Days/Times: Tuesdays 1-2:30pm, starting January 20
Instructor: Noah Weeth Feinstein
Location: 215 Teacher Education
Credit information: 2 credits (Curric 675)
Certificate in Higher Education Teaching and Learning: elective
Description
The ability to communicate about your work and share scientific knowledge with a wide array of audiences is an essential and highly transferrable skill. This course focuses on how people learn about science and interact with science outside of academic settings. Working with practical examples and real-world cases, we will examine the goals and challenges of supporting “informal” science learning and develop practical skills related to planning, implementation, and evaluation. Students will examine settings ranging from museums to science cafes and citizen science. We will also consider the value of informal science education in and around health/medical settings, and the similarities and differences between science and health education. Throughout the course, we will learn from organizers and practitioners how they got involved in informal science education, and how they are crafting professional and civic identities in this fascinating space.
Participants in this course will be able to:
- understand the goals of informal science education and how informal education fits into the bigger picture of science education and public engagement with science
- contribute to the design of informal science education experiences by making an informed choice of educational goals and using backwards planning strategies
- recognize a range of informal science education strategies and discuss the relative strengths and challenges of each
- identify important equity concerns in informal science education and how they might be addressed through programming choices
- implement a few simple evaluation strategies to gain insight into educational outcomes
Questions?
Contact Delta at info@delta.wisc.edu