2013

The Broader Impacts: Understanding STEM Principle Investigators’ Approach to Informal Education project was a combined effort between the STEM Research Center and the NSF-funded Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education – CAISE – to assist the NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program to enhance the quality of investigators’ broader impact efforts by improving their understanding of and connections with out-of-school educational resources like science centers, media, community organizations, and the web.

Center staff conducted interviews with STEM principle investigators from several academic institutions to better understand the motivations and processes associated with how researchers in the STEM disciplines go about designing, planning and executing the broader impacts portion of their NSF funded work. The resulting report was used by CAISE to enhance the usability of www.informalscience.org for STEM investigators seeking to connect with out-of-school science education resources.