interested in establishing and ma…
 

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Posted in Conferences and Events, Informal Learning, Practioners, Research

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Check out STEM Pillars 3-min video!

Posted on May 13, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Our team is highlighting our IMLS-funded STEM Pillars project on the STEM for All Video Hall.  Our 3-minute video describes our design-based research project where we are working with rural libraries and museums to create programs to help smaller institutions serve their communities.

STEM Pillars 3-minute video

 

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Posted in Design Based Research, Informal Learning, Practioners, Research

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Join our team — we are hiring a full-time Lab Manager!

Posted on July 20, 2018 by | Leave a comment
The College of Education at Penn State seeks candidates for the position of Lab Manager/Human Research Technologist with the Augmented and Mobile Learning Research (AMLR) Group. The AMLR group (https://sites.psu.edu/augmentedlearning/about-us/stem-pillars//) conducts video-based research studies in libraries, museums, summer camps, gardens, and nature centers. The successful candidate will work on a 4-year NSF-funded study investigating how rural families and youths can best learn science with mobile computers. The position involves overseeing a dynamic team: organizing the group’s schedule, recruiting research participants, scheduling 30 workshops per year, developing appropriate databases, and managing the daily lab operation (which includes equipment oversight, supply orders, managing project finances, updating websites, updating existing IRB protocols, and similar tasks). Duties also include preparing materials for studies, conducting video-based data collection on weekends and early evenings from spring to fall (~30 evenings/weekend days per year); and completing video digitizing and archiving. Travel to data collection sites in Centre, Blair, and Huntingdon counties is required. This position requires that you operate a motor vehicle as a part of your job duties. A valid driver’s license and successful completion of a motor vehicle records check will be required in addition to standard background checks. Typically requires an Associate’s degree or higher plus two years of related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. A Bachelor’s degree is preferred. The successful candidate will have strong computer skills (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and willingness to learn additional computer skills related to data management, preparation, analysis, and archiving. Applicants should have excellent interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills – with the ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects. Interested applicants should upload a cover letter, a CV/resume, and contact information for three references. This is a fixed-term appointment funded for one year from date of hire with strong possibility of re-funding. 
Apply online at https://psu.jobs/job/80555 To review the Annual Security Report which contains information about crime statistics and other safety and security matters and policies, please go to https://police.psu.edu/annual-security-reports, which will also explain how to request a paper copy of the Annual Security Report. 
Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

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Posted in Design Based Research, Informal Learning, Research

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Heather, Susan, and team awarded IMLS grant to investigate learning in rural libraries and museums

Posted on May 8, 2017 by | Leave a comment

Our team from Penn State’s College of Education in partnership with the Schlow Centre Region Library, the Centre County Library, Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania, and Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center received a federal research grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  Together, we will explore how to best support family science learning as we work with STEM professionals from Penn State University, local businesses, and a rural county agency.

The project will use design-based research methods to iteratively develop family workshops on five personally relevant science themes that foster science conversations and intergenerational learning:

  • Engineering my World (engineering)
  • Weather Where I am (meteorology)
  • Water Quality in my Community (toxicology, watershed monitoring)
  • Plants around Us (botany, genetics, pollination)
  • My Happy Valley Sky (astronomy)

The research team will examine questions including, How can intergenerational library and museum experiences use STEM expert narratives effectively to make the science present in the community more visible and relevant? The project will result in a model for personally relevant informal education that brings together community science topics, hands-on inquiry, and personal stories from STEM experts in order to help museum and library professionals learn where and how to place STEM experts’ stories within programs; engage parents in their children’s learning; and position children as knowledge builders in STEM content areas.   

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Posted in Design, Design Based Research, Informal Learning, Practioners, Research

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Heather presenting at Research Symposium

Posted on October 16, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Heather Zimmerman is presented emerging research findings from our team’s COIL grant at the 2nd Annual COIL Research Symposium on Thursday, October 16.

The Augmented and Mobile Learning Research Group’s  COIL grant is a 12-month research project on how mobile computers can support engagement with the life sciences in people’s communities. Project Co-Directors Heather Zimmerman and Susan Land began this project to compare forms of technologically enhanced facilitation in regard to supporting learners to think scientifically at the Arboretum at Penn State and Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. The technologically enhanced facilitation supports observing to encourage deliberate noticing that will lead to the development of scientific concepts as learners coordinate information contained on the mobile computer with the specimens on-site.

Prior to this funded project, our team conducted two small scale qualitative studies (see our Publications Page).  Now with the COIL funds, we engaged in a more rigorous series of qualitative and multi-condition, design-based research studies in summer 2014 that examined various aspects of mobile computing pedagogy. Our publications on this new work are forthcoming.

In addition to Heather and Susan, members of the COIL project team include: Brian J. Seely, Michael R. Mohney, Gi Woong Choi, Jaclyn Dudek, Yong Ju Jung, and Lucy R. McClain.

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Posted in Conferences and Events, Design Based Research, Informal Learning

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