Science centers, despite their growing popularity (Association of Science and Technology Centers [ASTC], 2022), have diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) concerns (Garibay & Olson, 2020) that threaten the achievement of their mission (Feinstein & Meshoulam, 2014) and the very utility of their existence (Ash 2022; Dawson, 2019). The…

This qualitative case study explores how the LGBTQ+ community is included in informal STEM learning environments (ISLEs) such as museums and science centers. One science center was chosen as a case study to identify how ISLEs may broaden participation to the LGBTQ+ community, how institutional stance impacts LGBTQ+ community members, and how the…

In an increasingly globalized world, the ability to engage with science meaningfully to make decisions on small and large scales is essential to be an informed citizen and to create a more equitable world. To engage with science, people need to develop a science identity. In this study, science identity, or feeling like a science person, includes…

As an informal learning context, science museums offer opportunities for visitors to engage in shared meaning-making as they interpret the concepts and phenomena presented in exhibits. As visitors engage in social meaning-making, they may provide support by scaffolding others' learning. Scaffolding describes support that is tailored to learners'…

Informal learning is an important venue for educating the general public about complex socio- scientific issues: intersections of scientific understanding and society. My dissertation is a multi-tiered analysis of how informal education, and particularly informal educators, can leverage learning to respond to one particular socio-scientific issue:…

Mathematics teacher noticing as a pedagogical practice--attending to, interpreting, and responding to children's mathematical thinking--is growing within mathematics education communities. Much of the research literature primarily focuses on supporting teacher noticing of children's mathematical thinking within classroom contexts, such as…

For decades the United States has tried to increase the number of students pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers. Educators and policy makers continue to seek strategies to increase the number of students in the STEM education pipeline. Public institutions of higher education are involved in this…

The following dissertation presents findings from a year-long evaluation of informal scientific education programs at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois. Science identity, rather than scientific knowledge, was the analytic lens through which the programs' effectiveness was assessed. A goal of the Museum generally, and the…

The urgent environmental issues of today require science-literate adults to engage in business and political decisions to create solutions. Despite the need, few adults have the knowledge and skills of science literacy. This doctoral dissertation is an analytical case study examining the science-learner identity development of Exploratorium Field…

Museum settings including aquariums, zoos and science centers rely heavily on their volunteer docent populations to interact with and communicate science and conservation concepts to the visiting public. The interactions docents have with museum visitors are important to meeting the educational expectations of museums and improving public science…

The purpose of this study was to examine the exhibition developer role in the context of United States (U.S.) science centers, and more specifically, to investigate the way science center exhibition developers build their professional expertise. This research investigated how successfully practicing exhibition developers described their current…

Interactive science centers are unique players in the science education community, but their positioning as both authorities on science and providers of "free choice" learning presents learning researchers with a problematic contradiction rooted in the complexities of trying to be both "scientific" and "education" organizations. Using insight from…

This dissertation investigates how teaching in a hands-on science center contributes to re/shaping one's teaching identity. Situated at the New York Hall of Science (NYHS) in Queens, New York, my research approach is to conduct a critical ethnography where the focus is on improving the teaching and learning of science for all involved. In…