Pennsylvania State University

Researchers 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 will explore approaches to working with STEM experts from Penn State University, local businesses, and a rural county agency. The project will use design-based research 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), and My Happy Valley Sky (astronomy). 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.