Improving the Public’s Ocean Science Literacy

What Can Informal Science Education Do to Help?

Alan J. Friedman

Consultant

Museum Development & Science Communication

Alan J. Friedman, Consultant 2

Informal Science Education

Learning during the 95% of our lives which we spend outside the formal education system

Also called “free choice learning,” because learners set their own agenda

Includes aquariums, museums, zoos, botanic gardens, and visitor centers, plus television, magazines, books, libraries, the Internet

61% of all adults visit an ISE institution at least once a year

Alan J. Friedman, Consultant 3

What impact can we expect informal learning to have in generating public science literacy

for K-16 students and adults?

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A Bayer/NSF Survey of what got scientists interested in science when they were children

found the top reasons cited were:

Being encouraged by a parent or teacher

Taking a school science class

Playing with science toys or equipment

Seeing science in mass media

Visiting science museums or zoos

Doing science experiments at home

1998, Bayer/NSF survey conducted by Roper Starch based on polling more than 1,400 male and female Ph.D. scientists

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Jon Miller’s ongoing studies of adult science literacy found only two factors were statistically significant predictors:

Number of college science courses taken

Amount of use of informal science learning (museums, zoos, newspapers, TV, Internet, etc.)

Jon Miller, Michigan State University/NSF

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Robert Tai and colleagues asked what best predicts a college degree in science for an

8th grade student. The key factor was:

Expectation of a science career in 8th grade

Expectation was shown to be a more powerful predictor of a science career than high school math scores

Robert Tai et al., Science

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So if informal science education helps improve science literacy, how can COSEE-

Ocean make use of that channel?

tryscience.org Find just

about every science museum on the planet; dozens of vetted activities from science museums for use on or off-line; in 9 languages

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Citizenscience.org

– Individuals, families, students do data collection and analysis for real science research

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Nobelprize.org

– Exquisite simulation activities of real experiments, inspiring stories, and more

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Sciencebuddies.org

– Hundreds of inquiry science fair projects, way beyond that model volcano; career advice and more

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pbskids.org/designsquad/

– The TV show is cool, but even better are teens doing engineering for delight at school or at home

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Sciencefriday.com

– Millions listen, but even more get it through the web, Podcasts, blogs, SecondLife, ….

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To get even more, we can form partnerships with informal science education providers

www.astc.orgfor science centers & museums

www.ips-planetarium.org for planetariums

www.aza.org for zoos and aquariums

www.publicgardens.org for botanical gardens and arboreta

www.cpb.org/aboutpb for public radio and TV

www.scienceafterschool.org for community afterschool providers

4-H.org/programs_mission_mandates/set.html for community science programs nationwide

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Three Useful Recent References

“The 95 Percent Solution,” Falk, J.H. and Dierking, L. D., American Scientist (2010), v. 98, pp. 486-493. A manifesto declaring the importance, even the necessity, of informal science education.  

“Executive Summary,” Learning Science in Informal Environments http://books.nap.edu/catalog/12190.html. The NRC’s 2009 big synthesis study.

Framework for Evaluating Impacts of Informal Science Education Projects, A. Friedman, ed. http://insci.org/docs/Eval_Framework.pdf. 2008 NSF report on evaluating effectiveness of ISE activities