Astro-animation and Informal STEM Learning

In recent decades, educators and policymakers in the United States have increased their focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning opportunities both in school and in informal learning environments outside of school. Informal STEM learning can take place in varied settings and involves a variety of STEM domains (e.g., engaging in engineering practices in a construction exhibit at a museum; talking about math during book reading at home). Here we provide a selective review of the literature on informal STEM learning to illustrate how these educational experiences are crucial for efforts to increase early STEM learning even before children reach school age. Leveraging cognitive and learning science research to inform policy, we make three recommendations to advance the impact of informal STEM learning: 1) integrate cognitive and learning science–based learning practices into informal learning contexts, 2) increase accessibility and diversity of informal STEM experiences, and 3) create explicit connections and coherence between formal and informal STEM learning opportunities in early childhood education.

on the Research Topic Informal STEM learning at home and in community spaces This Research Topic investigates how children's authentic, everyday experiences provide opportunities for STEM learning and engagement. Providing children with equitable opportunities to engage in, learn, and flex their STEM skills is critical because STEM drives new innovations across disciplines, accelerates discoveries, and finds creative ways to solve big challenges now and in the future (Fenechel and Schweingruber, 2010; Archer et al., 2022) . But, what do we mean by informal STEM learning? We define "learning" broadly to include traditional definitions that focus on knowledge change and conceptual understanding, but we also include other areas supporting learning and connected to a more expansive definition, such as interest, engagement, and identity (see Fenechel and Schweingruber, 2010, for a detailed discussion). But why informal learning, in particular? This area is important because children spend only around 5% of their lives learning in formal settings (Falk and Dierking, 2010) . Of that time, children are estimated to spend ∼142 h per year in math instruction (nearly half of what is spent on Language Arts instruction; Phelps et al., 2012) and only a small portion of formal instructional time is spent learning about science (Falk and Dierking, 2010). Thus, the possibilities and opportunities for learning STEM skills outside of these traditional settings are substantial. We proposed this Research Topic because despite significant interest in informal learning, particularly in STEM, the research is often disseminated through disparate journals, conferences and other outlets, which do not always share contributors or audiences. This Research Topic is an attempt to aggregate research from multiple fields that share overlapping interests and allow scholars from different fields to share their research in one place. The Research Topic explores unique opportunities to increase participation in STEM activities by sparking children's interest in science, providing meaningful connections to their lives, engaging children and their caregivers, and promoting STEM identities, or the belief that one can participate in STEM, whether inside or outside of the classroom or STEM "pipeline". The articles in this Research Topic investigate three key issues: (a) investigating how and where informal STEM learning occurs, (2) innovations in the measurement of informal learning, and (3) interventions to increase engagement in and knowledge related to STEM.

Entropic gravity theories propose that spacetime and gravity emerge from quantum information entanglements. Vacuum spacetime emerges in the ground state and its area law for entanglement entropy is due to short-range entanglement of neighbouring microscopic degrees of freedom. Matter changes the entanglement entropy in this vacuum and leads to Einstein gravity. Additionally, in a positive dark energy de Sitter Universe, where each conscious agent has a cosmological horizon, a volume law contribution to entanglement entropy is divided evenly over the same degrees of freedom and is caused by long-range entanglement. I propose these complementary shortrange and long-range entanglement contributions form a nested small-world network which provides the topological quantum computing foundation for relativistic multi-agent correlations which weave together a universal physics of Nature. The volume law contribution to entanglement entropy surpasses the area law for entanglement entropy at an agent’s cosmological horizon. Verlinde interprets gravitational “dark matter” phenomena as polymer-like memory effects caused by the volume contribution to the entanglement entropy. I propose these phenomena are instead multi-agent quantum computational consensus effects due to an equivalent volume contribution to the entanglement entropy. Life is correlated with its environment. Phenomena attributed to unseen “dark matter” particles are proposed here to be founded upon nested observer halos, “spheres of influence or correlation”, caused by the consensus Agency of Life. Suitable cosmological conditions for earliest Life in the Universe occurred some 10 billion years ago and older galaxies do not exhibit “dark matter” phenomena. Also, galactic rotation curves flatten beyond their high-radiation centres, due to astrobiology and the Agency of Life living in outlying low-radiation habitable zones. Where baryonic matter is in motion, then the Agency of Life stores its baryonic matter-lagging memory in skewed trails of apparent “dark matter” phenomena in spacetime.

IntroductionExtensive research has shown a close relationship between spatial abilities and success in STEM disciplines because many STEM problems often require students to reason about spatial information. Everyday spatial behaviors may predate and facilitate the development of spatial skills. Therefore, the current study examined children’s everyday spatial behaviors and their associations with broader child development outcomes and individual differences.MethodsBased on previous research, we developed an everyday spatial behaviors questionnaire for children (ESBQC). A total of 174 parents and their children aged 4–9 years old participated. In ESBQC, parents rated how much difficulty their children experience with different spatial behaviors, such as putting together a puzzle, retracing a route, or hitting a moving ball.ResultsFactor analysis revealed 8 components in ESBQC. The internal reliabilities were relatively high. ESBQC was positively correlated with age but not with sex. Furthermore, ESBQC predicted sense of direction, even after considering age and bias associated with parent reports.DiscussionOur questionnaire may provide a useful tool for parents and other stakeholders to better understand everyday spatial behaviors and encourage interest and competence in spatial skills, ultimately promoting STEM learning in informal, everyday settings.

Black girls demonstrate early interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) but face systemic barriers that significantly affect their pursuit of STEM careers. This chapter addresses the factors that contribute to their underrepresentation in STEM by exploring strategies to foster inclusive and supportive learning environments for Black girls. Drawing from dissertation research on a professional learning community about Black girls in informal STEM learning, and the 100 Black Girls STEAM! program, this chapter presents two innovative approaches to fostering STEM aspirations among Black girls. These initiatives focus on honoring Black Herstory—history emphasizing the importance of women—and cultivating hope by providing opportunities for Black girls to develop their own STEM identity. By sharing these successful models, this chapter aims to inspire and inform education practitioners, policymakers, and community leaders in their efforts to advance informal STEM learning for Black girls.

BRIEF SESSION DESCRIPTION:Learn to prepare students for interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary work. This panel will explore and discuss the nature of crossdisciplinary work students may experience in their academic and professional careers, and introduce how experienced teachers of interdisciplinary courses engage their students in multi-faceted research here at Mason.________________________________________________________________FULL ABSTRACT: Most big problems facing humanity (give examples to the audience: Climate Change, understanding the Brain and Consciousness, Computational Social Science, and the future challenges as humanity moves into space) are multifaceted, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary (define these for audience). Also, as in any field of scholarship that involves basic research, the key developments that move a field forward typically come from unexpected directions (e.g. the internet, materials science, etc.). Furthermore, research in these highly interdisciplinary realms typically involves working in large teams of highly varied experts. How do you teach and train students to be aware of the large context in which they will be working in the future and at the same time give the students sufficient depth of understanding in a specific field so that they can make significant contributions to such projects?A‚Â This session will be a short presentation (15 mins) providing definitions and an overview of the nature of interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary work, followed by a panel discussion on the opportunities and challenges of training students in interdisciplinary fields of research. The panel will include people who have substantial experience in teaching interdisciplinary courses and engaging in such multi-faceted research at Mason.Panelists include: Michael Summers (Astrobiology ASTR 301: Teaching the most interdisciplinary of all of the sciences: The origin, evolution, and future of life in the universe)For more information about teaching in the disciplines:A‚Â https://stearnscenter.gmu.edu/teaching/teaching-in-the-disciplinesFor session spacific materials, please request directly from the presenter Mike Summers:A‚Â msummers@gmu.edu

Computational thinking (CT) is a thought process designed to help students better solve complex problems using mental tools such as decomposition, abstraction, heuristics, data collection, algorithms, modeling, and communication (Wing, 2006). This study is part of a larger National Science Foundation funded STEM+C (computing) study that integrates CT in informal STEM learning. The informal STEM+CT curriculum resulted from the large study was guided by project-based learning (PBL) to help 4th to 6th grade students practice CT in the context of problem solving. Twenty-four teachers have worked with small groups of students in an afterschool community center program over an 8-weeks period. The larger STEM+C study also encouraged teachers in adapting the informal STEM+CT curriculum in their own classrooms, which eight of the 24 teachers have done so. This study investigates the participating teacher's perspective on implementing CT into elementary classrooms after they had facilitated the STEM+CT curriculum in community centers' after-school programs via interviewing 12 of the 24 teachers. The current study focuses on the challenges and issues regarding implementing CT in elementary classrooms. The results show that teachers collectively place the lack of time and the lack of professional development as the major obstacles in integrating CT into elementary classrooms.

Making “it” matter: developing African-American girls and young women’s mathematics and science identities through informal STEM learning

Scientific discovery, especially at the boundaries of human observational capacity, is an extended, incremental and sometimes controversy-laden process; but practicing researchers' published statements do not always portray it as such. If extraterrestrial life (ETL) exists, and if we find it, the process of observation, interpretation, understanding and confirmation may take decades. Though it is, thus, likely that scientific consensus will accrue around an ETL interpretation in a gradual and subtle process, the general public and even practicing scientists often discuss ETL discovery as though it will be rapid and dramatic. To illustrate this phenomenon, this review analyses a convenience sample of astronomers', astrobiologists' and astrosociologists' statements and assumptions in scholarly and general-audience media regarding a prospective discovery of ETL. Of 30 surveyed scholarly studies and 37 surveyed general-audience pieces, 24 scholarly and scientists' perspectives in 32 general-audience pieces do not acknowledge the extended nature of scientific discovery; and only three and four, respectively, do so explicitly. These results suggest that ETL researchers' statements could often portray an inaccurate or at least atypical vision of scientific progress in their own studies and to general-audience media outlets.

Technological innovations with modern planning and treatment techniques have transformed the way of radiation treatment for cancer patients. A tremendous evolution in radiation treatment process occurred in recent years. This allowed the delivery of the desired radiation dose distribution to target tissue, while delivering an acceptable radia­tion dose to the surrounding normal tissues with greater dose gradients and tighter margins. Evolution of the computers and computerized systems enabled the possibility to improve the basic two-dimensional (2D) radiotherapy treatment planning to a more accurate and more visualised three-dimensional (3D) treatment planning systems. Today there is now several commercialized planning system competitors used for external beam radiation therapy. PLUNC was one of the first operating 3D radiation treatment planning (RTP) systems’. This RTP system has been developed in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of North Carolina (UNC) since 1985 for research and educational purposes. PLUNC is freely distributed to the field of radiation oncology for research and educational use under special license agreement. In this study, PLUNC 3D treatment planning system has been installed and implemented for research and educational purpose in the field of medical physics. A 3D treatment plan has been created and analyzed in a typical patient CT image for educational demonstration purpose. Based on this analysis, it is concluded that the PLUNC 3D TPS could be successfully used for research and education purposes in M Sc/PhD thesis works of students from medical physics discipline.
 Bangladesh J. Nuclear Med. 21(1): 35-42, January 2018

The search for life in the universe has reached a pivotal stage. After centuries of pure speculation, a breakthrough came with the first detection of an exoplanet in 1995. Since then, the number of exoplanets has soared to nearly 6000 and hundreds of Earth-like planets have been discovered. The projection is ten billion habitable worlds in our galaxy alone, each with the potential to host biology. Research now centres on the challenging task of detecting the global alteration of an exoplanet atmosphere caused by microbial life. Meanwhile, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence continues by searching for evidence of advanced technology on remote worlds. The first detection of life beyond Earth would be the most profound scientific discovery of the century. The science of astrobiology involves understanding the extent and origin of life on Earth and pursuing strategies to detect life off-Earth. Astrobiology permeates popular culture through depictions of aliens in books, television, and films, and with a widespread public belief that UFOs represent visits from aliens. Astrobiology in the Arts runs the gamut from fanciful aliens in science fiction and fantasy to realistic representations of exoplanets by astronomical artists. This paper focuses on creative responses to the search for life in the universe that capture important elements of the science of astrobiology. Examples are taken from literature, film, television, music, and the visual arts. Imaginative renditions of life beyond Earth should be taken seriously, because everything from a fungal spore to a redwood tree to a blue whale is the result of a single biological experiment. Life on any of the myriad exoplanets in the cosmos might be stranger than we can imagine.

As the Cosmology and Fundamental Physics (CFP) panel is fully aware, the next decade will see major advances in our understanding of these areas of research. To quote from their charge, these advances will occur in studies of the early universe, the microwave background, the reionization and galaxy formation up to virialization of protogalaxies, large scale structure, the intergalactic medium, the determination of cosmological parameters, dark matter, dark energy, tests of gravity, astronomically determined physical constants, and high energy physics using astronomical messengers. Central to the progress in these areas are the corresponding advances in laboratory astrophysics which are required for fully realizing the CFP scientific opportunities within the decade 2010-2020. Laboratory astrophysics comprises both theoretical and experimental studies of the underlying physics which produce the observed astrophysical processes. The 5 areas of laboratory astrophysics which we have identified as relevant to the CFP panel are atomic, molecular, plasma, nuclear, and particle physics. Here, Section 2 describes some of the new scientific opportunities and compelling scientific themes which will be enabled by advances in laboratory astrophysics. In Section 3, we provide the scientific context for these opportunities. Section 4 briefly discusses some of the experimental and theoretical advances in laboratory astrophysics required to realize the CFP scientific opportunities of the next decade. As requested in the Call for White Papers, Section 5 presents four central questions and one area with unusual discovery potential. Lastly, we give a short postlude in Section 6.

This chapter offers a sociocultural perspective on the scientific search for life beyond Earth. It sheds light on the ways in which alien life is imagined and theorized in order to assess the possible societal response to the detection of other life. This chapter is based on the findings of research conducted over two years in the UK, which conceptualizes the extraterrestrial life hypothesis as a significant part of the general worldview, constantly shaped by the work and discoveries of science. Based on these data, the chapter offers insights into the current Western concepts of other life as understood, perceived, and interpreted by the scientific community and popular culture. The post-detection scenarios currently discussed deal mostly with a profound cultural shock following discovery of a superior extraterrestrial civilization. In contrast, the most recent scientific quest for other life now operates with a distinctly different concept of extraterrestrial life that ushers in other possible reactions to a detection or a contact. To establish current concepts of other life then seems to be crucial for predicting the societal response to a first contact. The chapter presents an overview of multiple conceptions of other life in science and science fiction to outline the potential variety of responses. The aim of this chapter is to suggest that the societal readiness and overall acceptance of the other life hypothesis needs to be taken into account and that the actual response to the discovery of other life will be determined by the actual form or type of life detected. This chapter will present examples from science fiction and other ethnographic material collected during fieldwork to demonstrate how popular culture has adapted the other life idea and how the presupposed other life is perceived.KeywordsPopular CultureScience FictionSocietal ResponseStar TrekAdvanced CivilizationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

<p indent="0mm">Deep space exploration is one of the frontiers of scientific research and driven by human instincts to explore the unknown. Since the Moon Race in the 1960s and 1970s, deep-space probes have explored many celestial bodies in our solar system, including eight planets. These explorations have yielded tremendous scientific discoveries, but they also revealed many more unsolved mysteries. The 21st century has witnessed a remarkable increase in deep-space exploration activities, with several new agencies launching their spacecraft in the past few decades. As a result of technological advancement, exploration success rates have improved significantly. A systematic review of frontier scientific questions can provide invaluable references for mission planning strategies and boost scientific discoveries and breakthroughs in the future. In general, these questions are related to three primary scientific subjects: (1) One of the primary scientific objectives of deep-space exploration is to study the origin and evolution of the solar system. From the collapse of the solar nebula to the formation of the planetary system, the solar system has undergone a complex evolutionary process. The components of the current solar system, particularly the residual presolar material, can provide critical information for understanding the initial conditions and evolution of the solar system. The Moon, being the nearest celestial body to Earth, serves as an outpost for exploring other planetary bodies and is especially important for testing deep-space exploration equipment and studying solar system evolution. (2) Another objective of deep space exploration is to better understand the evolution of planetary habitability. The Sun is an important factor affecting habitability, and eruptions of solar activities can have a substantial impact on the space environment of the solar system. The environment of the Earth and other planets has changed dramatically over billions of years of evolution. Although life has only been confirmed on Earth, other celestial bodies might also have had habitable conditions along the evolutionary process. Decoding the evolution of the habitable environment of solar system planetary bodies is of great significance for understanding the formation and evolution of habitable Earth and the origin of life on Earth. (3) Extraterrestrial life detection is a critical scientific topic in deep space exploration, with far-reaching implications for understanding the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in solar and extrasolar systems. The current scientific challenges in the detection of extraterrestrial life primarily involve four aspects: the origin and evolution of life, extraterrestrial habitable environments, life signal identification, and analogy of terrestrial extreme environments. In endeavors to answer these scientific questions, more well-planned deep-space exploration missions are required to collect evidence. In order to outpace opponents in the continuing space exploration endeavor, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and other rising roles have made their ambitious roadmaps. NASA will encourage commercial companies to join future missions through the Artemis program, and has planned missions to explore Venus, asteroids, and icy bodies. The ESA proposed tens of missions in its white paper <italic>Voyage 2050</italic>. In the coming decades, China will lay the groundwork for the International Lunar Research Station through three Chang’e and four Russian Luna missions. Furthermore, Tianwen-2 and Tianwen-3 will return samples from asteroids and Mars, respectively; Tianwen-4 is intended to explore the Jupiter system. The success of these missions will yield unprecedented information for deciphering the mysteries of the solar system and life, as well as considerably expanding our knowledge of the universe we live in.

The article presents the results of historical and educational research of rural schooldevelopment in Ukraine. Disclose the effect of social order for education students in ruralschools, regulatory support their activities. The study is based on the key idea external-schooldifferentiation of rural school development that was characteristic of the period,“Transformation of rural schools and finding ways to overcome the differences with the urbanschool.” Within this period reveals the essence of tasks meaningful methodological andorganizational support of rural schools in the stage of “Unification of activity of rural school(1972-1984).” It is identified as positive trends, as well as those that hampered theprogressive development of the rural school. Key words: development trends, rural school, the content of education, the reform ofsecondary school, the purpose of education, training programs, curricula.