ICBOs New Project Showcased at PI Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Bobby Wilson ready to share our wonderful workbooks!

Bobby Wilson and Karen Purcell showcased our new NOISE project's poster during this year's Principal Investigator meeting in Washington, D.C.

This event, organized by the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) is for PI's of projects supported by the NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program and others who take an active interest in broad strategic issues that cut across the informal science education field.

These PI Meetings offer an opportunity to discuss trends and issues in the field and we are excited that this time one of our community researchers who is also a Co-PI attended.

Bobby and Karen also presented at at the NSF PI Panel on Public Participation in Scientific Research/Citizen Science as a Force for Change along with two other researchers committed to community led participatory research.

Monica Ramirez-Andreotta, whose project is focused on building capacity in underserved communities and informing the safe and sustainable production of food sources, and Lucy Robinson who is reaching out to community-based orgs in London to work on bioblitzes as part of their Science Learning + project.

The panel PPSR/ “Citizen science” presents opportunities for authentic science engagement and science learning. Employing this approach in a more than cursory way raises fundamental questions about who determines what science is being done and for what purpose. How can addressing these questions, and engaging communities at the outset, create opportunities for new forms of science learning, and new models of scientific research?

What a nice way to start this year! Keeping it up with the ICBOs.

Bobby and Karen on a selfie ride.

Karen, Bobby and Tina proudly pose in front of our original poster.

The "Dear Researchers: Some Unsolicited Advice from the Community" workshop presented at Consmark 2018!

Bobby Wilson, John Annoni, Karen Purcell and Marilú López Fretts presented the workshop "Dear Researchers: Some Unsolicited Advice from the Community" at the Conservation Marketing & Engagement Conference (Consmark) in Arlington, Virginia on October 27, 2018.

 

Community researcher John Annoni, of Camp Compass Academy,
dialogs with workshop participants.

 

Karen and Marilu check the technical aspects before the workshop.

 

Community researcher Bobby Wilson, of Metro Atlanta Urban Farm,
takes on the research results during the workshop.

Workshop participants discuss the activities based on the ICBO workbook.

 

 

Karen and John discuss details about the workshop at George Mason University's Founder's Hall.

Bobby and Karen review notes before the workshop.

The ICBOs present at the North American Association for Environmental Education Annual Conference

On October 9 and 10, 2018, José González, Marilú López Fretts and Karen Purcell presented at the NAAEE Research Symposium and did a workshop at NAAEE annual conference, in Spokane, Washington. We were excited to share our "20 ICBO Rules" with environmental education researchers. We had great conversations with our participants and piloted interactive activities with our workbook for Informal Science Educators.

We didn't just work at the conference! We rode on scooters and enjoyed beautiful carousel.

Our Latest Presentation at the ASTC Annual Conference

The ICBOs presented at the ASTC annual conference on September 30 in Hartford, Connecticut. Bobby Wilson, Karen Kitchen, and Marilú López Fretts engaged in deep conversations during the poster presentation. Our newest ICBO poster features original art and reflects the evolution of the research framework.

Later that afternoon, they participated in a group discussion on the two strands of research during the session Examining Contextual Factors of Partnerships to Improve Cultural Diversity in Informal STEM Programming.

Bobby and Karen shared some of the ICBO results - mainly focused around ACCESS and Co-creation.

At the end of the session, the ICBOs piloted our newest version of the Informal Science Institution workbook filled with quotes from our research, artwork, and reflective questions. Make sure you get your copy. A pdf version of the ISE workbook is available for download here!

 

Our Workshop at the American Community Gardening Association - So What?

This week’s presentation at the ACGA pre conference was exciting and powerful. We shared our results and latest drafts of our workbooks. The ICBOs used the arts (song and cultural traditions) to present difficult and hard-to-hear results. We are a strong and wild group of individuals!

We had lots of wonderful responses to the four-hour workshop. One of our audience members who runs a community-based organization told us that she had experienced everything in our presentation first-hand - and she wondered how our work was going to change anything. 

The power of our work comes in using  community-based participatory research - to document what communities have known forever: the sciences are not equitable. Our work not only documents the problems, but we also share tools on how to create more equitable collaborations between STEM institutions and community-based organizations.

 - Photos by Marilú López-Fretts. 

Our next stop is Atlanta, GA for the ACGA Conference

If you work within a community-based organization or with a large informal education institution and you are interested in “Building Meaningful Collaborations” this workshop is for you!

Join us at the American Community Gardening Association Bi-Annual Conference in College Park, Georgia from September 13-16, 2018.

Our pre-conference workshop will be held on September 13 from noon to 4:00 pm at Georgia International Convention Center.

Through humor, the arts, and storytelling we will explore the role of partnerships in the implementation of equitable environmental education projects in underserved communities.

Based on participatory research by communities historically excluded from the sciences, this workshop will uncover barriers and opportunities for achieving real impact in practice. 

Presenters: Bobby Wilson of Metro Atlanta Urban Farm, and fellow community researchers leading this work with The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Acknowledging History

Jose Gonzalez explains Trickle-down engagement and its effects on community-based organizations